From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jul 28 2001 - 21:19:36 MDT
The way that I've heard the "big S" Singularity described,
it of course won't require 30 seconds for everything to
be known somewhere in the solar system. By definition,
the Singularity (according to the Singlarity Institute's
Eliezer and Brian) accomplishes infinite processing in
finite objective time---by imploding to basement universes
if that is needed. At least that's what I've understood.
I have no idea if this ultimate Singularity will occur or
not. I doubt if anyone really does.
At much higher probability, it seems to me, is the "little-s"
singularity along the lines of Vernor Vinge's: within a few
light seconds billions of entities exchange an incredible
amount of information, relegating all of human history up
to that point as extremely passe, and passing ever more
quickly through equally revolutionary moments.
Lee
> If there is anything to be "known" about all the capabilities of
> all the possible nanomachinery that you can assemble in a cubic nanometer
> then I don't think you are going to know it even "thirty physical
> seconds" after the Singularity (as Eliezer qualified).
>
> One thing I'm pretty clear of is that *if* we want to come even
> close to exploring that phase space, then sub-atomic computing
> *is* likely to be necessary. If so, you have now crossed the
> boundary into the realm of "magic physics".
>
> Samantha is right in that "optimizing" the computronium takes
> a very long time because of the requirements for moving materials
> around the solar system, breeding the right element mix for all
> the nanomachinery, etc. Those things are going to take time even
> when you have stars to burn.
>
> Robert
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