Summary: KMO continues his conversation on technology, transhumanism, and the technological singularity with Nikki Olson and Nikola Danaylov of the Singularity Weblog. Does death help clear the board and relieve human civilization of the weight of outmoded ideological commitments, or is it an unmitigated evil which must be overcome? Nikola talks about hard and soft takeoff singularity scenarios and Nikki muses over whether a hard takeoff might seem smooth to sufficiently augmented human minds. KMO voices skepticism at the idea that nanotechnology, even if it really does deliver us into an age of post-scarcity, will eliminate exploitation of the Third World by economic elites. Music by Hobo Kings (Jon Margulies and Sub Swara) re-mixed by April White.
