The Singularity has been called a lot of things, Verner Vinge coined the term, Ray Kurweil uses it to describe his law of accelerating returns. Aubrey de Grey thinks it will lead to immortality. Some say it won't happen, Some are sure it will, Some call it "The Rapture of the Nerds"
In a nutshell:
Computers are getting better. People are using them to be smarter. These smarter people are using these better computers to get even smarter and better, to the point where they routinely transcend any biological intelligence. This can be done by artificial intelligence (computers and robots) or by merging with technology (implants and replacements) or both together.
The singularity is the point where this has happened, and a true smarter-than-human entity emerges.
At this point, these singular intelligences would go on to solve all the problems of the world, from poverty to aging, environmental damage reduction, to space travel. And so on...
An even shorter explanation... Things are getting better faster. The singularity is when we can't keep track anymore.
On August 29, 1997, Skynet became self-aware
ReplyDeleteThen wrote a few novels, and built a better search algorithm... http://lastonk.blogspot.com/2011/01/kill-all-humans.html
ReplyDelete