Mar 22, 2024
Technological singularity
Posted by Chris Smedley in categories: cosmology, Ray Kurzweil, singularity
It is with sadness — and deep appreciation of my friend and colleague — that I must report the passing of Vernor Vinge.
The technological singularity —or simply the singularity[1] —is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization.[2][3] According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good’s intelligence explosion model, an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a “runaway reaction” of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an “explosion” in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence.[4]