[ExI] Singularity news

[Keith Henson]

AI and nanotech have been the two elements of the singularity at least
since Eric Drexler wrote about them in the mid-80s.  One of the two
has to come first, and it looks like AI is leading

I expect AI to rapidly lead into nanotechnology.  That will solve the
carbon and climate problems by pulling vast amounts of carbon out of
the atmosphere to build all sorts of things out of diamond and nanotubes.

But it might have negative effects as well;  Some of you have read the
short story I wrote, "The Clinic Seed" where the actions of a set of
benign AIs cause the human race to go biologically extinct.  Total
fiction, of course, since by definition what lies beyond the
singularity is impossible to know.

I have also written, in a somewhat whimsical way, about the run-up to
the singularity and just how fast things may move in the last days
before the curves go vertical.  Following Ray Kurzweil, I was looking
for this in the 2040s.  At least with the AI part of the singularity,
Ray may have been too conservative.  At this point, I think the AI
singularity may be single-digit years in the future, and that includes
one.

This talk might give you an idea of just how fast things are moving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xoVJKj8lcNQ&t=854s

The link goes to a point 14 minutes into the talk, where the really
interesting bits start.

Keith