Thx cronyx. I really liked this talk.

No problem. Did you find all the rest of them okay? I finally got around to posting the whole thing here -- as in, each keynote address; I'm thinking about going back and editing the description of each to include links for all the videos.

His argument is that all this advancement should be targeted towards making us happier. What if that's not the real goal? Seems selfish to me and puts us back, full circle, to thinking we're the center of the universe. What if the real goal is borne out of a collective thinking and is as far removed from our own concerns as our brain's consciousness is to it's individual neurons.

Food for thought.

Enzoblue, I think his argument is that the singularity advocates are proposing large modifications to humanity based on the assumption that it will amplify every positive aspect of the human condition and stretch it out over eternity. He challenges this assumption through thought experiments that suggest the singularity might not make us happy; in fact it might make us miserable by robbing us of our most cherished sources of transcendence. At the very least, he argues, we don't know what the new human experience might be like after the singularity because it will be so alien to the current human experience.

I don't think he is saying that all advancement should be targeted towards making us happier. But if a piece of technology's appeal is based on its promise to make us happier we should take the time to think through its ramifications (especially in cases like this which can shake everything to the core) because we certainly have difficulty predicting what will make us happy (e.g.,
http://www.videosift.com/video/Malcolm-Gladwell-on-spaghetti-sauce-happiness-TED-talkhttp://www.videosift.com/video/The-misguided-Pursuit-of-Happiness--Dan-Gilbert-TEDTalks).

He is championing the case for restraint before we smash the atom so to speak. I also think his usage of the word 'happiness' encapsulates more than the pedestrian need to maximize our individual dopamine levels; it also encapsulates notions of transcendence, meaning, altruism to the extent that our selfish genes will allow us to derive happiness from these 'higher' ideals.

"No problem. Did you find all the rest of them okay?"
I found the rest interesting but this talk was by far my favorite.

cronyx- i'm happy to edit yudkowsy to add any links or whatever, just lemme know