"In 2000, Bill Joy, the co-founder and chief scientist of the computer company Sun Microsystems, sounded an alarm about technology. In an article in Wired titled 'Why the Future Doesn't Need Us', Joy wrote that we should 'limit development of the technologies that are too dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge.' He feared a future in which our inventions casually wipe us from the face of the planet."
"The concerns expressed in Joy's article, which prompted accusations of Luddism from tech advocates, sound remarkably similar to those now being voiced by some leaders in Silicon Valley that artificial intelligence might soon surpass us in intelligence and decide we humans are expendable. However, while 'sentient robots' were a part of what had spooked Joy, his main worry was about another technology that he figured might make that prospect imminently possible."
"Drexler's book described a vision of nanotech that could work wonders, promising, in Joy's words, 'incredibly low-cost solar power, cures for cancer and the common cold' as well as '[low-cost] spaceflight ... and restoration of extinct species.' But Joy had learnt from the inventor Ray Kurzweil (now a scientific adviser to Google) that Drexler's nanotech promised something yet more remarkable: the singularity, a point at which our accelerating technological prowess reaches escape velocity and literal marvels become possible - in particular, immortality through the"
A 2000 technological alarm urged limiting the development of dangerously powerful technologies to prevent existential threats. Similar warnings now target artificial intelligence, which some fear could surpass and displace humans. The primary concern focused on molecular-scale nanotechnology capable of manipulating matter at near-molecular scales. That nanotech vision promised transformative benefits: extremely low-cost solar power, cures for disease, cheap spaceflight, and species restoration. Enthusiasts linked such capabilities to a technological singularity, a rapid acceleration of progress that could enable literal marvels and radical life-extension while also raising the risk of uncontrollable, catastrophic outcomes.
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