Ray Kurzweil is speaking at my university tonight. What questions should I ask him?
I realize this is late notice, but I just found out. He goes on at 8pm and will likely be answering questions by 9:30. I would like to ask him some great questions and I will ask as many of the best that I see here as possible. Any ideas?
I’d like to ask RK why he believes in homeopathy:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/kurzweil-is-into-homeopathy
And what he plans to do when he realizes in another few years that nothing will happen within his remaining actuarial time budget to make him “immortal,” despite his delusions about building “bridges to immortality.” I’ve read conflicting claims about RK’s cryonics arrangements, for example. Instead of squandering his remaining cognitive reserve and reputation on his singularity delusions, he might want to reconsider investing them into making cryonics a more feasible means of survival for himself.
Does he still predict that mind uploading will be possible by 2040?
If not, how does he explain the change in expected timeline, and why should people expect the same factors won’t apply to his new timeline?
What he intends to do to secure Friendlyness.
I’d like him to account for his inconsistency on exponential growth in solar, where for every other technology he displays exponential growth in performance/dollar, as he should, but with solar, he talks about exponential growth in installed base.
I haven’t seen that part of his work, but it makes good sense to me—a larger part of the cost of solar is installation costs compared to many other technologies and those costs are extremely variable. He may simply be using “installed base” because that is the best available measure that actually captures all of the costs.
This question I see relevant to him:
The LAR and the light speed principle, they are not reconcilable, something has to give. What probability he assigns that the speed limit c has already gave up, last year in Gran Sasso? Especially in the light of current doubts about how good the cable connection was in the measuring equipment.
I don’t think he predicts that returns will accelerate literally forever, so I don’t see the contradiction.
By the default, LAR is forever. Very much like the accelerating expanding of the Universe. Else it should be explained when and how it starts to faint.
I am not 100% sure, that the LAR will not overrun the speed limit c. Not likely, but it might.