Bright Eyes’ new (2011) single, ‘Singularity’, is maybe the best song ever about the Singularity. It’s a catchy electro-pop refrain.
Lyrics:
Learning on the fly How to gather and analyze Nothing is living if nothing dies What an exception to make Roundly rejecting our faith
When singularity comes We will be fully revealed Wandering limitless fields
When singularity comes We will be abstraction then We will buried within All will be balanced We will be one
Now we’re on our way All of our instincts accelerate Nothing you imagine could keep this pace We will know freedom at last Finally make up for the past
When singularity comes We will be faster than light Whistling, skipping through time
When singularity comes We will be children again We will be cradled within We will be perfect We will be one
When singularity comes
Living in one mind Every pin drop is amplified Every outcome before its tried Will make a rag doll of God Wind up our new music box
When singularity comes We will be fully revealed Wandering limitless fields
When singularity comes We’ll be completely awake Neophyte make no mistake We’re in this together We will be one
When singularity comes When singularity comes
Oberst’s comments on the song:
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the theory of singularity. This guy, Ray Kurzweil, who was the inventor of early synthesizers, he has this theory—a few other people write about it too—but essentially there’s a point where artificial intelligence reaches beyond human intelligence and we fuse in with the internet and become what he calls "spiritual machines." Essentially, you stop having to die and stop having to eat. Our physical form is no longer important because you’re able to maintain your consciousness by uploading it to the next frame, which sounds spooky and weird but I think it’s 100% achievable, especially when you think about how fast new machines invent newer machines, which invent the newer machines. It’s exponential growth. A person doesn’t have to sit down and invent every one of these steps. His vision is really utopian, like this is the way forward. Humans, we’re obviously going to destroy our planet and destroy our physical form, but we’ll continue in this way.
Hat tip to Kevin.
The singularity already has the public image problem that people think it sounds like a cult. This song really makes the singularity sound like a cult.
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Fortunately we are not yet at the point where cult meetings take place and people are told to hug each other…
(jk)
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Well at least they aren’t practicing screaming until exhaustion yet..
Here’s a link to listen to the Bright Eyes’ Singularity song. I still prefer The Lisp’s Singularity.
The Lisp’s Singularity is pretty good, although I can’t compare—no listen link that I could see.
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Overall I prefer The Lisp’s song, but I think they do very different things and I’m happy to listen to them for different reasons.
I’m curious how many people were aware of the Lisp’s song before I posted it recently.
Lyrics to the above.
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Not that this is important at all, but the lyrics to the song are a bit different (and better). The difference stems from the blog post being posted more than a year before the song was released. I’m not going to go through it but two examples can be seen in the following quotations:
Original
vs.
The Actual Song
Anyway I quite like the song.
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Hey All, I wrote The Lisps version. The lyrics did indeed change from the original blog post, which i put up the day I wrote the song. Below. are the final lyrics, thanks for all the interest in the song!
I’ll live to see a million things That men were never meant to see My senses and my faculties I’ll augment with machinery Auditory, optical, touch and taste olfactory Converted into data streams and floating bits of binary Every piece of food you taste and every thought you cogitate Every sound that you can hear and sight you see for years and years All stored up so conveniently on peta-bytes of memory So you can always reference them in case you forget anything(REFRAIN) Singularity, Singularity. Singularity, Singularity…Oh I don’t know. 2X
Now once all that experience can fit into an easy grid Existence is no longer something mentally projected The wires that you have inside are very easily realized Through artificial imaging you duplicate 10 at a time Your consciousness can be enjoyed by anyone forever more And you live in whatever state that you or anyone creates You could be Giant Squirrel, a statue or a talking cat The Goodyear blimp, an etch a sketch, An octopus or a brain in a vat You keep all of the memories and feelings that you ever want And now you can commence your life as an uploaded extropian(REFRAIN)
My mother is so horrified by this post-human fantasy She says you’d lose that special thing that makes us human beings be But I don’t know I’m not so sure if humans are so good and pure Perhaps we’d be much better off if we took these violent bodies off
Once everyone is in the cloud we’ll move beyond this earthly ground Expanding into outer space as an informational signal race Matter in the solar system converts into computing mass And the sun becomes a central orb of a brain that grows into the vast Expanse of space and emptiness for light years and light centuries It replicates exponentially like a Russian doll in a cosmic dream When every spot of the universe is filled up it will promptly burst Eradicating finally the experiment that we grew from earth As it explodes the brain will breathe into the dark impossibly and anti-matter all around will collapse the universe back down right away what you would see if you were a fly in the vacancy All the light and color in the universe is collapsing TIME WOULD STOP!!!!
And from the tiny pinhole point a massive bang erupts into space [BANG] And trillions of new particles fly away at a photonic pace
And once again the clock would start to tick and tock and tick and tock Years would pass, billions or more before the tiny proteins locked And yet again in the boiling seas of a miniscule blue anomaly A planet floating helplessly around a tiny ball so fiery an unextraordinary corner of the universe would cradle it The flicker of intelligence that led us here and brought us this
(REFRAIN) 2X
http://soundcloud.com/thelisps/singularity
Was unaware of that song, thanks.
http://mikkisays.net/2011/02/28/indie-rock-bright-eyes-singularity-2011-mp3-320-kbps/
I think this has officially taken the prize for Most Surprising Less Wrong Post.
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Dr. Steel did a take on it a while ago called The Singularity, though it’s a bit different style, kind of steampunk rap.
Reverse engineering the human mindOnly a matter of timeThat this fractal designEmerges electronic life withProphetic symbology andModern technology
Bring on the SingularityTranscendTranscend biologyBring on the SingularityTranscendTranscend biology
Immerse me inVirtual reality andThe order of the galaxyThe possibilities expandDemand more than theFactory softwareI don’t careI want to be smarterAnd stronger and live longer
Speed up the accelerating returnsCause carbon doesn’t workI want to evolve and operate at terahertzSo bring on the knee of the curveAnd let’s transcend biologyOur archaic humanity
Bring on the Singularity [...]
And will I evolve to rise or fallBecoming non-biologicalAnd will I evolve to rise or fallBecoming non-biological
Transcend biologyBring on the Singularity
TranscendTranscend biology
Becoming non-biologicalBecoming non-biologicalWill I evolve to rise or fallBecoming non-biologicalBring on the Singularity
Zeroes and onesZeroes and ones
And here is a Kurzweilian singularity song by orchestral rock band Miracles of Modern Science. (MP3)