Many of you have already seen the Time Mazazine article about Raymond Kurzweil and his concept of the technological singularity, which mentioned that I spoke at the 2010 Singularity Summit. The “Singularity” concept is that we will be able to create an artificial system that will equal and then surpass the performance of a human mind – a robot, ambulatory or stationary, or more correctly, an android. This was a favorite notion of the much-missed Isaac Asimov… I was perhaps the conference’s novelty invitée, I suspect. In any case, I was quite taken with the session, and here is the message I sent to Time's editors which I'd like to share with everyone who read the article:
In my comments at the conference, I suggested that Kurzweil was a bit overzealous, very much like Archimedes discussing the possibility of space travel with the "scientists" of his own day. At that session, however, I began to better understand just how inevitable the Singularity is, though I feel that neither I nor any of those who attended will live to see it in action – if there are even any of our species still around to witness the event... It is not without danger to our own survival, though the other life-forms of Earth might be better off without us.
Raymond Kurzweil is the originator of the Singularity idea, an enthusiastic promoter of his creation, but – as I wrote – perhaps somewhat ahead of himself. I recommend that SWIFT readers look into this very interesting subject and come to their own conclusions.