[extropy-chat] mathimatical model for the singularity

[Robert Bradbury]

On 11/25/06, ps udoname <ps.udoname at gmail.com> wrote:

> And the entire reason why the singularity is called the singularity is that
> is has an asymtope, which is somthing s-curves lack.

I think you mean asymtote.  But at least among people who understand
this problem well one clearly ends up with S curves.  You can't exceed
the speed of light, you can't get smaller than some of the volumes of
space that Anders or Lloyd have dealt with in papers, there is a
finite number of atoms in the universe and it requires significantly
more energy than is currently available (or likely ever will be) to
collect them all into one place where one can dedicate them to
something useful, etc.  "The Singularity" cannot be represented by an
equation such as you propose.  It is generally understood that its
kind of a "virtual Singularity" that things start growing so fast that
mere humans lose ability to grasp or contribute to it in any way --
its a Class 10 rapid, no wait its a Class 100 rapid, nowtitsa
Cls1000rpd...  But it *does* hit hard limits very shortly after it
gets going that will slow it down.  At that point it turns into an S
curve and your equation breaks.  If however one takes progress into
the virtual realm and one keeps changing the realm (in some ways like
Second Life is doing now...) then one might have the appearence of a
continuence of the singularity.  But you have to change the criteria
being used to measure progress.

I suspect the limits will be on how fast progress is will depend upon
how fast entities in one realm are willing (or able) to create new
realms which are interesting enough to cause significant numbers of
entitites to give up their old realm(s).  You could compare it to
bioinformatics or synthetic biology as well as things like Web 2.0,
Web 3.0, Second Life, etc. -- those are examples of "realms" we are
currently in the process of creating.

Robert