[ExI] san jose tech museum's take on the singularity

Amara D. Angelica amara at kurzweilai.net
Mon Sep 27 04:55:56 UTC 2010


Thanks, Spike. Sounds like the Tech Museum folks are unfamiliar with the
literature, such as The Singularity Is Near, which does not limit digital
innovations to Moore's law, but instead posits progress as a sequence of
S-curves for different paradigms, as noted in
http://www.kurzweilai.net/kurzweils-law-aka-the-law-of-accelerating-returns.

Spike said:

> I was surprised that this had gone as mainstream as it
> appears.  So now the question for Bryan and the other younger
> set: is there in your opinion a general awareness of the
> singularity... spike

I took my son to the San Jose Tech Museum today.  There is a display room
about progress in computing, with a panel on Moore's law.  I was surprised
to see this comment:


 



 

In case the photo doesn't come thru, it says:

 

Breaking the Law

 

Progress has limits; electricity can't go

faster than the speed of light, for example.

Moore predicts that digital innovations

will soon slow.  Others, however, foresee a

singularity, when rapid technological shifts

make the world unpredictable.

 

[end]

 

I found it interesting that they reference the singularity without seeing
the need to explain in detail what it is.  They say it is when technological
shifts make the world unpredictable, but with no reference to emergent AI or
really any supporting text or references.

 

I am not sure what to make of it, but a museum is about as mainstream as it
gets.

 

Comments please?

 

spike

 

 

 

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