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Category: singularity – Page 73

Singularity: The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity) is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.

Have you ever taken a look at the constantly accelerating world of technology and thought “what happens if these machines become more intelligent than us? Will they develop conscious thoughts and decide that we are inferior and wipe us out? Will they become our bff’s for being their creators? How come our jobs are rapidly being replaced by machines? What will be the role of humans if we are no longer the most intelligent beings? Is this at all even possible?”

I find these ideas interesting to think about and I think the notion of singularity is a possibility that should at least be considered. In this article I’m going to outline a few of the issues surrounding intelligent machines and advanced AI. As well as give some of my personal opinions about the topic.

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Singularity University Global Summit is the culmination of the Exponential Conference Series and the definitive place to witness converging exponential technologies and understand how they’ll impact the world.

How many cyborgs did you see during your morning commute today? I would guess at least five. Did they make you nervous? Probably not; you likely didn’t even realize they were there.

In a presentation titled “Biohacking and the Connected Body” at Singularity University Global Summit, Hannes Sjoblad informed the audience that we’re already living in the age of cyborgs. Sjoblad is co-founder of the Sweden-based biohacker network Bionyfiken, a chartered non-profit that unites DIY-biologists, hackers, makers, body modification artists and health and performance devotees to explore human-machine integration.

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Nice advancement for the nanomaterials space particularly as we look at ways to improve machines, devices, BMI, living buildings or other living structures, etc. Definitely advances efforts around Singularity.

Proteins perform a myriad of functions essential for life. They also make up important and useful biological materials, for example spider silk, which is exceptionally strong but still flexible.

The ability to design completely new proteins would help scientists create nanomaterials that, like spider silk, have a specific microstructure that confers useful properties.

Continue reading “A New Way to Create Synthetic Proteins Could Lead to More Flexible Designs” | >

Something big happened this week at Singularity University.

79 participants from 49 different countries graduated from Singularity University’s 10-week flagship Global Solutions Program (GSP).

Over 30 team projects were launched during GSP, each focused on using exponential technology to address a massive global problem, such as water scarcity, malnutrition, and climate change.

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I HIGHLY recommend reading this novel, as well as it sequels! It’s a beautiful, smart, and occasionally frightening exploration of what our civilization will look like post singularity, what WE will look like as posthumans, and where we might go from there.

The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF’s golden age writers.

The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.

Phaethon, of Radamanthus House, is attending a glorious party at his family mansion to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the High Transcendence. There he meets first an old man who accuses him of being an impostor and then a being from Neptune who claims to be an old friend. The Neptunian tells him that essential parts of his memory were removed and stored by the very government that Phaethon believes to be wholly honorable. It shakes his faith. He is an exile from himself.

Continue reading “The Golden Age” | >

Singularity University Grand Challenge in space end goal is Safe and Equitable use and stweardship of space resources and technologies for the benefit of humanity and our future as a multi-planetary species

Made in Space has won the Singularity University Grand Challenge in space.

Made in Space is the only organization ever in history to have the capability to manufacture off planet Earth.

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Today, Founder and Executive Chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation Peter Diamandis kicked off Singularity University’s first ever Global Summit here in tech capital, San Francisco.

The energy is pulsing (what else would you expect in Silicon Valley?), and so is Diamandis’ presence on stage as he tells the room,

“We’re about to enter a time where we can tackle global problems in a way like we never have before.”

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My new Vice Motherboard story on the Fermi Paradox, Jethro’s Window, and why we’ll never discover intelligent aliens:

Here’s the sad solution to Fermi’s Paradox: We’ve never discovered other life forms because language and communication methods in the Singularity evolve so rapidly that even in one minute, an entire civilization can become transformed and totally unintelligible. In an expanding universe that is at least 13.6 billion years old, this transformation might never end. What this means is we will never have more than a few seconds to understand or even notice our millions of neighbors. The nature of the universe—the nature of communication in a universe where intelligence exponentially grows—is to keep us forever unaware and alone.

The only time we may discover other intelligent life forms is that 100 or so years during Jethro’s Window, and then it requires the miracle of another species in a similar evolutionary time table, right then, looking for us too. Given the universe is so gargantuan and many billions of years old, even with millions of alien species out there, we’ll never find them. We’ll never know them. It’s an unfortunate mathematical certainty.

Zoltan Istvan is a futurist, author of The Transhumanist Wager, and a 2016 US Presidential candidateof the Transhumanist Party. He writes an occasional columnfor Motherboard in which he ruminates on the future beyond human ability.

Continue reading “​The Language of Aliens Will Always Be Indecipherable” | >

I’m super excited to share my first fiction since writing “The Transhumanist Wager” four years ago. Vice Motherboard has published this short story of mine on the challenge of AI becoming religious—and what that might mean for humanity. It’s a short read and the story takes place just a few years into the future. And yes, the happenings in this story could occur.

For the second installment of our series exploring the future of human augmentation, we bring you a story by the Transhumanist Party’s presidential candidate (and occasional Motherboard columnist), Zoltan Istvan. Though he’s spent most of the last year traveling the nation in a coffin-shaped bus, spreading the gospel of immortality and H+, he’s no stranger to fiction. His novel, The Transhumanist Wager, is about the impact of evolving beyond this mortal coil. This story is even bolder. Enjoy the always provocative, always entertaining, Zoltan Istvan. –the editor.

Paul Shuman’s phone rang. He struggled to open his eyes. ‘Who the hell is calling me in the middle of the night?’ he thought. He rolled out of bed and walked naked to his desk to see. His phone showed it was his secretary.

Continue reading “​The Jesus Singularity” | >