The Singularity

[David]

This idea has been floating around for a while now and it ties to everything from artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and other concepts of greater complexity in the human experience.

It basically says that human technology and intelligence will grow to such a high level that it will surpass our ability to accurately predicts its outcome and effects once it reaches the point where advances occur so rapidly that our current intelligence will no longer be able to grasp future scenarios. It could be off, but that's my understanding of it so far.

 



From Wikipedia;

"The capabilities of such intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, and the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as an intellectual event horizon, beyond which events cannot be predicted or understood. Proponents of the singularity typically state that an "intelligence explosion" is a key factor of the Singularity where superintelligences design successive generations of increasingly powerful minds.

This hypothesized process of intelligent self-modification might occur very quickly, and might not stop until the agent's cognitive abilities greatly surpass that of any human. The term "intelligence explosion" is therefore sometimes used to refer to this scenario.

The term (Singularity) was coined by science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, who argues that artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement or brain-computer interfaces could be possible causes of the singularity. The concept is popularized by futurists like Ray Kurzweil and it is expected by proponents to occur sometime in the 21st century, although estimates do vary.

The exponential growth in computing technology suggested by Moore's Law is commonly cited as a reason to expect a singularity in the relatively near future,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Robert Anton Wilson Terence McKenna Preparing for the Singularity

The Singularity - Terence McKenna

The Omega Point.
A similar, although more religious, concept.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point

[ciaran]

Bizarre, I was just reading that same article about an hour ago before visiting here, then got stuck into reading about the Kardashev Scale, Dyson Spheres, etc.  Love this sort of stuff.

[krewkruxklan]

i don't subscribe to none of that conspiracy shit, but ill say im a believer in the singularity. im saying by 2040 we'll have fully competent AI's, after that the human race as we know it will no longer exist. i just can't wait to see all the cool shit that leads up to the singularity!

[The Donger]

We need another Dark Ages.

[David]

The criticisms are just as interesting as the idea itself;

"Oft-cited dangers include those commonly associated with molecular nanotechnology and genetic engineering. These threats are major issues for both singularity advocates and critics..."


On complexity;

"A study of patents per thousand persons shows that human creativity does not show accelerating returns, but in fact - as suggested by Joseph Tainter in his seminal The Collapse of Complex Societies - a law of diminishing returns. The number of patents per thousand peaked in the period from 1850-1900, and has been declining since. The growth of complexity eventually becomes self-limiting, and leads to a wide spread "general systems collapse"

"In 1984 Samuel R. Delany used "cultural fugue" as a plot device in his science fiction novel Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand; the terminal runaway of technological and cultural complexity in effect destroys all life on any world on which it transpires, a process which is poorly understood by the novel's characters, and against which they seek a stable defense."


Also, after using SLAP search I found this story by Isaac Asimov that someone posted.

Short and really good.

The Last Question - http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

[ice nine]

asimov writes about similar ideas in many of his books. a major theme in his historic 'foundation'(the skate company is named after it) series too. theres many layers to his theory but the main parts are that robots are first programmed to protect humans/the human race at all costs, and then themselves after. the series spans thousands of years, yet a constant character is a robot who has undertaken the task of protecting the universe. he is initially built by humans, but after a thousand years his memory banks fill up, and so he has to create a bigger shell for himself and his knowledge, and also make it run faster constantly. i'm rambling. i dont want to spoil the ending but its pretty tragic for humankind. basically, we need to evolve or force it somehow, or we will no longer be worth keeping around.

[David]

^

The rules he made up seem pretty comprehensive;

"Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics is one of the earliest examples of proposed safety measures for AI:
    
    1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  
    2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

    3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with either the First or Second Law.

Additional laws included in some stories were described as follows:

    -  Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or through inaction allow humanity to come to harm.

    -  Minus-One Law: A robot may not harm sentience, or through inaction allow sentience to come to harm.

    -  Fourth Law: A robot must establish its identity as a robot in all cases.

    -  Alternate Fourth Law: A robot must reproduce, unless such reproduction would interfere with the First or Second or Third Law.

    -  Fifth Law: A robot must know it is a robot.

All of this is a croak of shit humans will simply incorparate chips into their brains, biology beats technology everytime biology is a super evolved form of technology that took billions of years to create we will all be hybrid androids then even ai wont be able to catch up. I call it THE FUSION not something gay like the singularity.

 chips in their brains. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4625775.stm
 It was also covered in an episode of House.

You think that perhaps artificially enhanced human intelligence could beat out an advanced form of AI?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Some parts of your sentence still has me guessing at what you're talking about.

[David]

In that case...



The idea would be that humans wouldn't have to 'beat' the superintelligent machines at anything and there would be a peaceful relationship where both would mutually serve each other.

If interstellar space travel were to happen with a craft or ship I can only see it being done with some kind of superintelligent computer.

[Fairy Boy]

Kurzweil gave a talk at my university last year...huge disappointment. Never once mentioned the singularity, babbled on about "exponential growth" for an hour or so.

[sleepypancakes]

Kurzweil gave a talk at my university last year...huge disappointment. Never once mentioned the singularity, babbled on about "exponential growth" for an hour or so.

Ohhh but he DID talk about the Singularity.

The exponential growth in computing technology suggested by Moore's Law is commonly cited as a reason to expect a singularity in the relatively near future,"

[Fairy Boy]

Kurzweil gave a talk at my university last year...huge disappointment. Never once mentioned the singularity, babbled on about "exponential growth" for an hour or so.

Ohhh but he DID talk about the Singularity.

The exponential growth in computing technology suggested by Moore's Law is commonly cited as a reason to expect a singularity in the relatively near future,"

He didn't talk about so much as he led up to the consequences of such exponential growth but backed off before it got good. A real intellectual dicktease.

[Dontfearthereefer]

So in the future we will all be darth vader?

[Skate Troll]

So in the future we will all be darth vader?

no in the future darth vader will be batman, we will all be batman.

[Mr. Faggot]

Notice how it's only these "futurists" who buy into this sort of crap. Where's all the engineers, physicists, computer scientists and all the other people who are supposedly going to make all this happen? None of them take it seriously, but these doofuses who don't even work in technical fields make all these wild predictions without any inside knowledge of how these technologies really work.

By the way, David you are a very stupid person.

[Dontfearthereefer]

So in the future we will all be darth vader?

no in the future darth vader will be batman, we will all be batman.

mind = blown

[NowhereInLife]

lulz, i like the extrapolative theorizing as much as the next geek, but the reality of the situation is it's 2012:  where the fuck is my flying car, and spaceship to vacation on another planet!?  Oh wait, we just scrapped the space program, we ain't goin nowhere.  Technology might be accelerating but it's kind of waaaayy behind schedule.  At least we have the internet, which is pretty awesome.  Hopefully the Ancient Aliens return and give us a few trick tips.

[Perro Mojado]

lulz, i like the extrapolative theorizing as much as the next geek, but the reality of the situation is it's 2012:  where the fuck is my flying car, and spaceship to vacation on another planet!?  Oh wait, we just scrapped the space program, we ain't goin nowhere.  Technology might be accelerating but it's kind of waaaayy behind schedule.  At least we have the internet, which is pretty awesome.  Hopefully the Ancient Aliens return and give us a few trick tips.

well, probably military government run technology is way ahead of what available to us.