The Singularity

Last night, with a few good friends, I got sucked into the old "life, the universe, and everything" conversation (and not the one where you gush about how much you love Douglas Adams). Maybe it was the beer talking, but I'd just read an excellent article in Wired on Ray Kurzweil, so I ranted about "The Singularity" for a little while, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

If you know Moore's Law, then you know it refers to the exponential increase of the number of transistors that can be reasonably (in terms of cost and physical space) placed on an integrated circuit. Moore observed that the number doubled roughly every two years.

Take Moore's law, apply it more broadly to evolutionary technological advances, and you get Raymond Kurzweil's brand of futurism that essentially says this: Technology is evolving exponentially faster and faster. First, it will reach a point wherein technology can replace the body (or at least many bodily functions - Kurzweil asserts that nanotechnology will be able to replicate and replace the function of, for example, the human liver). Second, it will replicate consciousness, effectively pass the Turing Test, and give us true Artificial Intelligence. Third, humans, having at this point augmented their bodies and extended their lifespans through nanotechnology, and machines, having "waken up," will merge into a new species. Finally, the entire planet and ultimately the entire universe, will become one, huge supercomputer full of disembodied and eternal consciousnesses.

"The Singularity" happens when artificial intelligence and technological advances render humans obsolete. The posthuman - or, in Kurzweil's phrase "Human 3.0" - will essentially be immortal, but will not have an embodied life as we know it.

And all of this, according to Kurzweil, may very well happen in your lifetime. 2045.

Sound crazy? It might be, but then Kurzweil is inarguably one of the brightest minds alive today. If you're old enough to remember when, in the early 80s, some scientist dude built a revolutionary reading machine for Stevie Wonder, then you remember Kurzweil. That was just one of many inventions. Morever, he's awarded about one honorary PhD per year (wait...shouldn't that also exponentially increase?).

If he's right, you better get off your ass, dust off those joggin' shoes, and get yourself into shape. It'd be a real kick in the pants to die of poor health shortly before the first bridge to immortality is built. But, then again, there probably won't be hot wings and PBR around when you're broken into a million digital bits of info. floating in the ether.

I wonder if they'll have good music all up in that b.