Disordered Cogitations

I finally read Vernor Vinge's famous 1993 paper entitled:

The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post Human Era

A few good quotes:

• Even now, the team of a PhD human and good computer workstation (even an off-net Develop interfaces that allow computer and network access without requiring the human to be tied to one spot, sitting in front of a computer.


• Develop interfaces that allow computer and network access without requiring the human to be tied to one spot, sitting in front of a computer.


• The change in viewpoint here would be to regard the group activity as a combination organism.


• A central feature of strongly superhuman entities will likely be their ability to communicate at variable bandwidths, including ones far higher than speech or written messages. What happens when pieces of ego can be copied and merged, when the size of a selfawareness can grow or shrink to fit the nature of the problems under consideration?

Labels: AI, IA, singularity, vernor vinge

I have just started listening to Vernor Vinge's talk to the Long Now Foundation entitled, "What if the Singularity does NOT Happen?" In the first part of the talk he cites the following provocative quote by Steve Edelson, which Vinge calls Edelson's Law:

The number of important insights that are not being made is increasing exponentially with time.

Others have commented that this issue arises out of the exponential growth in infotech, biotech, mechanotech, etc. The interplay of all the new discoveries produces insights beyond the ability of the collective wisdom of human beings to grasp.

Labels: edelson, law, long now, vernor vinge