The technological singularity is a theoretical future point of unprecedented technological progress, caused in part by the ability of machines to improve themselves using artificial intelligence.[1]
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originally and to the point, singularity was much more literal. Modern transhumanism got lost in lesser versions of the theme, and people have all but forgotten the original definition. A technological singularity is an infinitely small point of space and time which is controlled by technology. From such can be derived infinite free energy, basement universes,
or starships that travel outside of space time at virtually infinite velocity.
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Statistician I. J. Good first wrote of an "intelligence explosion", suggesting that if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment themselves into far greater intelligences. The first such improvements might be small, but as the machine became more intelligent it would become better at becoming more intelligent, which could lead to an exponential and quite sudden growth in intelligence.
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That is not the first mention of the idea of singularity or technological singularity by a long shot.
A minor version of a technological singularity might only require for instance that we create self replicating construction robots. The effect being that the only cost to build anything else would be the cost of designing it.
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Vernor Vinge later called this event "the Singularity" as an analogy between the breakdown of modern physics near a gravitational singularity and the drastic change in society he argues would occur following an intelligence explosion. In the 1980s, Vinge popularized the singularity in lectures, essays, and science fiction. More recently, some prominent technologists such as Bill Joy, founder of Sun Microsystems, voiced concern over the potential dangers of Vinge's singularity (Joy 2000). Following its introduction in Vinge's stories, particularly Marooned in Realtime and A Fire Upon the Deep, the singularity has also become a common plot element throughout science fiction.
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The original ideas about technological singularities date back to the 1970s. The initial idea was exactly what the gravitational singularity + technology implies. If you could create, harnass, and control a singularity, you at that point become essentially the equivalent of "God". In the most literal of senses, since you can create designer basement universes which have time flows outside of our own time flows so you can build the universe in our own subjective time,
have billions of years go by in its time, and then enter the new universe or interact with it once its come to design fruition.
Others, most prominently Ray Kurzweil, define the singularity as a period of extremely rapid technological progress. Kurzweil argues such an event is implied by a long-term pattern of accelerating change that generalizes Moore's Law to technologies predating the integrated circuit and which he argues will continue to other technologies not yet invented. Critics of Kurzweil's interpretation consider it an example of static analysis, citing particular failures of the predictions of Moore's Law.
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moores law eventually breaks down and fails at the quantum limit, barring a technological singularity, in which case you could simply code the event horizon with gravitometric circuits and create virtually infinite computers literally so small
that it requires wormholes to get a data feed.
Alternately, you could create a basement universe filled with computer, and have a literally infinite computer inside of that basement universe.
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Robin Hanson proposes that multiple "singularities" have occurred throughout history, dramatically affecting the growth rate of the economy. Like the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the past, the technological singularity would increase economic growth between 60 and 250 times. An innovation which allowed a replacement for virtually all human labor could trigger this singularity.
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And as far fetched as this sounds, we can build the robots now that could physically replace us, we just haven't figured out how to program them yet.
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Critics note that proponents of the "singularity" tend to ignore all of the negative impacts of technology, only focusing on the positive effects. The singularity also draws criticism from anarcho-primitivism and environmentalism advocates.
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Depending on who gets such technology first and how it is implemented, and what version of "singularity" we are talking about, there is indeed a very large potential for dystopian singularities, if you assume that current economic or social values still hold.
On the other hand, models of assorted versions of technological singularities tend to show the opposite; what happens is the first real chance for absolute egalitarianism; since competition becomes increasingly meaningless and since anybody can reap all of the benefits without that impacting anybody else.
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[edit] Intelligence explosion
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The problem with this idea is that intelligence is an evolutionary trait which happens slowly over time which we still don't really understand. There are practical quantum limits to how intelligent a system can become unless we obtain technological singularities of the literal sort. And why would humans build machines smarter than themselves? there is little compelling evidence to support the idea that theres any benefit for us to do this.
A more realistic understanding and exploration of intelligence explosion derives from looking at human intelligence in terms
of its current efficiency and use socially. Currently 99.9 percent of human intelligence is wasted on sheer drivel, infotainment, propaganda wars, and chit chat. An intelligence explosion could occur within the human community, by simply organizing society to reward collaborative thinking and group process, rather than using mass media to keep everybody as stupid as possible. My website, which i can't post a link to for another 5 days (lame lame lame lame lame)
Is an effort to create an intelligence explosion by facilitating and open source think tank.
27 Aug 2008, 3:38 pm
