The Singularity Is Near

Ray Kurzweil, in his new book The Singularity is Near, draws an amazing and compelling picture of the future in which advances in nanotechnology, biology and genetics accelerate beyond imagination. His vision of the future, thoroughly researched and based in historical precendent and current scientific advances, is one in which humanity for the first time in history expands and self-improves such that humans will be capable of living as long as they please, thinking millions of times faster than they currently can, and producing everything they could want or need from dirt and sunlight.

This sounds like science fiction, however Kurzweil makes a very convincing argument that such advances are not only possible but inevitable within the next three or four decades. Contrary to popular conception of technological advance as linear, he says that technological advance is and always has been exponential. According to Kurzweil, the seemingly slow progress of the past has now reached the "knee" of exponential expansion, where it will in the near future increase so rapidly as to seem infinite.

Kurzweil no doubt has a solid grasp on the current trends in technology and where they are leading, and makes these seemingly fantastical claims about the future appear perfectly obvious and reasonable. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how society might evolve as the information age breaks free of all restraint and transforms everything about humanity and life as we know it.

From a perspective of liberty and self-sufficiency, this book is both uplifting and encouraging. Despite warnings of the potential abuse of these technologies, Kurzweil's future is one in which people can provide for themselves and achieve inconceivable heights of accomplishment. No matter what your political leanings, Kurzweil's vision provides hope for a bright future in which humanity not only flourishes but exceeds every dream of advancement.

Alito Nominated for SCOTUS

President Bush announced earlier today the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito, nicknamed "Scalito" for his ideological similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia, has a substantial "paper trail" of judgements in opposition to abortion and in favor of somewhat limited government. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, he is a "a frequent participant in events sponsored by the Federalist Society" and has taught courses on constitutional law, terrorism and civil liberties.

Mark Moller over at the Cato Institute, a rather mainstream libertarian (read: moderate and somewhat pro-government) think-tank, has said that the nomination of Alito is a "step in the right direction," adding that "the President had nowhere to go but up" after his nomination of Harriet Miers.

For the time being it seems that conservative and limited-government types are pretty satisfied with the pick. Given that there were no proponents of truly limited government (meaning strict interpretation of the Commerce Clause, enforcement of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments) it seems Alito is about as good a pick as any. It does say something, however, about modern conservatism that Republicans (if you can call Republicans true conservatives) are far from even attempting to roll back government legislatively or judicially. With the nomination of Alito, Bush is basically just catering to the significant pro-life elements within his party without showing any intention to return our federal government to a reasonable size.

As sad as this is, it is the reality we are faced with. Hopefully as the Republican party takes on its role as a de facto big government party, unsatisfied voters will make their way to more liberty-minded parties who might (emphasis on might) be less prone to drink the kool-aid of big government once in power.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how far the Democrats are willing to go to oppose this nomination. Conservatives have so far acted as if the chances of a big battle over Alito are pretty slim, however there are a good number of groups on the left who seem willing to stand their ground. There is a chance that a filibuster might result, although that chance is much less than it would have been with the nomination of Brown, Luttig, Owen, or a few of the other potential nominees. More on Alito's views and the nomination process as the story develops.

Freedom Syndicate Launch!

This is the official launch of Freedom Syndicate, a blog centered around principles of freedom, voluntarism and individualism, as well as how these principles apply to political and social issues.

A syndicate is a collection of people who voluntarily self-organize in pursuit of a common goal. In this case, that goal is the advance of liberty. This blog is about applying timeless principles of self-determination and liberty to the modern world with all its advancements and intricacies. We should not strive to turn back the clock to a freer time as some wish -- we should strive for a future better than either the past or the present.