For those who don't know, the singularity is an event that many futurists claim will happen at some point in time around the year 2029. Most notably, Ray Kurzweil is a futurist and inventor who has predicted trends in technology and medicine pretty closely, starting way back in the 80s. He isn't nearly as "dead on accurate" as he claims. Case in point: He predicted we would be using nano-technology for medicinal purposes by the year 2010, and here we are....

But anyway, Kurzweil has a book (and film) about what he believes is most definitely going to happen at or around the year 2029. In it, he basically says that the Singularity is a technologicalexplosion,one where we make more progress in the fields of biology, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, and computer science in a 10 year time frame than we have since the beginning of humanity. From there, it just snowballs, and at some point, each and every year that goes by, we make infinitely more progress technologically as a species in that one year than we previously had since the beginning of time.

There's actually some science involved with Ray's theories, and he uses Moor's law to predict trends in technology (and uses other forms of exponential growth in other industries as an example of where we're heading in the next 20 years or so). But it gets weird...

He basically says around the year 2040, he expects us to merge, fully, with our technology. Nanobots with help keep our organs healthy, and our minds ridiculously intelligent...and, well, at some point, we'll all be able to turn into "foglets", or something like that....all of this leads into his "post human" phase, where we become more than what we currently are. Our next phase of evolution...something more than "just" human.

So...is the Singularity actually near? Or is Ray just CRAZY? I think there may be some validity to his points, but not as near as he says (or secretly hopes) it will be. There's also a ton of religious and ethical issues this would bring up (which is stupid), but I'd have to imagine this sort of stuff (fully merging with technology) would create some wars in various places around the planet.

lol.

Everyone is afraid of death in some way, shape, or form. At least, if you're young and healthy. It's a natural biological function of ALL of us - Humans - to want to LIVE. To think. To breathe. To be.

Death is terrifying to me as a 24 year old just getting started on making a life for myself. The great thing is...there's this thing later on down the road. It's known in psychology as (rough recollection here, so it might not be the right term exactly) "Pride VS Regret" and then later on in life "Fulfillment VS Despair".

Essentially, when the time comes for us to die, if we've lived a full life, done good things, and we've become the person we set out to be when we were younger, we accept death and are open to it. But if we don't accomplish ANY of those things? Well, we regret our lives, wish we could go back, and live out our last days in despair.

I think by the time I'm 80+ years old, I'll be fine.

But, hey, maybe Ray Kurzwell is right, and the Singularity IS near, and we'll have live forever! lol.

Right now? It came out of nowhere, and it's becoming a bad habit (because I usually have a great diet, love exercise and fitness, etc).

BURGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMFG BURGERS!!!

I've been going to five guys, ruby Tuesdays, the local burger joint down the street from me. Everywhere where there are good, huge, hand crafted burgers. I've been eating them 2-3 times a day for like the last month. For no reason whatsoever.

And...strangely enough? Beer. This coming from a guy who drinks maybe 1-2 times PER MONTH. But recently? I've been drinking 6+ beers PER WEEK. I know it's the holidays, but I'm sort of worried, because I'm starting to look forward to having a few beers a couple night out of the week. No bueno. Came out of nowhere around the same time the Burger craving started.

I mean, Jesus, you'd think I'm pregnant or something. But. You know. Am a guy.

Define Lucid dream.

A dream is a dream. If by "Lucid" you mean I'm fully conscious in my dream, and can control what I dream, then no. Also, anyone who claims they've done that before is...probably not telling the truth. For example, I've been in dreams, and sort of had that "Huh, I'm in a dream right now" feeling, but for whatever reason, you still just roll with all of the weird s*** going on within the dream. Not anything I've ever dreamt of, but an example would be: You're floating through the air with all of your friends, through space, with no oxygen, but you can all totally breathe. "This doesn't make any sense", you think, but then you realize...IT'S YOUR SHOES. YOUR SHOES ARE ALLOWING YOU TO BREATHE IN SPACE.

Then that's it. You don't actually question how that makes any damn sense. Instead, you're sort of just like, "Oh, yea, my shoes...duh." A lot of stuff like this happens in dreams. I think a lot of the time people can temporarily realize that they're dreaming, too.

But controlling your dream, building worlds while being fully conscious...that just isn't something that is possible. At least, not yet, anyway. Even if it were, there's no way to prove that it actually happened, and even the dreamer themselves may have, well, DREAMED that they had a lucid dream. As the professor Norman Malcolm (who has done research on the "phenomenon") said:

"I dreamt that I realized I was dreaming, dreamt that I was affecting the course of my dream, and then dreamt that I woke myself up by telling myself to wake up."

This is just too hilarious. And, you know. Sad, too. Sort of.

Not really.

The thing I'll never understand is: Why in the hell would anyone ever care more about what some random stranger does with their life, then their OWN LIFE. ROFL. Stupid, STUPID old man.

@thegerg:

The entire topic is obviously about me myself and I. C'mon, man. Bad scenario for me.

@Diablo-B:

Thank you for a great suggestion that I'll certainly look into.

And as for "blaming the job market" on my inability to get a job...I'll be honest, it sounds like people who currently work in (desirable) QA positions in gaming are probably getting hired because they're over qualified, which would mean that I could one of the positions I'm talking about if I fast forward 3 years and have my bachelor's degree. The question I was asking myself was, "Why not be a part of something you enjoy to make money while you get your degree if it's something that can realistically be done?" Some of the answers here pretty much confirm that, indeed, zero experience QA positions are extremely rare these days, and when they do turn up, chances are those companies already have someone in mind (the power of networking and having connections/knowing someone).

So...either I get to know some people, or I get my foot in the industry years down the road. Sort of a bad scenario, but nonetheless, thanks for the input, guys.

I don't think Facebook is going anywhere. I agree, the site isn't as enjoyable now as it was for me 8 years ago, but then again, that's mostly because I'm no longer a ridiculously horny teenager who's sole priority when I wasn't playing video games was "facebook macking". Reading that sentence makes me want to vomit, but it's the truth.

I think it's still a very popular website for high school students and college kids, and the icing on the cake would be that if has a pretty nice feature set for adults in the workplace. Another reason? Say what you want about the website, but Facebook hires young, hard working, legitimately brilliant people. And the people working there are right up there with Google every year in the "workplace satisfaction" department. Besides, who's going to compete with them, anyway? That's a space they own, and no one's taking it anytime soon. Some people could argue Twitter (which is a way cooler website in my opinion, because of it's ability to instantly give you information on important - and not so important - stuff happening around the world)....but twitter is so much different than facebook that the aren't very comparable.

Definitely understand that concept, but I guess...I mean, that's frustrating, right? Hard to gain experience when you can never, well, ACTUALLY start gaining experience.

Currently going to school (albeit later on than most, I'm 24), and while I pursue my degree, I'm looking for a little more enjoyment out of my job.......basically, being a part of an industry I love (the game industry) would make me really happy, and I'd still make more money than I make now, despite QA paying really bad (which speaks volumes about how poorly my current job pays me). So it's win - win.

The problem, of course, is that the only jobs that truly seem to be "entry level" are for the companies with extremely large portfolios. Companies like EA, THQ, and Activision hire at a near constant rate.......for minimum wage, 12 hour days, 6 days a week, and 6 months a year. After that 6 month period, you're released, and jobless until another gig rolls around.

Is this the only way to start gaining experience in QA/software testing? I know the job requirements, regardless of the developer, are never very demanding. The main difference between working QA for an EA versus working for an ArenaNet or Bungie being that the ladder two require actual industry experience.......are all QA testers with actual contract positions with reputable developers people who started working half of each year for EA and THQ? Why is this field suddenly so hard to get a decent (honestly, still poor paying) position in?