MIT's Technology Review recently ran an interesting article: Where Are They? Why I Hope the Search For Extraterrestrial Life Finds Nothing (free registration's required to read...or else use one of these preset accounts, while they last)
Read Jamais Cascio's thoughts on the article (don't miss the comments section). If you're not familiar with the notion of "singularity", it's the idea that soon we'll be able to transcend our bodies and embed ourselves in computers, and, once we do, everything will speed up and change in ways we can't imagine. It's hokum (even if our thoughts, feelings, and memories could be ported, consciousness is a whole other thing, and it isn't in our neurons. Without consciousness, thoughts, feelings and memories are as useless as the money and clothing once buried with Pharaohs for their use in the afterlife). Ray Kurzweil, an otherwise bright guy, is the main person propagating this notion.
Read Tim O'Reilly's thoughts on the end of cheap oil (and how it relates to the article)
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