The Inevitable Singularity

If you haven't seen this watch it ...

Pretty much sums it up ...

www.bloggingthesingularity.com...

There are a lot of different outcomes of humanity already plotted out by Ray Kurzweil and his colleagues David Brin et al. To simplify I will just list Brin's options:

Self-Destruction

Positive Singularity: I'll just quote these bullet points, which serve as a very dumbed-down outline of a desirable scenario:

What else would you call it…

• When we start using nanotechnology to repair bodies at the cellular level?
  
• When catching up on the latest research is a mere matter of desiring information, whereupon autonomous software agents deliver it to you, as quickly and easily as your arm now moves wherever you wish it to?
  
• When on-demand production becomes so trivial that wealth and poverty become almost meaningless terms?
  
• When the virtual reality experience—say visiting a faraway planet—gets hard to distinguish from the real thing?
  
• When each of us can have as many "servants"—either robotic or software-based—as we like, as loyal as your own right hand?
  
• When augmented human intelligence will soar and—trading insights with one another at light speed—helping us attain entirely new levels of thought?
  

lifeboat.com

Negative Singularity: like the American Hollywood films of the late 20th-century the Terminator or the Matrix

Retreat: In the future humanity desperately decides to throw down all technology as there was some sort of flaw in the system accurately predicted, sending ourselves back to the dark ages.

Now I'd just like you to consider for a moment technologies that exist today, that any one of us could own and use in our homes right now. The possiblities are endless and the optimistic capabilites are astounding:
Rapid Prototype 3-dimensional Printers, like the beginnings of the On-Demand Production described above (this is the seed of one of the most important solutions to global "needs" and suffering that we have today)
Multitouch technology
NaturallySpeaking and other advanced voice-recognition technologies. A colleague of mine has already forgone any use of his keyboard, all commands are via voice and mouse motion cues.
Helio Displays
Asimo
the iPhone
AI the likes of which are seen in computer games like World of Warcraft
the robot Leo at MIT
Repliee Q1
SDR-4X

Of course, no one machine has passed the Turing Test, and in all likelihood will not for some time (another 15 or so years).

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[edit on 27-8-2007 by Jbird]

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
I think lack of oil production, oil overconsumption, rocketing fuel prices, overpopulation, economic problems, a resurgent Russia wealthy from oil, and a potential Third World War will probably post pone if not completely prevent the Singularity from occuring.

All of the above do pose threats to current society, but they're not things that halt research in terms of developing an Artificial Intelligence capable of bringing about the singularity. In fact, you'll find solutions to the above problems as a result of The Singularity.

This reply is to DisabledVet:

a bridge to a bridge! I would quote you but I don't know how! I have talked to my partner about what is ultimately coming and he only sees the meat possibilities (and they are many and varied and mostly unpleasant) for myself I am waiting for beyond that. AI is not a sigularity. It is us. Was us. Will be us. I am laughing at myself right now because that is rather the definition of a singularity. Is was were will be. Dang. I thought I was the only one.

I have only one thing to say on this subject beyond this: Flesh is a lesson.

Bleh... I'd rather live in a natural environment with trees, animals, the sea or a lake etc... than all of that.

The mind is also still a mystery. I don't get how anyone can claim we'll have the mind integrated with some circuits and uploaded to some computer in the future. Let's try to understand the mind first before we can think about such things. For example first we will have to figure out whether the mind actually is the product of the brain or independent of it, instead of assuming either one of the two.

This singularity may be possible, but I personally don't think it's the next step in human evolution. It's based on a materialistic explanation of reality which may or may not turn out to be true. My money is on the "may not".


[edit on 27-8-2007 by TheBandit795]

reply to post by TheBandit795


I agree I just dont see normal everyday people getting into this. One must remember that every piece of technology that one forms a symbiotic relationship with slowly drains precious time and resources from other possibly more important things in life so choose wisely.

Originally posted by D.E.M.
If you are interested, read the short novel "The metamorphosis of prime intellect". It is available online from the authors website, indeed ONLY available online.

It maps out what, in my opinion, is quite probobly the way the singularity is going to happen. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

So someone else has read it! Its a short read folks, well worth it..