We agree that getting people to sign up for cryonics increases their hope for post-singularity existence and thus their likelihood to support singularity-directed research, notwithstanding it doesn’t require a singularity to revive a frozen near-defunct body or brain.
Whether that’s good or bad depends on your view of whether widespread efforts intending to reach a good singularity are likely to go disastrously wrong. Clearly, in case of widespread popularization of the goal, an enlightened FAI research program needs to spend effort on PR in order to steal funds from more sloppy aspirants. Considering all that, I expect widespread interest and funding for AI research to give only a change in the date, not the quality, of any singularity.
We agree that getting people to sign up for cryonics increases their hope for post-singularity existence and thus their likelihood to support singularity-directed research, notwithstanding it doesn’t require a singularity to revive a frozen near-defunct body or brain.
Whether that’s good or bad depends on your view of whether widespread efforts intending to reach a good singularity are likely to go disastrously wrong. Clearly, in case of widespread popularization of the goal, an enlightened FAI research program needs to spend effort on PR in order to steal funds from more sloppy aspirants. Considering all that, I expect widespread interest and funding for AI research to give only a change in the date, not the quality, of any singularity.