Whirlysplatt
Are we approaching a posthumanist society?
What will it mean to us if we are?
Will we survive?
In future studies, a technological singularity (also referred to as just the Singularity) is a predicted future event where technological progress and societal change accelerate due to the advent of superhuman intelligence, changing our environment beyond the ability of pre-Singularity humans to comprehend or reliably predict. This event is named by analogy with the breakdown of modern physics knowledge near the gravitational singularity of a black hole.
Such consequences were discussed in the 1960s by I. J. Good, and use of the term singularity to describe technological progress was first used by John von Neumann in the 1950s, and the Singularity was vastly popularized in the 1980s by Vernor Vinge. It is disputed when or if the Singularity will occur, but futurists most commonly estimate the third decade of the 21st century.
Others, most notably Raymond Kurzweil, have proposed theories expanding Moore's law into types of computation beyond normal transistors, suggesting an exponential pattern of technological progress persisting thoughout human history and even before the beginning of life on Earth. According to Kurzweil, this pattern culminates in unimaginable technological progress in the 21st century leading to a singularity. Taken from Wikipedia.
-Whirly
Discuss
What will it mean to us if we are?
Will we survive?
In future studies, a technological singularity (also referred to as just the Singularity) is a predicted future event where technological progress and societal change accelerate due to the advent of superhuman intelligence, changing our environment beyond the ability of pre-Singularity humans to comprehend or reliably predict. This event is named by analogy with the breakdown of modern physics knowledge near the gravitational singularity of a black hole.
Such consequences were discussed in the 1960s by I. J. Good, and use of the term singularity to describe technological progress was first used by John von Neumann in the 1950s, and the Singularity was vastly popularized in the 1980s by Vernor Vinge. It is disputed when or if the Singularity will occur, but futurists most commonly estimate the third decade of the 21st century.
Others, most notably Raymond Kurzweil, have proposed theories expanding Moore's law into types of computation beyond normal transistors, suggesting an exponential pattern of technological progress persisting thoughout human history and even before the beginning of life on Earth. According to Kurzweil, this pattern culminates in unimaginable technological progress in the 21st century leading to a singularity. Taken from Wikipedia.
-Whirly
Discuss
