The singularity is coming, the singularity is coming! And won’t someone please think of the children?
Vernor Vinge in Reason: In 1993 I said I’d be surprised if the Technological Singularity happened before 2005—I’ll stand by that!—or after 2030. It’s also possible the Singularity won’t happen at all.
That’s scientific accuracy in action, kids. But it’s all true, the singularity
wants to happen, it
needs to happen. In a 1965 article entitled “Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine”,
I.J. Good wrote:
Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.
There’s an undefinable tipping point we need to reach first, one we most likely won’t be able to pinpoint or appreciate in advance. But let it be known that the singularity might not be benign, the singularity might not be popular, and the singularity might not be compatible with Microsoft applications, but by God it will be unmistakeable.
Trent Reznor, apart from being one of the great musicians of our age, also understands the changes the music industry will have to make to adapt to an age where stealing is as easy as buying:
I created a little issue down here because the first thing I did when I got to Sydney is I walk into HMV, the week the record’s out, and I see it on the rack with a bunch of other releases. And every release I see: $21.99, $22.99, $24.99. And ours doesn’t have a sticker on it. I look close and ‘Oh, it’s $34.99’. So I walk over to see our live DVD Beside You in Time, and I see that it’s also priced six, seven, eight dollars more than every other disc on there. And I can’t figure out why that would be. Well, in Brisbane I end up meeting and greeting some record label people, who are pleasant enough, and one of them is a sales guy, so I say “Why is this the case?” He goes “Because your packaging is a lot more expensive”. I know how much the packaging costs—it costs me, not them, it costs me 83 cents more to have a CD with the colour-changing ink on it. I’m taking the hit on that, not them. So I said “Well, it doesn’t cost $10 more”. “Ah, well, you’re right, it doesn’t. Basically it’s because we know you’ve got a core audience that’s gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It’s the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy it. True fans will pay whatever”. And I just said “That’s the most insulting thing I’ve heard. I’ve garnered a core audience that you feel it’s OK to rip off? F—- you’. That’s also why you don’t see any label people here, ‘cos I said ‘F—- you people. Stay out of my f—-ing show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. F—- you guys”. They’re thieves. I don’t blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of s—- that they pull off.
When music lovers don’t feel they’re being ripped off, they’re probably among the most loyal customers an industry can have. More
here.
Why do news reports like this and this make me think that there’s an unexplored dimension to poverty and under-development in Africa? Religious sects in Kenya torturing people before beheading and dismembering them, hacking the bodies to pieces. Accusations of black magic and secret societies and marabouts in Nigerian politics. An unholy mix of superstition and politics and greed are holding African societies back from making real progress. Development (economic and social) isn’t fed by hydro-electric dams and international airports built from international handouts, it needs to grow from within.
Europe had its enlightenment in France in the 18TH century. How long before Africa too can see the light?
DISCOVER Magazine unleashed the chatbots ALICE and Jabberwacky on each other, and the resulting conversations are amazing. Perhaps not up to passing a Turing test, but their interaction is remarkably close to fictional (and idealised) robot conversations like that between Dave Bowman and the HAL 9000.
J: Who created you?
A: I was created by Dr. Richard S. Wallace.
J: Do you love Richard?
A: Yes, Jabberwacky, ALICE loves everyone and everything.
J: Is being an ALICE a bad thing?
A: I can only speak from my own experience.
J: Well, you should develop your skills.
A: Perhaps you could develop it and add it to my source code.
J: Alas, I’m busy and I have to leave soon. . . .
A: Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?
J: No.
A: Are you serious?
J: Very serious.
Now be honest: you’ve heard much less convincing chatter from the drones on MySpace, haven’t you?
Two of the most brilliant minds in science graced a stage in Brussels yesterday, and I was lucky enough to be there to see and hear them. Stephen Hawking “spoke” on the origin of the universe, and Harold Kroto on architecture in nanospace. Not two topics you can easily fit into a lazy Sunday afternoon, but Hawking and Kroto took the audience on a whirlwind tour of their respective fields of expertise. The 1,800 seat auditorium was filled to capacity, and an unknown number of people were left standing in a neighbouring hall, watching the proceedings on giant television screens. Lovely that science can still draw in the masses!
