From: JAMES FEHLINGER (fehlinger@home.com)
Date: Mon Apr 05 1999 - 05:40:31 MDT
Lee March wrote:
>
> You think the concept and/or term sigularity was started by extropians?
I know who Vernor Vinge is (and I've read _Marooned In Realtime_), if
that's what you mean.
I was just pointing out that whatever discourse is generated by the
people associated with this mailing list (such as Eliezer Yudkowsky's
piece _Staring Into The Singularity_) would likely have connotations
unintended by their authors, if the terminology invented or used by
the original authors is picked up by TV writers as a bit of contemporary
trendiness to be worked into what passes for sci-fi on television
these days (much of which is technophobic, fearful of the future,
conspiracy-minded, paranoid, etc.).
I was a little shocked to find that this already seems to have
happened with the term "singularity", though since the TV show in
question seems to have come and gone rather quickly, the
"re-branding" isn't likely to be widely disseminated. I don't
know if one of the writers on _Dark Skies_ plucked the term
"singularity" out of the region of discourse adjacent to this
mailing list and its members, or whether it was chosen
independently, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the former.
Jim F.
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