The Singularity (IEEE Spectrum Special)

[Admin]

I'm sure some of you are already familiar with 'the singularity'. It basically states that technological innovation is accelerating at an exponential rate.

Basically, at some point, this rate reaches the speed of infinity - the singularity. Is it possible to have an infinitely fast rate of technological innovation?

There are tons of arguments arguing whether this is real or just a concept that'll never happen . . . perhaps AI takes over . . . either way its interesting . . .

IEEE Spectrum did a special on it, with video talks, and robots and AI being a major theme of it.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/singularity

[bens]

I'm not sure I get it...  An exponential rate of increase "reaches infinity" (a former math teacher of mine would scold me for using this terminology, as infinity isn't a place that can be reached) only after an infinite amount of time.

- Ben

[JonHylands]

The singularity is the point where the AI robots start building smarter AI robots - once they get going, the increase is exponential, and this is the singularity - you end up with super-intelligent robots, with intelligence far beyond what we as humans are capable of.

- Jon

[bens]

This is why we need genetic engineering...

[paulstreats]

or just a big fat OFF switch

[Fredrik Andersson]

or just take our hats off.