Technological Singularity

THE SINGULARITY!

The singularity

Imagine a world so wild, so out there, so new, so over the top, that it becomes beyond comprehension. Forget thinking inside the parameters of nature; thinking outside the box will be completely needed when thinking about this topic. This is a topic that is taken straight out of the comic book, and on the pages of possible history. Imagine a world where humans lived with the presence of robots that were a superior race, or a world where innovations of a lifetime happened every hour. This is the world we are approaching, and that time where the transition from real to imaginative happens is called the Technological Singularity.  

What is it?

 A singularity is a point that is unknown because of its mass uncertainty and gravity of its measurements. Basically saying that it is so extreme that it is almost impossible to see beyond that point without some big hints of skepticism.  The term singularity is actually based off a math term where the derivative at a point does not exist because it goes off towards infinity at an exponential rate, but yet the point itself still exists. In astrophysics it would be talking about black holes, a singularity is a point where matter becomes infinitely dense and possesses infinite volume and space and time become infinitely distorted. The uncertainty of both of those matters implies that a singularity is a point that is so out there, there is no room to explain how it will turn out.  This relates to the technological singularity as it is a point where machines surpasses human intelligence and thus creating a being or system that is more powerful then us.  What will come of it is only be a matter of questioning, skepticism, and time formable infinitely

How does it affect me? 

We are now almost dependent on all kinds of artificial intelligence like GPS, smart phones, Intel software, and even robotics that we have created to complete tasks like Watson created by IBM. Imagine if all of this technology was smarter than all humans and decided that humans are not formable to live anymore so the new race of technology eliminated us off the face of earth. Or we as humans decided to align with the more powerful race of AI and made ourselves infinitely more productive and powerful. These things all lie in the future in the singularity. So it basically affects the world as the world becomes more immersed in technology.

When will it happen? 

A lot of disagreement in this category as research is currently being done all over the world through organizations and universities to determine this. The time slot is basically ranging in between 30-50 years from today with some variances. This is because the way technology is evolving now at the rate that it is. Technology is evolving faster, but it is evolving faster...faster. Thus creating an exponential curve that is very hard to predict. Some say that the curve will more even out in the forceable future though, so this could challenge many theories of time. 

Who exactly is doing this research?

NASA is leading a lot of this research, basing upon the fact that their main mission is to be a department of the future. Now that the space program is grounded temporarily, they are focusing they're leading efforts on the future and what it holds for humans. Thus, they are aligning themselves with the privately owned Singularity Institute to help create useful research about the singularity. 

Thoughts?

I realize that this topic might seem like a stretch, but it is a topic that is growing and has been growing for the past couple of years. It even was a front cover feature article in the acclaimed Time Magazine. The Singularity represents a true turning point in the human race. 

If you want to learn more, check out this video and more like it!

Sources

Kurzwiel, Ray. Ray Kurzweil Explains the Coming Singularity. YouTube. BigThink (As seen on Nature Blog-Posts), 28 Apr. 2009. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. http://www.youtube.com/‌watch?v=1uIzS1uCOcE . The video itself explains what Ray Kurzweil think about the technological singularity. Kurzweil is a futurist and has studied this phenomenon for many years.  The fact is, is that computers are getting smarter and smarter by the minute and by doing this we can actually more fully understand ourselves better and how we work, in consequence this technology is out there that will eventually be able to run completely by itself.

     Kaste, Martin "The Singularity: The Last Human Invention?.”  All Things Considered. National Public Radio. NPR, n.p., 11 Jan. 2011. Radio. This radio            broadcast gives a brief overview on what in many community is considered to be “the rapture of the nerds”. The show helps interview people that are leading the efforts in research and engineering such as the Singularity Institute out in Berkley.

     Singularity Institute. “Overview: What is the Singularity.” Singularity Institute . Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc., 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.    http://singinst.org/‌overview/‌whatisthesingularity/ . This site explains in most simplistic terms on what the singularity is, how it came to be, and how it relates to the future of technology and the world as we know it. This site is actually more singled around the idea that the singularity is not just a belief but an actual fact the institute is trying to find out what the event would instill for humans and trying to study the trends in technology today to better find out more aboutthe idea