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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses on a part of Earth’s violent history called the Great Unconformity. This wax the pre-Cambrian period when 3-5 VERTICAL KILOMETERS got erased from the surface of the globe. Geologists argue whether it was due to the persistent glaciation of Snowball Earth, or whether then melting ice caused a massive flood, or a combination of both. Either way, it single-handedly could explain the missing fossil history and the otherwise inexplicable Cambrian explosion. It seems that this truly epic story has been buried in obtuse geology writings and that biologists have paid it scant attention. View in LinkedIn

FINAL PRODUCT? "Considering that Homo Sapiens is a very, very recent invention in biological evolution, we as humans are naive if we believe we are the end product of evolution. I’m sure we are not. So there's certainly something to think about. It’s likely that we’ll help create the next major evolutionary step." https://lnkd.in/dwADMWc View in LinkedIn

IN PERSPECTIVE. "In his Cosmic Calendar, with each month representing slightly over one billion years, Sagan dated the major events during the first 11 months of the cosmic year. Basically, humans are just the new kids in the block, and only evolved late at night on the last day of this Cosmic Calendar." https://lnkd.in/dTveM5M View in LinkedIn

JOINED AT THE HIP. "Technological Evolution is Cultural Evolution. However, technology’s desires are not dictates. Perhaps what we fear most about technology is ourselves. For better or worse, technology’s evolution and our own are inseparable." https://lnkd.in/dZh-rjw View in LinkedIn

ENDLESS RECONFIGURATION. “Slowly, at a pace measured in decades, we are shifting from technologies that produced fixed physical outputs to technologies whose main character is that they can be combined and configured endlessly for fresh purposes. Technology, once a means of production, is becoming a chemistry.” (Brian Arthur). https://lnkd.in/dhVUUSY View in LinkedIn

AUTO-ANALYSIS. "But no brain on Earth is yet close to knowing what brains do in order to achieve any of that functionality. The enterprise of achieving it artificially — the field of ‘artificial general intelligence’ or AGI — has made no progress whatever during the entire six decades of its existence." https://lnkd.in/dN7u2Qg View in LinkedIn

MINERALIZATION AND DIVERSITY. “There are two things that help define the Cambrian explosion. The first is the increase in animal diversity; the second is the rise of biomineralization—the building of shells and skeletons. Those hard parts made the preservation of fossils in the rock record a possibility. That adds to the mystery. Did this newly evolved armor and structure lead to some sort of arms race driving evolution into a higher gear.” https://lnkd.in/dtYSB5v View in LinkedIn

HUMAN BRAIN. "It is uncontroversial that the human brain has capabilities that are, in some respects, far superior to those of all other known objects in the cosmos. It is the only kind of object capable of understanding that the cosmos is even there, or why there are infinitely many prime numbers, or that apples fall because of the curvature of space-time, or that obeying its own inborn instincts can be morally wrong, or that it itself exists. Nor are its unique abilities confined to such cerebral matters." (Kurzweil). https://lnkd.in/dN7u2Qg View in LinkedIn

NON-BIOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE. "Kurzweil believes that within a quarter century, non-biological intelligence will match the range and subtlety of human intelligence. It will then soar past it because of the continuing acceleration of information-based technologies, as well as the ability of machines to instantly share their knowledge." https://lnkd.in/dTveM5M View in LinkedIn

EPOCH 5. "According to Kurzweil, we are entering Epoch 5 with an accelerating rate of change. The major event of this merger of technology and human intelligence will be the emergence of a “technological singularity”." https://lnkd.in/dTveM5M View in LinkedIn