From: Twirlip of Greymist (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Sun Dec 01 1996 - 00:33:04 MST
One definition of the Singularity which may not be on the various
definition pages: a poetic term to refer to <blah> which is no more
rigorously accurate than 'sunrise' and 'sunset'.
On Nov 30, 11:40pm, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:
} Your statement about the invention of the Singularity occurring in that
} novel may be incorrect; my first encounter with it was in Vinge's
} postscript to the story "Run, Bookworm, Run!" We are not to mention the
Correct, I think.
} word "Extropian" unless necessary; we are packaging the idea of the
} Singularity, not the cult phenomenon. Individualism is not a necessary
Alas, some of us may think that the strong concept of the Singularity is
more cultish than general extropianism.
And are you trying to grab the masses, or a majority of sophisticated
technical people?
} > 1. Computers double in power every two subjective years.
} The easiest argument to understand. Attention-catcher.
And the easiest to doubt has predictive power. And I think Eugene,
perhaps among others, has challenged the metric of "power" used.
} > 2. Recursive intelligence amplification.
} Another easy argument. Both give the flavor of the Singularity.
This gives it best, I think. However, as whether any intelligence
amplification has yet happened, let alone whether it would be recursive,
is not fully accepted here, this may not be a convincing argument.
} We are creating and packaging a meme and our sole goal
} is that it infect a majority of the human race ASAP!
Oh, I guess this answers my question. How will Bangladeshi and African
peasants respond to this meme package?
} Can I have some constructive criticism of the *outline*,
How about of purpose? Okay, so I haven't been that constructive.
Sorry. A bit hard to be, when I'm leaning toward a vague idea of
Universal Self-Aware Turning Machines as a refinement of the idea of
Universal Turing Machines, which removes the philosophical (although not
entirely the practical) point of the Singularity.
And I wonder about the statement that "a human from only a few thousand
years ago couldn't understand our society". Many, perhaps most, would
be terribly confused, true. But a child from then (we assume) would be
no different from our children raised now, and I suspect that there
would have been some people, flexible of mind, who could have adjusted.
Actually, that raises a point I hadn't thought of before. Is the
Singularity supposed to be incomprehensible to a human raised in/beyond
it? This certainly wasn't necessarily the case for Vinge -- "Original
Sin" and "Just Peace" are set post-Singularity, yet the star humans
actually seem more or less unaugmented. It is their tools that don't
make sense, particularly in "Original Sin".
Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix
"(Dr. Chandra) had long since broken off communications with the
dwindling body of philosophers who argued that computers could not
really feel emotions, but only pretended to do so.
["If you can prove to me that *you're* not pretending to be annoyed,"
he had once retorted scornfully to one such critic,"I'll take you
seriously." At that point, his opponent had put on a most convincing
imitation of anger.]" -- _2010_
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