The Singularity: The worst of Twitter and /b/ combined, apparently

[Vaudeville Vigilante]

Wait.

It's just a feedback loop?

I wanted a fucking black hole that would suck the world into it while I laugh maniacally until the tidal forces pull me into an infinitely long leering face covered in long-delayed satisfaction.

And it's just some new agey term for increasing technical development?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

  In popular culture, it's a new agey term, but in the academic world it has much more to do with a point in time where mathematical predictions are virtually impossible to make with any measurable degree of accuracy.  There are some difficulties with terms like "intelligence" which still need fleshing out, but I feel that the more valuable academic dialogues regarding a Technological Singularity are primarily mathematical in nature.  The farther out it diverges from numbers and computational modelling, the more these kinds of discussions seem to encompass bullshit philosophy and new agey speculation.

[Cain]

I blame transhumanists for making it impossible for me to even hear the word "singularity" without breaking out into laughter.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I blame transhumanists for making it impossible for me to even hear the word "singularity" without breaking out into laughter.

I'm not to that stage yet.  I'm still bitterly, bitterly disappointed and angry.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Wait.

It's just a feedback loop?

I wanted a fucking black hole that would suck the world into it while I laugh maniacally until the tidal forces pull me into an infinitely long leering face covered in long-delayed satisfaction.

And it's just some new agey term for increasing technical development?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

  In popular culture, it's a new agey term, but in the academic world it has much more to do with a point in time where mathematical predictions are virtually impossible to make with any measurable degree of accuracy.  There are some difficulties with terms like "intelligence" which still need fleshing out, but I feel that the more valuable academic dialogues regarding a Technological Singularity are primarily mathematical in nature.  The farther out it diverges from numbers and computational modelling, the more these kinds of discussions seem to encompass bullshit philosophy and new agey speculation.

Great.

New Agey Singularity Tards:

1.  When does it happen?

2.  What will it actually DO?

3.  How many hours of screeching, hysterical newsfeed will it generate?

4.  How long will we have to put up with this fad?

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I blame transhumanists for making it impossible for me to even hear the word "singularity" without breaking out into laughter.

I credit them for it. I mean, it's generally preferable to burst into laughter at a term rather than bust a nut or two in rage at one. You only have so many nuts. At least, until the singularity.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I mean, it's generally preferable to burst into laughter at a term rather than bust a nut or two in rage at one.

Speak for yourself, hippie.

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

Any situation wherein by hearing two words I can become a eunuch is a bad situation.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Any situation wherein by hearing two words I can become a eunuch is a bad situation.

Fortunately for me, my testicles replace themselves constantly...like a shark's teeth.  I have 5 rows of the fuckers.

[Captain Utopia]

I find The Technological Singularity an interesting concept, but the premise that either technology or intelligence can be ramped up indefinitely is quite untested.

Any situation wherein by hearing two words I can become a eunuch is a bad situation.

Fortunately for me, my testicles replace themselves constantly...like a shark's teeth.  I have 5 rows of the fuckers.

If only you could replace them faster each time, then you'd have The Testicological Singularity.

[Cramulus]

Any situation wherein by hearing two words I can become a eunuch is a bad situation.

Fortunately for me, my testicles replace themselves constantly...like a shark's teeth.  I have 5 rows of the fuckers.

They call him the Ten Testicle Terror

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Any situation wherein by hearing two words I can become a eunuch is a bad situation.

Fortunately for me, my testicles replace themselves constantly...like a shark's teeth.  I have 5 rows of the fuckers.

They call him the Ten Testicle Terror

Yeah, but when I get kicked in the balls, it takes me 4 days to get back up.

[Jasper]

The Singularity isn't really a useful concept outside of historical preenactment societies because it talks about a definite event.

I think about it as a trend.  A singularity 'event' is possibly one where technology becomes more intelligent than humans, but the weighting and measuring of intelligence is problematic.  

If you look at it as a trend, you see definite patterns taking shape.  The internet is part of a larger information decentralization pattern.  Open courseware too.  We're moving away from fortresses of knowledge, towards evenly distributed backups and plenty of free information so that nothing likely to happen can destroy our centuries of learning and culture.

That's just one trend inside the series of threads I use to think about the singularity.  It's not going to be like a mythic event, apocalypse, or theophany, it will be more like a lot of wild shit happening and technology being a little out of control.  

Kernel Panic!  

Attempted to kill init!  

Init is dead!

Long live init!

[Triple Zero]

Wait.

It's just a feedback loop?

I wanted a fucking black hole that would suck the world into it while I laugh maniacally until the tidal forces pull me into an infinitely long leering face covered in long-delayed satisfaction.

And it's just some new agey term for increasing technical development?

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Different kind of singularity. You're talking about the one they expect to be in the middle of a black hole. Which will do the infinite suckage. Unfortunately, you will never get to see the singularity inside a black hole either, because the event horizon will always be in front of it, which is also called the Cosmic Censorship Hypothesis, thought up in '69 by .. that other Roger.

Technological Singularity is basically the new age version of "Kids these days ...", when they're not praising them and calling them indigo kids, the new agers suddenly realize they can't program their VCR and don't understand fuck about all this complicated technology anymore. So this all gotta fit in the grand cosmic scheme, so obviously this meaning that technology is accelerating and we'll all be poomped into enlightenment at an accelerated rate!

[P3nT4gR4m]

Technological singularity will end the planet, by using it all up to build nth generation machines.

Formula is simple - 1st gen machines were built by humans, 2nd gen were built by humans, assisted by machines, 3rd gen built by machines, assisted by humans, 4th gen built entirely by machines, 6th gen built by the machines the 4th gen produced.. and so on.

The singularity bit comes in because the rate of production of subsequent generations is considered to be faster and faster. Singularity can occur one of two ways:

1) The rate of production becomes so fast that, eventually, generation 100075 actually manages to finish designing generation 100076 before it's been designed itself, causing a rift in the space-time continuum.

2) Generation 3567298 designs 3567299 which is so complex it uses up all the matter in the known universe to build it.

[LMNO]

To be quite honest, I see the singularity as something more of a plateau, pragmatically speaking.

As pattern makers, we are assaulted by vast reams of information, and we pick and choose our way through it.

The singularity, as I see it, is a point where the technology and knowledge base becomes greater than our ability to understand it.

At that point, we will fall back to our null state, and no more advancements are made.