[ExI] SXSW - The SINGULARITY: Humanity's Huge Techno Challenge"

[natasha at natasha.cc]

Quoting Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se>:

> But there are at least ~9 notions playing around. See
> http://agi-conf.org/2010/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/agi10singmodels2.pdf

Anders, I look forward to reading your paper.

Kelly, I'll paraphrase from my talk at SXSW: the Singularity was a  
visionary concept (based on other visionary concepts) and over the  
past decade has expanded into a type of a field to include numerous  
theories about huge technological challenges.

While it is important to know Vinge's meaning and to understand how  
superintelligence could come about and what the repercussions might  
be; it is also necessary to understand that the term "singularity" is  
known for its relation to cosmology and the Big Bang theory. Since no  
cosmologist knows for sure where the cosmological singularity comes  
from, etc., it would be irregular to think that a technology  
singularity is an absolute notion/concept.

One of the most important bits of information to have in regards to  
the technological singularity is that it has become a field of  
exploration/inquiry/supposition about advances in technology, the  
surely certain advent of superintelligence, and that this would be a  
big paradigm shift for humanity.

While some people think that we will be doomed by this, I think that  
we will merge with AGI, along with the emergence of diverse new types  
of life forms and intelligences.

If you would like to see my presentation or recording of the event,  
please let me know and I'll send to you.  Otherwise, I should be  
putting them up on youtube sometime in the near future.

Best,
Natasha