The Beginning of a New Era is Near
In Peter Singer's book, Wired for War, location 3747 in Kindle, "John Pike of the Global Security
organization puts it into this broad historic context. 'First, you had human beings without machines.
Then, you had human beings with machines. And, finally you have machines without human beings.'
Security analyst Christopher Coker comments, 'We now stand on the cusp of post-human history.'"
The contemporary notion of the Singularity got started with legendary Science Fiction writer
Vernor Vinge, whose 1981 novella True Names pictured a society on the verge of this “event.” In a
1993 essay, The Coming Technological Singularity, Vinge made his vision clear, writing that “within
thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.
Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”
The above graph shows what his prediction looks like. Doesn't look like much of a problem until about
2020.
At the 2008 Singularity Summit in San Jose, California, Vernor Vinge added the following:
Lots of people have definitions for the Singularity that may differ in various ways. My personal
definition for the Singularity — I think that in the relatively near historical future, humans, using
technology, will be able to create, or become, creatures of superhuman intelligence. I think the term
Singularity is appropriate, because unlike other technological changes, it seems to me pretty evident
that this change would be unintelligible to us afterwards in the same way that our present
civilization is unintelligible to a goldfish.
If Vernor Vinge’s prediction of 2023 is correct, then perhaps we should simply enjoy the last ten to
fifteen years of our lives.
What would you suggest doing? The best answers will share a $1000 reward and be published on this
site.
1000 other winners will be given a T-shirt that says "The Robots Are Coming" on the front and "www.
robotscoming.com" on the back.
Come to this site and play FreeCell against the games listed under Funbot:
http://www.donbot.com/Funbot/FreeCell/Fre000Index.html
Win a T-shirt that says "I beat the robot at FreeCell".
Donald Paul Martin
Next approach, back to 320
In Peter Singer's book, Wired for War, location 3747 in Kindle, "John Pike of the Global Security
organization puts it into this broad historic context. 'First, you had human beings without machines.
Then, you had human beings with machines. And, finally you have machines without human beings.'
Security analyst Christopher Coker comments, 'We now stand on the cusp of post-human history.'"
The contemporary notion of the Singularity got started with legendary Science Fiction writer
Vernor Vinge, whose 1981 novella True Names pictured a society on the verge of this “event.” In a
1993 essay, The Coming Technological Singularity, Vinge made his vision clear, writing that “within
thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence.
Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”
The above graph shows what his prediction looks like. Doesn't look like much of a problem until about
2020.
At the 2008 Singularity Summit in San Jose, California, Vernor Vinge added the following:
Lots of people have definitions for the Singularity that may differ in various ways. My personal
definition for the Singularity — I think that in the relatively near historical future, humans, using
technology, will be able to create, or become, creatures of superhuman intelligence. I think the term
Singularity is appropriate, because unlike other technological changes, it seems to me pretty evident
that this change would be unintelligible to us afterwards in the same way that our present
civilization is unintelligible to a goldfish.
If Vernor Vinge’s prediction of 2023 is correct, then perhaps we should simply enjoy the last ten to
fifteen years of our lives.
What would you suggest doing? The best answers will share a $1000 reward and be published on this
site.
1000 other winners will be given a T-shirt that says "The Robots Are Coming" on the front and "www.
robotscoming.com" on the back.
Come to this site and play FreeCell against the games listed under Funbot:
http://www.donbot.com/Funbot/FreeCell/Fre000Index.html
Win a T-shirt that says "I beat the robot at FreeCell".
Donald Paul Martin
Next approach, back to 320
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