Singularity or Dystopia?

An entry on Accelerating Future pointed me to Paul Philips' blog. Paul Philips is a professional poker player and avowed transhumanist. In his blog he comments on the book America Alone by Mark Steyn. I haven't read this (yet) but the comments Philips makes closely reflect my own views concerning our probable future, so I include them here.

"... in most of the world the great majority of immigrants are islamists who have no interest in assimilating. They are essentially conquering country after country from the inside by sheer force of numbers in the same way that Mexico is taking back the southwest. And they are not shy about what they intend: though people on all sides work feverishly to obfuscate it, the fact is that Islam says the life of an infidel has no value.

In the west, multiculturalism and tolerance are valued so highly (some might say hysterically) that as a society we're blind to the fact that it's a one-way street. Islam has no such tolerance for us. As the book jacket says "The future belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West - wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion - is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization."

More and more, I have come to believe that the future of the human race hangs on one thing and one thing only: whether we can reach the singularity before the enemies of civilization gain enough traction to plunge the entire planet into dystopia. And more and more I fear we are going to lose the race. Kurzweil has predicted for a long time the singularity will arrive around 2040 and I think this is as good a prediction as can be made, but it depends on the continued application of the law of accelerating returns. A few well placed nukes would push the ETA back more than a bit. And if enough of the underpinnings of civilization are smashed, there will be no chance."

Unless things change and we rekindle the American spirit and the values of family, work and self-reliance that made us a great nation, we are doomed to decline. I see scant evidence for any such return to our roots. Family and self-reliance are nothing but the empty words of politicians; politicians who actually strive to increase reliance on government and thus their own power.

How can we fight the decline of our culture and civilization? There is much which can be done, but I have a very practical suggestion. There is an organization that's been around for almost 100 years now which still purports the same traditional values of family, hard work and self-reliance. Their purpose is to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness. You may have heard of them - The Boy Scouts of America.

It never occurred to me before this moment, but Scouting is probably one of the best ways to avoid raising another generation of slothful, self-indulgent and government-reliant "citizens".