Recap: Social Aspects of the Singularity

On the off chance of anyone reading this in mid-stream, here is a recap of the subjects which have been touched upon. Follow the links in the individual entries to really dig into the specifics of each topic.
If you haven't heard of the singularity before, here is a lead in from a couple years back, given by a leading exponent of it's early arrival, Ray Kurzweil.

Ray's World

..and a seminal article from Vernor Vinge back from '93.


Vernor


The recap of my blog in forward chronological order:

1) Approaching Singularity:
The impending singularity is near, I intend to focus on social and group dynamics rather than the technology that will bring forth the accelerated change.

2) Wisdom of Crowds:
I touch upon the ability of crowds to arrive at an answer that is better than that given by an individual expert. Reference James Surowiecki's book for details.

3) Cinematrix: Will of the Audience:
I describe a technology that demonstrates that a crowd can control a flight simulator with just a little bit of training.

4) Nirvana:
I point to some studies on rats that suggest we might just tap into our pleasure centers and dead end there. On the other hand, we could do something similar with drugs today, but we don't.

5) Into the Void:
I show some recent advances where we are already starting to meld our physical bodies with machines, leading to my belief that machines will not become our overlords, but that we will merge into them. I also bring up the very real possibility that an authoritarian control will emerge to tightly control human behavior and possibly even our very thoughts.

6) Old Age and Wisdom
I point out that wisdom may be harder to apply in the future, as change becomes more rapid, and that we haven't been so adept at using it in any case.

7) Where Did the Time Go?:
I bring up the mystery of what exactly time is, and why it seems to only go forward. I talk a bit about why our fear of death is pretty silly when set against the great sweep of time.

Given a prospect for living eternally, I wonder how that will effect our shorter term behavior? Will we stop taking risks with more at stake, or having merged into a collective mind, will we sacrifice our lives for the greater good with less identification of the individual self?