Re: Event horizon

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2001 - 03:13:06 MST


Gordon Worley wrote:
>
> At 10:32 PM +0100 1/23/01, Joakim Almgren Gāndara wrote:
> >The Singularity is sometimes referred to as a "wall" that we can't see
> >beyond, a point in time where we can no longer predict anything. Isn't the
> >"wall" situated a bit _before_ the Singularity? Isn't the "wall" in fact an
> >event horizon?
>
> The wall is always moving. Today it is situated just a tinny bit
> _after_ the Singularity. Why? Do we know what the Singularity is?
> Yes. Have we begun to *speculate* on what its effects might be?
> Yes. Do we know (in the sense that we know that the Singularity is
> coming) what will happen afterward? No. So, right now we can make
> guesses at what it might be like to be posthuman on a Singularity
> computer, but those are just guesses. The wall is the point that we
> can't see beyond. At the moment, short term effects of the
> Singularity can be quasi known and guesses are made at the long term,
> but in 10 years we may already be able to see technologies that will
> come after the Singularity. Before Vinge thought of the Singularity,
> maybe it was AI that seemed to be the point where everything would
> change, or nanotech, or whatever. As much as the Singularity will
> change things, the past trend suggest that something even more
> amazing lies beyond that. Luckily for this list, the person that
> figures out whatever the next thing is probably is sitting somewhere,
> reading my post right now. Either that, or ve has yet to be born.

A thought occurs to me. Perhaps there is no wall. What I mean by this
is that if one's own consciousness becomes augmented/expanded roughly in
step with the advance of technology then there may be no point where the
technological explosion exceeds one's consciousness by such a factor as
to constitute an opaque wall. The wall exists for us if we stand still
relatively while the technology moves forward. Now it is quite likely
that we would not be able to dump old outmoded patterns and incorporate
new ones fast enough to keep up with the freshly created sentiences, so
at some point it is likely we would fall enough behind to experience the
wall. Does this line of thinking make sense? Can anything be made of
it?

>
> At any rate, my main idea is that the wall is moving all of the time.
> Today the Singularity seems like it will change everything, and it
> indead may, but as we get closer to it and as other technologies
> develop, it may not be as socking as it seems now, since we will have
> already thought up more shocking stuff (and have moved on to the sl5
> list).

This is somewhat the same sort of thing. The singularity to mass-human
may come a lot sooner than the singularity comes for you or I.

- samantha



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