A pretty scary read.

[GILD]

I’m trying the new thread aproach on this one instead of tacking it onto the ID thread where it probably doesn’t really belong anyway.

Technology Runs Amok -
Exploring The ‘Singularity’

The Futurist
12-30-5

The point in time when current trends may go wildly off the charts–known as the “Singularity”–is now getting serious attention. What it suggests is that technological change will soon become so rapid that we cannot possibly envision its results.

Technological change isn’t just happening fast. It’s happening at an exponential rate. Contrary to the commonsense, intuitive, linear view, we won’t just experience 100 years of progress in the twenty-first century-it will be more like 20,000 years of progress.

The near-future results of exponential technological growth will be staggering: the merging of biological and nonbiological entities in bio-robotics, plants and animals engineered to grow pharmaceutical drugs, software-based “life,” smart robots, and atom-sized machines that self-replicate like living matter. Some individuals are even warning that we could lose control of this expanding techno-cornucopia and cause the total extinction of life as we know it. Others are researching how this permanent technological overdrive will affect us. They’re trying to understand what this new world of ours will look like and how accelerating technology already impacts us.

A number of scientists believe machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence within a few decades, leading to what’s come to be called the Singularity. Author and inventor Ray Kurzweil defines this phenomenon as “technological change so rapid and profound it could create a rupture in the very fabric of human history.”

Read the rest at the site.

[alexmay]

but remember this sort of growth requires research and maybe more importantly funding. no single project can possibly aquire funds on an exponential level, so there is a limit

isn’t there?

oh dear i gotta go, some grey nano-goo just came through the door

-al

[yoopers]

I guess I’m already in trouble. A doorknob can be considered a machine and they’re already smarter than me.

B

[wobblyjohn]

atom-sized machines that self-replicate like living matter.

Tee hee! What will they be made of?

[nick]

I love reading about Singularity. Reaching the singularity is very possible, not in the long run, but soon!

The article you posted doesn’t really give a good idea of what it’s all about.

Let me give it a try, then I’ll link you guys up with some incredible reading:

So right now, computing power doubles rougly every 6 months (conservative estimate), and theres enough computing power on the planet (probably more than enough actually) to equal the computing power of the human brain. Eventually, we’ll have a single cemputer that will have that amount of computing power. On the software side, the computer will need to have some kind of AI.

Now, when we have enough of these AI machines, we can have them work on the problem of doubling computing power. If there are 1000 humans working on the problem, and 1000 AI equivilant computers working on it, power will double in 3 months, instead of 6. then the new computers work on the problem, and it doubles every month and a half… and so on, down to when computing power is doubling every few seconds, into infinity. And thats the true singularity.

Now futurists predict that once this happens, people will be able to make themselves better, through nano machines, and pretty much fix al the worlds problems, and save the planet.

The singularity is a good thing!

I agree with them, it’s a race, we’ll either destroy ourseves, or reach singularity, within the next century.

Now here are people who will explain it way better than I just did:

Index of /

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html

http://sysopmind.com/singularity.html

http://sysopmind.com/beyond.html

theres tons of stuff out there. It’s awesome!

[Radical_Reed]

oh my gosh it will be like Terminator 2: judgment day! i’m sorry im so hooked on that movie. my question about nano-technoligy is, how do they make it? how can they make somthing they can hardly see in a high powered microscope, and not only that, but it is also functional?

[musketman]

oh… its gonna happen no dout. The end times are coming, so be ready!

[johnfoss]

@nick

Now futurists predict that once this happens, people will be able to make themselves better, through nano machines, and pretty much fix al the worlds problems, and save the planet.

There would seem to be an assumption there that people would for some reason get smarter and nicer, as all this technological stuff happens? People will learn how to fix the planet for themselves, or to benefit their friends/families/businesses, likely at the expense of others.

The scary concept is the very fact of technology improving so much faster than we do. Our machines will get faster and smarter, while we’re still trying to figure out that doornob. And each other…

[musketman]

its just all together just a bad idea to make fake human intellegance and those machines or what ever, but i know its gonna happen, its just a matter of time.

[musketman]

@nick

The singularity is a good thing!

it sounds good but like the guys said its just going to be overtaking humans and people wont be able to controll it anymore and we will do muc hmore harm then good.

so i guess im saying its not good

[alexmay]

i believe i am a computer

when i close my eyes all i can see is those little squares in an overcompressed jpg file, its uncanny.

also i don’t really need to do much to see those magic eye pictures

and i get daja vue very consistantly, i can even predict what the situation will be when i get the other half of the deja vue in the future.

DESTROY
DESTROY
DESTROY

-al

[nick]

@johnfoss

There would seem to be an assumption there that people would for some reason get smarter and nicer, as all this technological stuff happens? People will learn how to fix the planet for themselves, or to benefit their friends/families/businesses, likely at the expense of others.

The scary concept is the very fact of technology improving so much faster than we do. Our machines will get faster and smarter, while we’re still trying to figure out that doornob. And each other…

Actually, the assumption is that people will get smarter BECAUSE all this technological stuff happens.

@musketman

it sounds good but like the guys said its just going to be overtaking humans and people wont be able to controll it anymore and we will do muc hmore harm then good.

so i guess im saying its not good

There has been quite a lot written on creating friendly AI, and why it will not run amok. It’s a long article, but very interesting. You should probably read it, and do your own research, (does not include watching Terminater 2 ower and over again), otherwise you have a very uninformed oppinion.

http://www.singinst.org/CFAI/

[Radical_Reed]

@nick

, (does not include watching Terminater 2 ower and over again), otherwise you have a very uninformed oppinion.

http://www.singinst.org/CFAI/

Damn it looks like i have a uniformed oppinion