A comment responding to my Big Idea post on Whatever led me to thinking about the sfnal concept of the Singularity. It seems quite popular to dis the concept. in fact, outside some Transhumanist circles, it seems that twice as many electrons are used on the interwebs to dismiss the concept than are used to promote it, or even defend it. There is an irony to this, as the Internet itself is a form of Singularity.
After all, taking aside the particular manifestations (AI, nanomachines, planetary re-engineering) all is meant by the term “Singularity” is the idea: “here is a point where the old models break down.” When reduced to that definition, it becomes apparent that history is peppered with “Singularities,” radical permanent changes where the people preceding it could not really model the world on the other side. Agriculture, the automobile, television, the internet.
Singularities are not just technological. We’ve had social and political Singularities as well; the Enlightenment, World War II, the collapse of the Soviet Union.
And, if you look at this graph (via here) you can see we’re in the midst of one now.
1 Comment
A.R.Yngve · March 10, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Now that’s a “Whoa!” graph.
What most people react negatively to is the wish-fulfillment component of “the Singularity” — the promise that all problems of the human condition will go away (Ray Kurtzweil promising immortality), or perhaps people are ticked off by an obsessive focus on All-Powerful Computers Controlling Everything (I used to work in QA, so perhaps that’s why I find the idea of Perfect Computing risible ;-)).
Here’s my take on the Singularity in the story “Copyfighter”:
http://yngve.bravehost.com/copyfighter.html
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