the Singularity

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##the Singularity##
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I stumbled upon this topic while reading a copy of "The Futurist" (magazine published by the World Future Society since 1967). And from what I gather, within the century we will enter a phase called "the Singularity". In this case, it represents our technological advancement over nature (as there are many forms of it), and it can happen as early as twenty years from now. It has a lot to do with artificial intelligence, and well let me know what you think...

This personally scares me, as I find it sad that we've gotten to the point where our technology has surpassed our humanity. Most people blindly ignore all possible potential, accept ignorance, (well I know we all arn't) and all that seems likely of our future is inevitable self-destruction through our own creation. Now don't get me wrong, I like technology and all, I'm just a little upset that it's going past our own nature if you know what I mean.

Here are some links/abstracts:

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(abstract from here)

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.

Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers (and some further dangers) are presented."

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other at this time:

www.aleph.se...

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-deaf_fences_hit

What I generally find is that things like this are written not by scientists working in that particular scientific field, but by the layman.

Count my vote as "extrememly skeptical" about AI having "superhuman intelligence." I think we might get to the point of having creatures around like the androids of "Star Trek" and so forth, but it'd be more like a walking bodyguard and reference library than anything else.

The computers we have now are incredibly powerful, but so far my PDA hasn't taken over my brain. Not even with that addictive little HMAKI program. Really.

I believe the term singularity relates to the creation of the first artificial intelligence unit. As this has not happened, that we know of, there is no singularity. Over the past few decades we have come to realize that achieving artificial intelligence requires much more than first assumed. The human brain and body interactions are far more complex because of the detailed protein processes and regulation of neuro connections. We discovered that some processes happen within the body in fractions of a second and on a large scale, such as the processing of sugars. Also, studies into "how people forget" have opened up doors to why humans have higher intelligence. The ability to forget certain things correspondes with emotional development and the recreation of lost fragments of information. Sometimes our flaws are our strengths. Funny how oxymorons work.