Travis said: > Do you mean (A) singualarity? If so, I saw one the other night on TNG. > If not...then could you explain? I probably am familiar with what you > speak of, but it's not exactly rolling of my tongue.
He doesn't mean a physical singularity like the thing in the middle of black holes: he means a technological singularity, a time when technological change becomes so rapid that we (unaugmented, baseline people) aren't able to understand it any longer. The usual situation that people consider a technological singularity is a runaway self-improvement of artificial intelligences, although a runaway process of intelligence amplification is possible too. The idea of the Singularity in this sense was popularised by the computer scientist and sf writer Vernor Vinge but it goes right back to Turing and von Neumann, and possibly beyond. I think there's a non-zero probability of such a thing happening in our lifetime. In my more optimistic moments, I think it might even be likely. I also think it would be a good thing were it to happen. Rich _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
