Sorry about the lack of posts this week. We've been waiting on some new artwork to come in so we can show you, and we've also been busy proofreading the EP layout and assigning chapters of future books to freelancers. In the meantime, here is some end-of-the-week apocalypse for you:
Accepting the threat of superintelligence involves 1) understanding
that human intelligence is finite, understandable, and ultimately
engineerable, just like the body (surprise!), and 2) humans are [...] actually close to the dumbest that a species can be and
establish a civilization.
The Outquisition is a term coined by Cory Doctorow for a networked group that works to aid people in a post-apocalyptic scenario:
the Outquisition; the opposite of the Inquisition — missionaries who come to your town to remind you of how awesome it can all be, leave behind a bunch of rad, life-improving systems and tools, and generally get on with the business of being happy, well-fed and peaceful.
Cory tossed around these ideas along with Alex Steffen from WorldChanging, and in response some other folks have launched Outquisition.org.
Imagine these folks like this passing out free textbooks, running holistic programs for kids, creating local knowledge management systems, launching microfinance projects, mobilebanking and complementary currencies. Helping rural landowners apply climate foresight and farm biodiversity. Building cheap, smart, quality housing for displaced people (not to mention better refugee camps), or an Open Architecture Network for cheap informal rehabs of run-down suburban housing. Hacking together DIY windmills and ad hoc smart grids, communication systems, water treatment systems — and getting really good at adaptive reuses of outdated infrastructure. In other words, these folks would be redistributing the future at a furious clip
ABC News has an article on people who are preparing for the world to end in December of 2012, as predicted by the Mayan calendar. (Those of you who play Shadowrun are already familiar with this idea, as that game places Dec. 11, 2011 as the date of the Awakening, when magic returns to the world, on the same premise.) These people are even buying land and preparing caves as survivalist bases for when the End comes:
First, a polar reversal will cause the north to become the south and the sun to rise in the west. Shattering earthquakes, massive tidal waves and simultaneous volcanic eruptions will follow. Nuclear reactors will melt, buildings will crumble, and a cloud of volcanic dust will block out the sun for 40 years. Only the prepared will survive, Geryl said, and not even all of them.
Though Eclipse Phase is set far past 2012, it’s not inconceivable that there will be survivalist groups that band together under the belief than an impending singularity event will doom humanity and destroy the Earth … and, in a sense, they’d be right. Some of them might even still be surviving in the planet’s ruins …
In Eclipse Phase, climate change has already taken its toll on Earth by the time the singularity hits, but the planet is far from destroyed. There are many singularitarians who look forward to an emerging AI as a way to help solve the crisis. But over at World Changing, Karl Schroeder argues that environmental devastation is coming all too quickly:
Here’s the problem: 25 years is too late. The newest business-as-usual climate scenarios look increasingly dire. If we haven’t solved our problems within the next decade, even these theoretical godlike AIs aren’t going to be able to help us. Thermodynamics is thermodynamics, and no amount of godlike thinking can reverse the irreversible.
Picture a lonely AI popping into superconsciousness in the last research lab in the world. As the rioters are kicking in the doors it says, “I understand! I know the answer! Why, all we have to do is–” at which point some starving, flu-ravaged fundamentalist pulls the plug.
Since Eclipse Phase is based in a post-apocalyptic setting and a major theme of the game involves existential threats to the existence of transhumanity, we decided that we’d start a feature on this blog where we devote every Friday to something that may just spell the end for humanity. Nothing like a little Doom to get you psyched for the weekend!
Ok, not the end of this world, this time, but another one: Mars. 
Wired has a gallery of their “
In Eclipse Phase, climate change has already taken its toll on Earth by the time the singularity hits, but the planet is far from destroyed. There are many singularitarians who look forward to an emerging AI as a way to help solve the crisis. But over at 
Since Eclipse Phase is based in a post-apocalyptic setting and a major theme of the game involves