The "singularity", futurology etc.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I'd be interested to have any comments from OTFers about the merits of futurologist books, especially (but not only) ones focusing on advances in robotics and the "singularity".

I should perhaps add that I am highly sceptical of, and a lot less interested in, stuff that is too speculative (e.g. predictions of out of control robots taking over the world, which ignore such factors as Moravec's paradox, the need for robots to have electricity sources etc), so I guess what I'm saying is: please recommend a book by an author who is genuinely expert and sober of judgment, not some over-excitable techno-fanatic who doesn't realise when he's falling into science fiction mode.

[Levin]

The "singularity", futurology etc.

Are you looking for non-fiction?

Charles Stross is very good on this see here.

He also recently laid into bitcoin.

Edit: he is a fiction writer but his blog is very good on non-fiction topics.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The "singularity", futurology etc.

Thanks Levin, that blog piece of Stross's to which you linked, together with the links he recommends at the beginning of it, look as if they might be just the ticket. Any other recommendations also welcome of course.

It's non-fiction that I'm looking for at the moment, although I expect I would enjoy some futurologist fiction too, so maybe I'll try some of Stross's some time.

Ironically, it was a history book which triggered my interest in this area: Ian Morris's history of the world from the Ice Age to present day "Why the West Rules... for Now" concludes with a chunky bit of extremely depressing crystal ball gazing, in which the only realistic alternative to apocalypse-quite-soon seems to be some hyper-technical future in which the singularity happens (which is only debatably preferable to the apocalypse really, in terms of survival of humanity properly so-called).