[AlexBolduin]

This thread has nothing to do with the game recently released.

I stumbled upon some e-literature by inventor Ray Kurzweil not so long ago (doesn't this guy look and sound like Dr. Kleiner from HL2?) and it has catalyzed my interest in the subject significantly. The Coming Singularity and The Age of Spiritual Machines are very good reads for the tech savvy. Has anyone else taken an interest in his theory's? The gist of his writings suggest we will soon see an exponential growth of technology that is so rapid (20 years of technological growth from 2014-2021, just 7 years; which in turn will double the 7 years following - 2021-2028 and then proceed to double exponentially) catapulting us into this "singular" age with-in the blink of an eye. It is my belief that we have already reached a sort of analog singularity; a dependency. A state in which without technology civilization as we know it would collapse.

This reliance on technology disturbs me - I have friends who completely shut down, become hysteric when they've misplaced their smart-phone. I think this is typical of most and that is worrisome.

The death of Moore's Law means we will have a computer that is self aware relatively soon. Once this true singularity takes hold and we have our nano-augmented anatomy intact (which means the future aint exactly the matrix; we will be one with machine) the gist of my readings and studies suggest our information will be spoon fed to us by way of a collective mentality. Which raises the question; are we prepared for this rapid blink-of-an-eye transition? Do we have the philosophy in place to negate a self aware hive mind composed of man and machine that could in theory lead the collective thought astray? For all we know, those on the bleeding edge of technology are working to hard code malicious algorithms into this self aware hive mind, this singularity. Are you prepared for the digital convergence?

[johnstylet]

...my birth cry will be the sound of every phone on this planet ringing in unison.

[Roferurse]

I've read "The Singularity is Near" and for the most part it's interesting. Don't forget your grain of salt however.

Predicting the future is not a science and I'd be hard pressed to call it an art. While I do think parts of what he describes will happen, I am skeptical of his timeline. It would be better if he didn't attempt to give one. Just because we have greater theoretical processing power in a PC than the human brain does not mean AI is just around the corner. The largest part of AI is the software and that is nowhere near where it would need to be. AI could run on the processing power of a pocket calculator if the software for AI was complete (albeit extremely slowly).

I got the impression reading the book that his predictions are heavily influenced by his desires. He seems to have a small obsession with mortality (taking a cocktail of hundreds of pills every day), and in order for him to avoid it his predictions would have to come true when he states.

[ELURNSERB]

*meh*

The same way people in the 60's and 70's thought that we have colonised Moon by the end of 20th century and have big space stations orbiting the Earth.

[yawn]

[AlexBolduin]

You take a grain of salt from the mound as you don't want to swallow the salt mound whole - it seems like you are suggesting i take it as if it were medicine

I think the software will rapidly progress along with the technology. The Turing Test, Kurzweil cites as an A.I. milestone has nearly been thwarted (25% success rate with a 30% margin needed) however i do agree that he is obsessed with mortality - this does not discredit his predictions - which while not dead on with his time lines.. they have been undeniably on key.

Regardless of his predictions I've suspected a huge technology boom for some time now and the 1000x rate of progress he's predicted are in line with my thinking - though I'm quiet wary of such an explosion.

[AlexBolduin]

*meh*

The same way people in the 60's and 70's thought that we have colonised Moon by the end of 20th century and have big space stations orbiting the Earth.

[yawn]

And those same idiots were probably predicting we'd have flying cars by the 80's, Kurzweil however is not an idiot - he's a renowned inventor and many (not all) of his predictions have come to pass. The fact that we already have people with Parkinson's Disease using small scale computer chips should lend the singularity prediction clout because in many ways as demonstrated above... this 'singularity' is already here.

[Snitiendumurn]

I stumbled upon some e-literature by inventor Ray Kurzweil not so long ago (doesn't this guy look and sound like Dr. Kleiner from HL2?) and it has catalyzed my interest in the subject significantly. The Coming Singularity and The Age of Spiritual Machines are very good reads for the tech savvy. Has anyone else taken an interest in his theory's? The gist of his writings suggest we will soon see an exponential growth of technology that is so rapid (20 years of technological growth from 2014-2021, just 7 years; which in turn will double the 7 years following - 2021-2028 and then proceed to double exponentially) catapulting us into this "singular" age with-in the blink of an eye.

Sounds a hell of a lot like Terence Mckenna's Time wave zero with the date pushed forward don't you think?

According to Terence McKenna, who conceived the idea over several years in the early-mid 1970s while using psilocybin mushrooms and DMT, the universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness, eventually reaching a singularity of infinite complexity in 2012, at which point anything and everything imaginable will occur simultaneously.

Is this the scientific version of the Jehovah's witnesses?

I think the software will rapidly progress along with the technology. The Turing Test, Kurzweil cites as an A.I. milestone has nearly been thwarted (25% success rate with a 30% margin needed)

The funny thing is the Turing test wasn't really an A.I. test it was a gender test.

[ELURNSERB]

The technology is there to make Moon a colony holding thousands of citizens. More now than ever since the water/ice deposits have been confirmed.

The technology is there to do Mars mission. And more..

It's just that we humans are not willing to do anything about it. We are too busy spending our funds on bigger bombs and bigger cruiser... Imagine giving CERN even 1% of USA's military budget.

[Xavier_Spinner_Wheels]

The technology is there to make Moon a colony holding thousands of citizens. More now than ever since the water/ice deposits have been confirmed.

The technology is there to do Mars mission. And more..

It's just that we humans are not willing to do anything about it. We are too busy spending our funds on bigger bombs and bigger cruiser... Imagine giving CERN even 1% of USA's military budget.

The basic technology is there, but the money - or rather the desire to spend it there - isn't.
the other problem is the PC brigade that regards human life as sacred, and the old pioneering spirit that regarded the risk of death to be worth it for the returns possible. In those days, their own land and home with the chance of getting rich as compared to staying home and working for serfs wages, in poor conditions or even starving to death!

[bettingonosports]

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/foru...ht=singularity [yes]

Another recent thread to the coming "Singularity" weave is "Programmable matter" and even (maybe) Quantum Wellstone. With that type of computing power........... I think that if there really is an upcoming Singularity, we are accelerating towards it steadily. Right now, I am in the middle of this (now free) book and as always, its fascinating to see the (possible) Singularity closing in.

http://www.wilmccarthy.com/HackingMa...diaEdition.pdf

[ligeplodore]

Sounds cute, but I'm still waiting for a cure for the common cold.

[Snitiendumurn]

Sounds cute, but I'm still waiting for a cure for the common cold.

Seems like a bit of a pathetic achievement to pursue. Something like eradicating Malaria would make much more sense.

[yQvpyNt3]

Sounds like abunch of BS

[AlexBolduin]

Seems like a bit of a pathetic achievement to pursue. Something like eradicating Malaria would make much more sense.

I'm sure this is tongue and cheek but i find it funnier still that Bill Gates, who confers with Ray Kurzweil often is well on his way to eradicating malaria (something you could have very well already known) by doing that with lasers that zap mosquitoes out of the sky (and soon zap humans carrying malaria roaming the earth no doubt).

BTW, I've watched some documentaries on youtube about Terrance McKenna... that guy seems like a hippie gone wrong. If 2012 has anything to do with a singularity its simply the beginning of this boom - not a rapid blink of the eye transition.

Esephil - like has been stated space colonies at this point in time just aren't practical. Communication/computer technology directly effects us all and that is a racket (look at smart phones) which makes the r&d too tempting to pass up. Samsung already has a folding flat screen OLED phone coming to the market
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2SCZvU8sGU for instance.

Batesd - Thanks allot for the link and ebook, i don't frequent the forums as often as i used to (ie: hardly ever unless i have some piece of gaming news that would benefit the community or a nerdy subject to discuss) so i never would have seen that thread - which is just more food for thought. Glad this is a subject users here appreciate as when i try to talk to normal people about 'the singularity' i just get blank stares [oops]

[Snitiendumurn]

TW, I've watched some documentaries on youtube about Terrance McKenna... that guy seems like a hippie gone wrong. If 2012 has anything to do with a singularity its simply the beginning of this boom - not a rapid blink of the eye transition.

That's the thing though it must be difficult to pin point a coming singularity due to it's exponential nature. For the singularity to occur in 2012 the next 'novelty' event would still be a year away.

I'm sure this is tongue and cheek but i find it funnier still that Bill Gates, who confers with Ray Kurzweil often is well on his way to eradicating malaria (something you could have very well already known) by doing that with lasers that zap mosquitoes out of the sky (and soon zap humans carrying malaria roaming the earth no doubt).

Interesting article about malaria eradication and abracadabra cures...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...834340450.html

[ELURNSERB]

Esephil - like has been stated space colonies at this point in time just aren't practical. Communication/computer technology directly effects us all and that is a racket (look at smart phones) which makes the r&d too tempting to pass up. Samsung already has a folding flat screen OLED phone coming to the market
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2SCZvU8sGU for instance.

Building something like LHC on to south pole of Moon would cut the running costs a lot.
Lowest summer temps measured is 35 K.

Approximately 96 tonnes of liquid helium is needed to keep the magnets at their operating temperature of 1.9 K (−271.25 °C), making the LHC the largest cryogenic facility in the world at liquid helium temperature. Plus all the other exotic phenomens (sp?) that lower gravity etc would grant to this kind of science.

It's all about where you want to put your money.

This thread tbh belongs to R&P.