獲得普利茲文化人類學專項大獎的《死亡否認》作者厄內斯特·貝克爾在書中指出，人類所做的一切努力，都是人類面對死亡這個必然結局的徒勞掙扎，人類的終極目標，是獲得永生。
In The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for this psychology and philosophy work, suggests that all human efforts are in vain in the face of death, and the ultimate aim of human life is immortality.
目前人類追求永生的嘗試，都以失敗告終。但如果《奇點臨近》的預測是真的，永生的未來也許將不再是夢，此書作者雷·庫茲韋爾被比爾·蓋茨稱為「我所知道的預測人工智慧未來最權威的人」。
So far, however, all the attempts by human beings for immortality have failed. But if those predictions in The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, a non-fiction book written by Ray Kurzweil, come true someday, immortality will become a reality at that time. Bill Gates once said "Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence."
庫茲韋爾認為，人類社會的技術正在呈指數級增長，隨著納米機器人越來越智能，納米技術將能從空氣中烹飪出食物，絕大多數疾病都將消亡，高速公路上將不再有人類駕駛，2030年我們將能夠實施大腦逆向工程（對整個大腦進行掃描，數以十億計的納米機器人將可穿過人類的每一條腦部毛細血管），將記憶和意識上傳到電腦。當奇點在2045年來臨，人工智慧將超越人類智能的潛力和控制，迅速改變人類文明，奇點將使人類超越生物化限制，超越命運的力量，可以控制死亡，在21世紀末，人類智能中的非生物部分將無限超越人類智能本身……也許，真正理解奇點的時候我們的三觀已被徹底顛覆，成為了庫茲韋爾筆下的「奇點人」。
Kurzweil believes that we're experiencing an exponential increase in technologies. According to him, as nanobots become more and more intelligent, nanotechnology will be widely used in many fields; as a consequence, we can eat food cooked from air, all diseases will be cured, and there will be no human drivers on the road. And in 2030, we will be able to upload human memories and consciousness to computers by scanning human brains and using billions of nanobots which can spread every corner of human brains. Kurzweil predicts a technological singularity will come in 2045, a point where the progress of artificial intelligence is so rapid that it outstrips humans' ability to comprehend and control it. At that time, human civilization will be reshaped rapidly and humans will get rid of biological limits and become immortal. By the end of the 21st century, the non-biological part of artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence infinitely... Once you really understand what the singularity means, your existing outlook on life will be changed totally.
關於「奇點」的爭論一直沒有停息，一些世界上最聰明的人也紛紛表現出對人工智慧的擔憂，史蒂芬·霍金、埃隆·馬斯克、比爾·蓋茨都曾表示，擔心人工智慧成為人類最大的潛在威脅，甚至將終結人類這一物種。硬科幻小說大師阿西莫夫曾在《我，機器人》書中為機器人制定出三大定律，第一就是機器人不得傷害人類，或目睹人類將遭受危險而不顧，但誰敢說庫茲韋爾的人工智慧會老老實實地遵守。
The controversies about the singularity have never ceased for a moment. Even the most intelligent people in the world are suspicious of artificial intelligence, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. In fact, they share a skeptical attitude towards artificial intelligence, fearing that it might cause the distinction of human species. In his work I, Robot, hard science fiction master Isaac Asimov elaborates three laws of robotics. The first law is: "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow human beings to come to harm." But who knows those laws will still be in force in a world as predicted by Kurzweil.
在2012年以《手中紙，心中愛》榮獲雨果獎最佳短篇故事獎的作者，也是《三體》英文版譯者的劉宇昆，在他的短篇科幻小說集《愛的算法》中寫了一個小故事《奇點遺民》，講奇點時代到來，地球居民紛紛選擇離開這個世界，掃描大腦上傳到機器，以數位化形式獲得永生，女兒最終不顧爸媽多年苦口婆心引導也選擇了掃描上傳，她的爸爸媽媽則選擇以生物體的形式留守，成為地球的遺民，爸爸堅信奶奶告訴他的：「衡量生命意義的方式正是死亡本身」。不過有意思的是，奶奶因為重病被爺爺替她作了上傳的選擇，被數位化後寫信回來，卻由衷地讚嘆掙脫肉身束縛獲得靈魂自由的喜悅。
In Staying Behind, one of the short stories in the collection of The Algorithms for Love by Ken Liu, whose The Paper Menagerie won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 2012 and who is the English translator of The Three Body Problem, after the Singularity, most people choose to leave this world and be uploaded into a machine. Despite her parents' discouragement, a girl finally determines to be uploaded, while her parents still choose to stay behind as biological human beings. Learning from his mother, the father firmly believes that "it (death) is the measure by which life gains meaning." Ironically, the grandmother is not allowed to die as a human as she is severely ill and her husband chooses to let her be uploaded. After that, the grandmother writes a letter to her son, expressing her joy due to her spirit free from physical constraints.
也有人說，庫茲韋爾是個騙子，他的《奇點臨近》是科學依據不足的忽悠，公眾追捧的是一場幻覺，而且直覺、創意、情感是無法數位化的。庫茲韋爾也在書中承認，小腦有500億神經元幫助我們處理技能，大腦皮層中有數10億神經元用來轉換認識和理性規劃，但卻僅有8萬梭形細胞處理高級情感活動，而對梭形細胞的具體活動方法進行逆向工程是很困難的，因為梭形細胞不按理性出牌。
Some argue that Kurzweil is a fraud and so is The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology is just a non-scientific imagination and human feelings, mentalities and emotions can't be digitalized. In the book, Kurzweil notes that a human cerebellum works with 50 billion neurons and billions of neurons in the cerebral cortex to generate cognitive abilities and rational thinking, but only about 80,000 spindle cells produce advanced emotions. It's difficult to apply reverse engineering to spindle cells since they don't function rationally.
最好科學家在決定上傳大腦前搞清楚怎麼上傳情感，也許情感是人類世界相對機器世界的一項弱點，但就是這8萬個不理性的梭形細胞構建了人類最珍視的一切。
Scientists must demystify human emotions before uploading a human brain. Maybe emotions are humans' weaknesses, but what we cherish most exactly comes from those 80,000 irrational spindle cells.
摘自《HELLO Chengdu》十二月刊
Excerpted from HELLO Chengdu December Issue
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