"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com> writes:
Jeff Gostin says:
What _is_ Singularity? It's not a term I'm familiar with.
The notion that the rate of progress is increasing, and the increase in the rate is also increasing, so at some point in the next century more change will occur per hour than occurred in all of human history to, say, now. "The Singularity" is the point at which the world becomes not merely odd but incomprehensable TO US. Presumably those alive at the time will not really notice.
So, to borrow a Calculus term, and to bastardize the concept somewhat, Singularity is the point at which the derivative of Progress is undefined? Visually, it'd look like this (only MUCH steeper), if I see it correctly: - .| P - | r - | o - | g - . | r - | e - |<---- Singularity s - . | s - | - . | -. | ------|--------- 12345 Time 1= 1970 2= 1990 3= 2010 4= 2030 5= 2050 Right?? --Jeff -- ====== ====== +----------------jgostin@eternal.pha.pa.us----------------+ == == | The new, improved, environmentally safe, bigger, better,| == == -= | faster, hypo-allergenic, AND politically correct .sig. | ==== ====== | Now with a new fresh lemon scent! | PGP Key Available +---------------------------------------------------------+