On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 1:57 PM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > "Singularity" isn't quite the right word, >
Some people prefer the word "horizon", a point beyond which we can't make useful predictions because things are changing too fast and too radically; but I prefer singularity because a horizon is a line not a point. > because whatever happens will be limited by the laws of physics. Maybe > nanotech actually is impossible. > Nanotechnology involves no new laws of physics or even unusual physics, it doesn't need General Relativity, colossal gravitational fields, astronomical densities and huge masses or energies; the temperatures and pressures and energy we encounter everyday are sufficient for Nanotechnology to work. But we can go further, we know for a fact that Nanotechnology is possible because we have a existence example, life. Admittedly life is a crude version of Nanotechnology but it's about as good as you could hope for considering that it was invented by random mutation and natural selection. I have a hunch intelligence can do better, one hell of a lot better. I should add that the fact that the area human beings are able to successfully engineer is cut in half every 18 months gives me a hint that we're on the right path to Nanotechnology. > > The assumption that we can increase everything without limit isn't > likely to be correct. > You don't need that for a singularity, just something increasing beyond any hope of understanding. > A sustainably run planet? A Dyson sphere? Neither appears remotely in > reach yet > I think it will probably happen much sooner but even if I'm wrong and the singularity won't happen for a 1000 years 999 years from now it will still seem to be a long way off to nearly everybody, but more will happen in that last year than the previous 999 combined. About the only thing certain is that whenever it happens and whatever transpires afterwards it will be a big surprise, otherwise it wouldn't be a singularity. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
