Homework #1

Old far fetched sci fi movies were once laughed at when they said, "one day it will be like this," but now people are more open to the idea of living like that. Whenever you blink these days there seems to be some groundbreaking discovery brought to us by technology. And as technology increases and prices go down, more and more people will be able to participate in technology based ventures, which will, in turn, increase technology. This leads me into my first link discussing the Law of Accelerating Returns...
http://research.lifeboat.com/law.htm
This research is written by Ray Zurzweil, American author, inventor and futurist, who is involved with Lifeboat. Their mission statement reads: "The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the singularity." Companies like this safe guard our future and I predict more of organizations like this as we get closer to the singularity and when problems arise in the areas of: "energy (nuclear / solar), food supply, population, fresh water supply, forests and wood supply, global engineering, pollution, biodiversity, various menaces to human survival, and the role of ideology in discussing these matters." A website that goes into further detail on these topics including existential risks and the sustainability of progress is...
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
The last link deals with process of becoming transhumanis, where people improve themselves with all possible technologies available including "life extension, cryonics, nanotechnology, physical and mental enhancements, uploading human consciousness into computers and megascale engineering." This is a scary thought for me, but I find no moral or ethical problem with increasing life potential and duration so I say full speed ahead. This is something that I will definitely be keeping an eye on...
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/index-2.html
...Makes me want to live forever.