Subtitled "Will We Survive Our Technology," filmmaker Doug Wolens's The Singularity is a four-part talking-heads presentation that is punctuated briefly with CGI and stock-footage inserts. The “singularity,” proposed by author/inventor Ray Kurzweil refers to an inevitable point sometime in the next few decades when exponentially advancing microchip computing, nanotech, artificial intelligence, and robotics/prosthetics will lead to the creation of machines that are equal to or surpass human neurobiology. At this point, humankind will become “transhuman,” as wet-wired, superior cyborgs mark the next step up in evolution. Not everyone agrees or is as enthusiastic about the prospect, as evidenced here in the responses from a luminous array of scientists, philosophers, and consultants (ranging from Leon Panetta to engineering editor Glenn Zorpette to authors David Chalmers, Marshall Brain, and Cynthia Breazeal), who declare that Kurzweil's projections ignore the often messy and unpredictable course of science and society (which today can barely develop a robot as sentient and self-guided as a small insect or worm). The true anti-Kurzweil here is Bill McKibben, who finds the “transhumanists” to be an immature bunch of futurists, seemingly driven by an obsessive fear of death and a near-superstitious faith that technology will grant software-based immortality. McKibben prefers less tech, and he lauds sci-fi writers for having explored the consequences of singularity-type concepts better than anyone else. Presented in both the full-length version and a 56-minute abridgement, extras include extended interviews. A thought-provoking documentary that makes a solid complement to the excellent Kurzweil profile doc Transcendent Man (VL-7/11), this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Cassady)
The Singularity
(2012) 75 min. DVD or Blu-ray: $295. Doug Wolens Films. PPR. Volume 30, Issue 2
The Singularity
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