What is the Singularity?

[The_Stache]

On a side note... a singularity for me has always been represented as the influential sphere of a physical object...

So you yourself could be a singularity, the planet is a singularity, your cell phone is a singularity.

[Wm Holden]

super geek...

[jimbo57]

i'm an analog guy in a digital world.

[z28camaro2471]

Agreed that it is absolutely impossible to predict the future and that technological advances will most likely continue to be made exponentially.

The most likely scenario to play out will be the enhancement of the existing human brain via links to as of yet to be developed technologies. Kind of a hybrid artificial intelligence. Which will of course allow for further advancement.

Each generation is "smarter" simply by benefiting from the technology mastered by previous generations. At some point however the advancements become detrimental to society as a whole. Two things come to mind immediately;

1 Modern medicine allows people to live much longer. Well sure I'm all for this (I want to stay here as long as I can), but it accelerates the depletion of our finite resources and creates financial burdens (don't plan on getting Social Security if you are under 40/Health insurance rates continue to climb at least 10% per year) that will need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

2 We are at a point where we cannot as a society function without our technology. Lose your power lately? Yes technology is wonderful, but we are with few exceptions, unable to be self sufficient either individually or at a minimum as a community.

I for one would appreciate some external storage and a faster processor for my gray matter. I'm definitely starting to notice my neuron depletion.

[CamaroSpike23]

oh crap.... not this again.

i've already been thru this....
http://z28.com/forum/showthread.php?...ht=singularity


as for my feelings on the subject...

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/
http://www.skynetusa.com/index.php?o...tpage&Itemid=1

[alleykt123]

Originally Posted by Wm Holden

super geek...

LOL wut?!

[Wm Holden]

Originally Posted by diarmadhi

On a side note... a singularity for me has always been represented as the influential sphere of a physical object...

So you yourself could be a singularity, the planet is a singularity, your cell phone is a singularity.

My car?

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Wm Holden

Once we make an artificial brain that is smarter then human...it will get much smarter much faster then we may ever be able to be....?

thats as far as I got.

[Mindz]

So how are we supposed to build something smarter than us? No one is perfect, therefore no one will ever be able to build something "perfect". This smart AI will always have some sort of drawback that puts it behind someone. There's an old saying...

"No matter how good you are, someone is ALWAYS better"

It's a vicious cycle.

[2KZ28_For_Now]

One interesting side-note to the theory is convergence.

Look how technology has converged many devices - a computer, a PDA, a phone, a television, a remote-control, GPS, still camera, video camera, a tape recorder, and "the web" into one.

The devices most of us carry in our pockets today can do more, cost less, and weigh about the same as a small paperback book. And they have more computing power in a small chip about the size of a stamp that draws as much power as a flashlight.


Interesting.

I could write about ten more paragraphs on the parallelism to singularity. But I wont.

G'nite.

[diddiyo]

tl;dr

[Oracle]

Originally Posted by diarmadhi

This is also where the whole AI in the future will take over mankind is patently false physical resources will be exhausted before its possible for humankind to be subverted by a created intelligence.

This i dont beleive. we arent destroying the resources of this planet, just changing their form. so in the future when you say "I need 300 lbs of aluminum" your not going to go open up a mine and collect 300 lbs of aluminum, but rather melt down an LS1 small block from the junk yard. the physical resources will never be exhasted, just in a different form and thus collected from a different source.

As for artificial computer brains, i beleive eventually we will hit a barrier of speed and processing power, but Moore's law of processing power will still apply. as processing speeds and transfer rates aproach the speed of light we wont be able to extend speeds beyond that. we will however continue a trend that was just recently started, that is adding more processors. and i beleive it will follow a rule that we enthusiests follow. there is no replacement for displacement. when you cant push the speeds any faster, make the chip any smaller, or the architecture any more efficient then there is only one thing left to do. you pack 100 million of those tiny efficient speed of light chips into one and break information into 100 million parts. and when you need to double that processing power? pack 200 million into one.

But when do you have enough processing power? there is little use to being able to calculate the universe in .37 sec. you can make something bigger, better, and faster but really there is some point where you just dont need to any more. the only part that we could use more of infinetly is the ability to think outside the box, but that isnt really something that is limited by brainpower. the biggest contribution of brainpower to thinking outside the box is that you and others can comprehend that idea faster. faster, but not more. therefore we as humans will someday be outdated, but never obsolete. JMO

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Oracle

there is little use to being able to calculate the universe in .37 sec.

Exactly. I need to calculate the universe RIGHT NOW! Maybe I can wait 0.0007s but no more.

[The_Stache]

Originally Posted by Oracle

This i dont beleive. we arent destroying the resources of this planet, just changing their form. so in the future when you say "I need 300 lbs of aluminum" your not going to go open up a mine and collect 300 lbs of aluminum, but rather melt down an LS1 small block from the junk yard. the physical resources will never be exhasted, just in a different form and thus collected from a different source.

The term resources meant equipment that would be available threw remote access (web)... if an AI took over EVERY PC connected to the internet (hardwired/wireless) it would still be more limited in what it could do. It cant manufacture more ram, it cant build more cpu's, it cant manufacture new sophisticated parts.. sure it may come up with a great cad/cam program and plan.. but it CANT manufacture it (no matter how automated mfrs are today they are not that sophisticated).

As for artificial computer brains, i beleive eventually we will hit a barrier of speed and processing power, but Moore's law of processing power will still apply. as processing speeds and transfer rates aproach the speed of light we wont be able to extend speeds beyond that. we will however continue a trend that was just recently started, that is adding more processors. and i beleive it will follow a rule that we enthusiests follow. there is no replacement for displacement. when you cant push the speeds any faster, make the chip any smaller, or the architecture any more efficient then there is only one thing left to do. you pack 100 million of those tiny efficient speed of light chips into one and break information into 100 million parts. and when you need to double that processing power? pack 200 million into one.

But when do you have enough processing power? there is little use to being able to calculate the universe in .37 sec. you can make something bigger, better, and faster but really there is some point where you just dont need to any more. the only part that we could use more of infinetly is the ability to think outside the box, but that isnt really something that is limited by brainpower. the biggest contribution of brainpower to thinking outside the box is that you and others can comprehend that idea faster. faster, but not more. therefore we as humans will someday be outdated, but never obsolete. JMO

We are already past the point of diminishing returns for processing power, we passed that at the 2.8 ghz stage. We are now at the point for benchmarks that we are talking less than a 10th of second.. the time it takes you to press 1 key on the keyboard... the human mind can not make decisions faster than the pc so the processing power is wasted.