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In layman’s terms, technological singularity is a theory that technology will accelerate at an unbelievably fast pace, so fast that the future will be unpredictable, unimaginable, and completely different than the way things are today. Of course there is much more to it, but this set of articles is just an introduction.

In his book “The Singularity is Near,” Ray Kurzweil states that technological evolution follows a pattern of exponential growth. This means that technological growth is multiplied, rather than simply added. In a nutshell, exponential growth means that progress starts out slowly, then slowly gets faster. The progress gets multiplied by further progress, which hurls advancement into an extremely fast pace. The more time that goes by, the faster things change.

History shows us a key lesson about exponential growth. The economy more or less doubled every 250,000 years from the Paleolithic era until the Neolithic Revolution after some sort of technological innovation. After this, agricultural economy started to double every 900 years. In today’s day and age, after the technology that came with the Industrial Revolution, the world’s economic output doubles every fifteen years.

That’s a remarkable increase! If you just ponder it for a minute, it is difficult not to agree with exponential growth. Consider the rate at which much technology accelerates in a year today, and compare that to how much technology accelerated in any year in the 1950′s.

Yet although technology seems to be getting faster and faster, humans can’t seem to keep up. After all, although the human brain has evolved, it has not changed in any significant way for millennia. Bearing in mind the increasing power of technologies and computers, it no longer seems so far fetched that a machine could be built that is more intelligent than human beings. In theory, if it were possible for humans to build a machine that had better problem solving skills than humans, and was more intelligent, then this machine could take it upon itself to design an even smarter machine. Then if this smarter machine was built, it could design a machine even smarter than itself, and so forth and so on. To be continued in the next article of this set, “How Could Humans Build A Computer That Is Smarter Than Them?

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on credit collection agencies.

A science fiction novel I once read from a while back described a group of scientists who put together a supercomputer that was more intelligent than humans. Anyone could type a question into the supercomputer, which would instantaneously answer with an accurate answer. One day, a scientist was working late in the lab alone. He typed the question “Is there a god?” into the supercomputer. Without hesitation, the supercomputer gave its alarming reply: “There was not a god, but there is one now.”

Computers have come a long way from back in the day when a single computer could easily take up the space of an entire room. Almost everyone has one, whether it be a laptop or a smart phone. They are so common, in fact, that even though you didn’t have access to the Internet just a relatively short time ago, you most likely take it for granted today. But will a computer ever be as smart, or even smarter than a human being?

When you think about it, it might seem far fetched. The human brain is so amazing and complex. Just think about the hundreds of thousands of things it is doing at this moment. Quick!! Think about your foot. I bet before I mentioned your foot, you weren’t consciously thinking about it. Yet your brain was completely aware of your foot, and everything that was going on with it. However, the brain is in actuality so smart that it doesn’t bother you with all of its minute details. Only if you were to hurt your foot would the shooting pain would suddenly be very noticeable.

Now focus on the idea of a chair. How do you define a chair anyway? Something you sit on? Something with four legs and a seat? Technically then, couldn’t a table fit the definition of a chair? But that’s a table, not a chair, right? And don’t chairs come in all shapes and sizes, like bean bag chairs or those crazy ergonomic chairs? So when you see a chair, how does your brain recognize that you are looking at a chair? It utilizes something called top down processing. A computer could not do that. To program a computer to be able to recognize a chair, you’d have to plug in every possible definition of a chair into the thing, while your brain can do the work in half a second.

But think again. Computers can beat chess experts pretty easily nowadays. That is because in this case, the computer can utilize top down processing, while a human chess expert can only recognize simple patterns in the game. When you compete with a computer at chess, it enters the game with an entire tree of knowledge of every move that could be made, and every counter move. We like to think we are superior to computers, yet we have programmed computers to be able to recognize most of human speech. Think about how long it takes to teach a human baby to learn to talk, and all the work it entails. Now compare that with the amount of time it takes a computer to download some speech recognition software off of another computer. To be continued in the second article of this set, “Technological Singularity and Exponential Growth.

Mallory Megan works for a third party collection agency. Looking to find out more about fair debt collection practices or judgements? Contact us today!

In the last article of this series I spoke about technological singularity, which is a theory that technology will eventually advance so quickly that the future will be unimaginably different than it is today. I wrote about the fact that it is very possible that in the distant (or not so distant) future, a computer may be built that could outsmart a human being! So if the singularity may be looming in the future, how would humans get over that initial first hurdle of building a computer that is smarter than humanity? Theorists reason there are two ways: amplifying the intelligence of human brains until we are intelligent enough to come up with this computer, and artificial intelligence.

Taking a human brain and expanding its intelligence seems like it might be a long way off in the future, but there are many ways that scientists can do this even today. After all, in laboratories, it is fairly simple for scientists to genetically modify mice. Granted, they are only mice, but genetic modification of the human brain could be an option in the future. Then there are nootropic drugs, which are drugs, supplements and foods that have the ability to improve mental functions. Refer to the field of psychopharmaceuticals if you do not believe that these exist.

Direct brain-computer interfaces are in existence, which are, simply put, direct communication pathways between a brain and an external device. Monkeys have been capable control robotic arms just by utilizing their brains! One last example is mind uploading, which scientists are looking into now. This is the process of scanning a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system. If this ever came to fruition this could mean immortality for anyone who chose to have their minds uploaded. Their consciousness would remain in the realm of the internet long after their biological bodies have died.

Then we return to the notion of artificial intelligence, in which smarter and smarter computers keep on being designed by humans until we have a computer that is smart enough to design another computer that is smarter than itself. Theoretically, every computer that is smarter will design an even smarter computer, until they have outsmarted human beings.

Either way, it seems as though we are approaching the point of a very intelligent, self programming computer soon. Currently, there are a number of computers who are responsible for making very important decisions regarding the human race. The United States Navy tells us that as military robots become more complicated, we should focus more attention to the ramifications of their ability to make autonomous decisions. Military robots potentially hold the lives of other people in their hands, and yes, they do make their “own” decisions. Some people believe that the leaps and bounds that we are already making with Artificial Intelligence should include an effort to make AI friendly and humane. It is definitely worth considering! To be continued in the next article, “What Happens After Humans Design A Computer That Can Outsmart Them?

Mallory Megan works for a nationwide collection agency. Looking to find out more about the fair debt collection practices act? Hire a debt collection agency.

In this set of articles I wrote about technological singularity. This theory claims that advances in technology start very slowly at first, then accelerate faster and faster. Eventually, technology will progress so quickly that the future will be completely unimaginable and different than it is today. Proponents of this theory say that change is occurring so rapidly in today’s day and age that by 2024 there will be computers out there that are just as intelligent and capable of the human brain!

Of course, not everyone believes that the singularity is drawing near. First of all, some people believe that no computer or machine will ever be capable of being as smart as a human being in the first place. Others take issue with the idea of exponential growth, claiming that in actuality, the rate of technological innovation is actually now decreasing instead of rapidly increasing. Some critics don’t dispute that there is exponential growth, but feel as though it is not an adequate predictor of change. They are quick to point to the example of quantum theory. The quantum was conceived in 1900, and theory existed and was accepted around twenty five years later. But it took more than forty years to yield any meaningful numbers from the theory.

One very intriguing argument against technological singularity is a study of patents per thousand persons over the course of the years. The number of patents actually peaked in the years from 1850-1900, and has been on the decline since. The critics that adhere to this argument claim that as complexity grows, the more limited things become, and humans are growing less and less creative as a result. So the chances of human beings designing a supercomputer seems slim to none from this stance.

Finally, critics specifically find problems with the main proponent of the singularity theory Ray Kurzweil’s chart of progress. Kurzweil bases his theory that technology is growing faster and faster on these charts. In his book “The Singularity is Near” Kurzweil publishes fifteen charts of the history of human evolution from various experts and sources, which all point to the idea that change occurs slowly at first, then grows faster as the gaps between moments of progress get smaller and smaller. Some critics say that a chart that is set up like this is simply biased towards proving what he sets forth to claim, others say that many of the early evolutionary events on these charts appear to be chosen arbitrarily.

Whether you agree with the idea of technological singularity or not, there is no denying that it is indeed a very fascinating concept to ponder. Are computers the next step in evolution? Is it simply typical human hubris to believe that we will always be on the top of the food chain? These are all ideas that will become more and more prevalent as the years go by and technology progresses.

Mallory Megan works for a medical collection agency. Is your account receivable department having trouble collecting a court judgement? Contact us today!