Considered the brainchild of futurist Ray Kurzweil, technological singularity (or singularity) is the merger between human intelligence and machine intelligence that will make the future of technology utterly predictable. Sounds kookie, right?
To say that human's are complacent and will settle with what we have now is foolish, as evidenced by Blu-Ray, the IPad, and 3D HDTV's. In the future, Kurzweil believes machines could possess more smarts and abilities than an actual human. Has that already taken place though?
If singularity progresses to the levels that Kurzweil's sublime visions, than I will certainly come to hate it, not embrace it. As of now, I have a hard time knowing that four-and-five year olds are playing on IPhones and laptops, instead of writing in pencil and playing four-square (one of my favorites).
Kurzweil's idea is that human's will build machines more capable than what we are able to accomplish. In turn, those machines will build smarter machines, and those machines will build even smarter machines. Sounds a bit like Terminator 2 (the best one of the series).
If technology progresses at the rate it has been for the previous decade, by the time I am in my 50's (scary thought) the technological landscape will be unpredictable. There will most certainly be flying cars, IPhones will be lame, all music will sound like autotune (T-Pain's "voice"), and Brett Favre will still be playing quarterback.
In all honesty, whatever innovations and revolutions take place, the best thing for anyone to do is embrace it. There have been fad's that have faded into obscurity such as: Napster, overalls, ripped jeans, and the XFL, but technology this accelerated and cutting edge is, for the most part, here to stay. Who knows, maybe flying cars will come true.
Kurzweil ramblings are of course correct insofar as they predict an exponentially increasing development of technology. To describe the stage where the next phase transition of the observed biological/technological evolutionary process will occur as a "singularity", though, is quite inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteBut the greatest error made by Kurzweil and most of those noted above, is that they have consistently fallen into the trap of anthropocentrism. In this case, rather than the deities of earlier times they have become obsessed with transhumanist models.
However the evidence strongly indicates a quite different direction for the continued evolution of life. The development of an inorganic species which we can already see in its formative stages.
A clear and inevitable extension of biological evolution which, by a process of self-assembly rather than direct human design, will, within decades, transition to a new inorganic phase of the observed life process.
Our species will shortly become redundant, but if we handle our affairs well, we may avoid extinction and possibly enjoy a very pleasant lifestyle.
This forms the main theme for my recent book "Unusual Perspectives", the latest edition of which is available in electronic format for free download from the eponymous website.
I was just going to say that I thought you embedded a pretty cool picture...
ReplyDeletehaha, thanks Professor Stark, the picture is pretty bad ass.
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