[coldtea]

>Except that he has been building leading-edge artificial intelligence systems since he was a teenager and studying those practical difficulties you mention for decades,

Except that you can do all these things and still be prone to wishful thinking.

Especially if there was a traumatic event involving, say, the loss of your father, an event that makes you obsessive about your mortality, eternal life through tech et al.

Linus Pauling even had two nobels, but he was saying BS about Vitamin C. And Wilhelm Reich was a smart guy too, until he got lost on his own make believe world. Ditto for Nash, ditto for Godel, Howard Hughes, the list goes on.

Genius and insanity are not that far. And merely-brilliant (which Kurzweill is) to obsessive wishful thinker, are even closer.

Especially if you have an audience of ex-hippy rich Californians that like to hear your transcendental techno-religious jive.

[ilaksh]

Maybe we should all be a little bit more obsessive about our mortality.

I think that if you can look at all of the amazing transformations technology has made in the last century and not have high expectations for even more incredibleness then you are not understanding reality correctly.

[coldtea]

>Maybe we should all be a little bit more obsessive about our mortality.

This generally leads to an early grave, emotional paralysis in real life, and the "thousand small deaths" of the coward. Like Howard Hughes, Godel, Michael Jackson, and tons of other examples.

Nothing worse for living your life to the fullest than being obsessive about mortality.

[gruseom]

It's interesting that you know who Wilhelm Reich was. He is barely remembered these days.