The Singularity

Someday machines will be smarter than us.

I. J. Good (1965) writes:

“Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.”

A chilling prophecy. Can man create a technology that is so intelligent we cannot control it?

We sit at a point in time when we are looking up at the peak of a mountain. Over the course of human history, the pace of our scientific knowledge and technology, the application of such knowledge, has accelerated at an ever-quickening rate. Even in my own lifetime, I’ve seen the advances of technology overcome more and more obstacles faster and faster. As consumers, we are presented with the dilemma of what products to purchase because the obsolescence of new technology is a looming inevitability. Before we know it, our latest cellphones, computers, televisons, and other gadgets will be outdated before they even hit the store shelves. But that is just a side effect.

What we are really hurtling toward is something known as “The Singularity.” It has been predicted that there will come a point in the future when man and machine are equally intelligent. After that point, machines will be able to engineer better machines, and our intelligence will not be able to keep up. Different predictions place the Singularity as early as 2023 and as late as the end of the 21st century. The predominant prediction is that of Ray Kurzweil which puts the date at 2045.

Will this mean the annihilation of the human race? It’s certainly a possibility. One thing is for sure: if this theory proves to be fact, the Singularity will most likely occur in my lifetime. I, for one, will definitely be following this closely.

Information, examination, and criticism can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity