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The Singularity Blinds Sci-Fi
foobsr writes "Popular Science has an article discussing the growing difficulties that Sci-Fi writers encounter when it comes to extrapolating current trends. Doctorow and
Stross , both former computer programmers, are rated to be prototypes of a new breed of guides to a future which due to
Vinge's Singularity might not happen for humanity once a proper super-intelligence - maybe as a Matrioshka Brain - has been created."
Sheer terror I tell you!
-- "I'm not a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman..."
the article?
-ashot
From the Matrioshka Brain page:
... " should provide approximate human-brain equivalent computational capacity in desktop machines sometime between 2005-2010."
"In general however, we may assume that current trends in"
lol! That's funny. Or laughable even
To be fair, he didn't say full AI, just "computational capacity". But then he doesn't define what he means by that, and makes a wide, worthless generalization.
If the rest of the paper is like that, this is just a bad sci-fi author trying to make people take him too seriously.
Obviously you could eventually make a rather large brain. Would you want to? What kind of programs/AIs would live in it. This is not a seeing-through-the-singularity idea, just an obvious extrapolation.
Sort of interesting, but not as sure a thing or as improtant as he's making it out to be.
I, for one, welcome our new cranky, bitch-slapping moderator overlord. ;)
I like the way a site about "megascale superintelligent thought machines" 'consuming the entire output power of a star' is running on a "dual processor 486 machine running Apache on a rather slow DSL line".
:)
The revolution will be gradual.
I think I am going to patent a method for inflicting virtual pain / beatings / torture / death on these future embedded personalities
Perl 9.
Today a spokesperson for the World Government announced a new scheme to slow down technological progress, to prevent the occurrence of the disastrous Technological Singularity.
"With the introduction of the Internet, it becomes possible for a software implementation of a new idea to be uploaded, distributed, downloaded by anyone or everyone who might be interested in the idea, improved upon, and re-uploaded, all in a matter of hours. The consequences of this speed are downright scary."
"To preserve a sense of balance, we have decided to award 'ownership' of an idea to the first person who thinks of it, and give that 'owner' the right to demand arbitrarily high financial compensation from any other person who seeks to implement improved versions of the owner's original idea. We plan to set the period of ownership to 20 years, which is tens of thousands times longer than an uncontrolled Internet-based development cycle."
"At last we can all sleep soundly, knowing that the singularity will not happen in our lifetimes or even those of our children or grandchildren."
Music: a super-stimulus for the perception of musicality. Musicality: a perceived aspect of speech.
2101 War was beginning.
__________
[Big Brick Wall]
"Sure, we can upload you and you can live in our perfect virtual world, of course. It's just that we'll have to reprogram you a little bit, you see, you don't measure up to our standards...." ;) That's how average transhumanist thinks...
;>
It's a little bit nicer way of saying... lobotomy...
The Sig, the sig
"Stross, 39, a native of Yorkshire who lives in Edinburgh, looks like a cross between a Shaolin monk and a video-store clerk--bearded, head shaved except for a ponytail, and dressed in black, including a T-shirt printed with lines of green Matrix code."
:)
Uh, look at the picture, that's not Matrix code - that's Space Invaders. Author must be too young to identify it.
That would be a weird combo of ideas for a game - have the Matrix code scrolling down the page, and then have the blocky Space Invaders cannon that you have to shoot the codes with. Somebody write it then send me a copy.