This week we will be talking about the concept of a "Technological Singularity". Now I know that it sounds something out of science fiction, but the concept has a lot more basis in reality.
Source: https://wccftech.com/google-singularity-humans-sexier-funnier/
To understand what a Technological Singularity is we need to start with concept of Artificial Intelligence. Most people can tell you what Artificial Intelligence or A.I. consists of but if you don't know it’s basically a super powerful computer that can think, process information, problem solve and so on like a human brain can. It is an intelligence comprised entirely by computers yet can think, act and process like a human being. Now there is another concept I need to bring in that might be more likely scenario that would bring about the "Technological Singularity".
This concept is called Intelligence Augmentation, so instead of A.I. its I.A. If A.I. enhances intelligence of a computer to human levels, then I.A. enhances the intelligence of a human to a higher then an average human level. The human element is never removed only enhanced to the point of a higher level of intelligence. Now this seems like something that we are years and years away from, but I can give you a perfect example of how it’s already happening today.
Take a person from 100 years ago and a person today. Ask them any random question, for example: What are the symptoms of Pectus Excavatum? You allow them to use the best resources available to them from their time period that are at their immediate disposal to answer that question. The person from 100 years ago would most likely need to travel over to their local library and scan through several medical books before being able to answer the question if they didn’t already know the answer. The person from today would simple pull out their smart phone or laptop and within 30 seconds or so let you know that Pectus Excavatum is. (Just as an FYI it is also known as "Funnel Chest" and is a common congenital deformity of the anterior wall of the chest) Now both people could both be completely equal in intelligence but because of the technological advances we have today the present day person has much quicker access to the vast communal knowledge of mankind via the internet and an amazing hand held device connected via satellite to it. Now imagine a person today versus a person from 100 years in the future. The person in the future will might be able to answer the question almost instantly due to untold future technological advances. This is Intelligence Augmentation in its simplest form. Simple easy and quick access to the communal knowledge of man kind. There are other ways a person can have there intelligence augmented but this is an easy way to describe it.
So know we have the concepts of A.I. and I.A. but how they relate to this "Technological Singularity". Well basically the concept predicts that at some point we will be able to create either an A.I. or Intelligence Augmented persons who are smarter than our smartest person alive currently.
Now if it’s possible to create a smarter then human intelligence either through A.I or I.A. then it would be potentially possible for this new intelligence to improve upon itself in the same way we did it the first time and since its smarter than us then it should be able to do it quicker than we did the first time.
This is where the concept of the "Technological Singularity" comes into play. Basically it is predicted to be the point where these new smarter then human intelligences start to improve upon themselves in an exponentially quicker fashion to the point where they become so smart that it is inconceivable by our current standards.
Source: https://armchairdeductions.wordpress.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/
Personally the reason why I think is possible and even probable is it seems like we are in the early stages of it happening right now as I'm typing this. If intelligence truly is increasing in an exponential way, then it would take a long time to really see a huge jump and then all of sudden it would spike to astronomical levels. If we go back to the example I brought up before then I think we can see the increase in Intelligence Augmentation over the past 100 years as an exponential growth. In the last 40 years we went from computers that could only do simple math calculations that were the size of a warehouse to a cell phone computer in your pocket that has access to the entire internet and all the information contained in it. If you don't believe me then just read about Moore's law and all the technologies around us that have been exponentially increasing over the last 40 years. More info on Moore's Law:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
Source: https://neurobanter.com/2014/12/09/should-we-fear-the-technological-singularity/
This is why I think the "Technological Singularity" is not only possible but we are living in part of it right now. It may take 10 years to hit that insane growth rate, it may take 50 years but at some point in the future we may hit it and when we do I feel life as we know will change in ways we will never be able to comprehend.
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/randylubin/the-technological-singularity-and-entrepreneurship
It's amazing to see how far we have come. I think the important thing is the software, but what's interesting is that we are already at the point we can begin developing it. We certainly couldn't imitate the complexity of the human brain, but we aren't far from a Mouse brain, and having the hardware to make an emulator for a mouse brain would be such an incredible feat. The next ten years should be very interesting.
I completely agree. We are living in some exciting times. The software coding involved in some of these projects and some of the products we use even today is just beyond astounding.
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Great post!
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