Why do we pursue technologies such as those associated with virtual reality, AI, life-extension, thought-transmission, robotics, trans-humanism (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., and immortality? Going back to one of our definitions of technology, what problem are we trying to solve? What are the risks associated with these technologies--increasingly funded by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and libertarian visionaries?

As one example, do you favor Ray Kurzweil (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.'s optimistic conclusion that man can fuse with machines so as to augment technology and not be the slave of it? Can we trust scientists (and Kurzweil has an enviable track record (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as inventor and futurist) like him who argue that the promise far outweighs the peril as genetics, nano-tech, and robotics all converge into the promised Singularity (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. by 2030-40?