On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, James Swayze wrote:
> Please forgive my ignorance. I am new to Extropianism. Can someone either
> explain what singularity is or point me in the right direction?
> I'd appreciate a sussinct source as I am short on time.
In *short*, it is the time when the exponential growth of technologies
reaches the point that when you wake up in the morning, things look
*very*, *very* different from the way they looked when you went to sleep.
Another way of looking at it is the time when the rate of change of
the world around us appears (subjectively) to be very fast.
Of course some, particulary those who are older, might argue that
is already the case.
> The only singularity I understand is the center of a black hole.
We only use the word in that context when we are discussing whether
we can tunnel out of this universe into a new one.
The original reference for the Singlularity is Verner Vinge's
"The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era".
I have an online copy at:
http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Evolution/Vinge-V/TCTSHtSitPHE.html
[Due to circumstances involving the Internet Witch Doctors, you may
have to substitute "216.160.66.209" for "www.aeiveos.com". Incantations
have been made to fix this but the spell takes a while to work...]
Robert
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