Stupid Dreams

[A response to Ray Kurzweil's comments in CIO Magazine.] Ray, Ray, Ray. You want to replace our gene programming with those concocted by people? Ray, for every smart thing we do as a people, we create hundreds of mistakes -- but unlike evolution, we don't get rid of our mistakes. Our genes contain the programs that allow us to deal with the today, as well as a historic record of everything we've been. That gives us a everything we need for the future. It's a system that has been working well, refining itself and propagating for millions of years. You want to replace that with programming skills we've only acquired in the last few decades? Ray, you're suicidal. We would re-write our genes to get rid of sleep and when we get bored with all the time we have, we would re-write our genes to get rid of boredom -- we'd solve one 'problem' and create another -- and instead of fixing the first problem, we would move on the fix the resulting problem from our first fix. Just like evolution, except we'd be doing it so fast, we would eventually end up switching our heads with our asses -- then we'd re-engineer our washrooms to accommodate our new physical design. As for the old -- we need them. More and more, the realization is occurring that if it wasn't for the old, society wouldn't have developed. While Mom and Dad went out to fend for the family, grandparents stayed at home and reared the kids -- they passed on the experiences and values of the previous generations. That allow us to move beyond the grunting and bashing-things-in-the-head stage to one where we've just about automated our whole world. Machines won't replace grandparents or the social network that's needed for society. No thanks Ray. I'll stick to the old way of doing things -- and the old washroom design is just fine too. (And Ray, one thing you're stuck with for being human, is the chance of going senile as you age -- and there's nothing your 250 'reprogramming' supplements is going to do to change that.)