[ad_1]
The term “singularity”, which we often hear today, originates from my field, theoretical physics. It designates a point in space and time where the gravitational field becomes infinite. At the center of a black hole, for example, we could find a singularity. It also refers to a mathematical term where a certain function also becomes infinite. But the type of singularity you’ve probably heard of the most recently is called “The Technological Singularity” and while it’s not a new concept, it’s definitely becoming a mainstream topic of conversation.
Countless books on the subject are published regularly, and Ray Kurzweil has just launched his documentary, “The Transcendent Man,” which shares his vision of a world in which humans merge with machines and is currently being screened sold out around planet, web forums, blogs and video sites.
Recently, this was part of a TIME magazine cover story titled “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal” which includes a five-page account. Not to mention that there are a growing number of institutes, dozens of annual Singularity Conferences, and even the 2008 founding of Singularity University by Peter Diamandis & Ray Kurzweil of X-Prize, based on NASA’s Ames campus. in Silicon Valley. Singularity University offers a variety of programs, including one in particular called “The Exponential Technologies Executive Program” which they believe has as its main objective “to educate, inform and prepare executives to recognize opportunities and influences. disruptive technologies that are growing exponentially and to understand how these areas affect their future, their business and their industry. ”
My Sci Fi Science TV series, on The Science Channel, aired an episode titled AI Uprising which focused on the upcoming technological singularity and the fear that humanity would one day create a machine that could very possibly threaten. our very existence. We cannot exclude the moment when artificial intelligence will eventually overtake human intelligence. These creations of super intelligent machines will become aware of themselves, have their own agenda, and one day may even make copies of themselves smarter than they are.
Common questions that I am often asked are:
But the path to singularity will not be easy. As I originally mentioned in my Big Think interview, “How to Stop Robots Killing Us”, Moore’s Law states that computing power doubles about every 18 months and that’s a curve that lasted about 50 years. The chipmaking and the technology behind the development of transistors will eventually hit a wall where they are just too small, too powerful, and generate too much heat, leading to chip fusion and electron leakage due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
Needless to say, it’s time to find a replacement for silicon and I’m confident that a possible replacement will take things to the next level. Graphene is a potential replacement candidate and far superior to that of silicon, but the technology to build a large-scale fabrication of graphene (sheets of carbon nanotubes) is still pending. It is not known at all what will replace silicon, but various technologies have been proposed, including molecular transistors, DNA computers, protein computers, quantum dot computers, and quantum computers. However, none of them are ready for prime time. Each has their own daunting technical issues that keep them on the drawing boards today.
Well, because of all of these uncertainties, no one knows exactly when this tipping point will occur although there are many predictions when computing power will finally come together and eventually overtake that of human intelligence. For example, Ray Kurzweil whom I have interviewed several times in my radio programs said in his Big Think interview that he believes that by 2020 we will have computers powerful enough to simulate the human brain, but we do not. will not be done with the reverse engineering of the brain until around 2029. He also estimates that by 2045 we will have multiplied by a billion the intelligence of our human-machine civilization.
But in all fairness, we also have to point out that there are many different views on this issue. The New York Times asked various experts at the recent Asilomar AI conference in California when machines could become as powerful as humans. The answer was quite surprising. Responses ranged from 20 years to 1,000 years. I once interviewed Marvin Minsky for my national science radio show and asked him the same question. He was careful not to say that he does not make such predictions.
It should also be pointed out that there are a variety of measures offered by AI specialists on what to do about this. A simple proposition is to put a chip in the brains of our robots, which automatically turn them off if they have murderous thoughts. Right now, our most advanced robots have the intellectual capacity of a cockroach (a mentally challenged cockroach, on top of that). But over the years, they will become as intelligent as a mouse, a rabbit, a fox, a dog, a cat, and eventually a monkey. When they get this smart, they’ll be able to set their own goals and agendas, and could be dangerous. We could also install a fail-safe device so that any human can turn them off with a simple verbal command. Or, we could create an elite corps of robot fighters, like in Blade Runner, who have superior powers and can hunt down and hunt roaming robots.
But the most successful proposal merges with our creations. Maybe one day in the future we could wake up with a higher body and intellect and live forever. To learn more, visit the Facebook page of my latest book, Physics of the Future.
Source link
