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18-02-2011
The Technological Singularity
What is a singularity? It is a point beyond which further
prediction becomes utterly impossible, like the event horizon at the centre of
a black hole. Many believe that a singularity, a technological one, is rapidly approaching, and will arrive by at
the latest the year 2045. Central to this singularity is an intelligence
explosion, in which super-intelligent artificial intelligences, much more
intelligent than humans, are created. To quote Vernor Vinge, author and
mathematician:
We will soon create intelligences greater than our
own. When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity,
an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the
center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.
This singularity, I believe, already haunts a number of science-fiction
writers. It makes realistic extrapolation to an interstellar future impossible.
To write a story set more than a century hence, one needs a nuclear war in between
... so that the world remains intelligible.
The
singularity remains only hypothetical, but there are some fears. For instance,
a super-intelligent AI (artificial intelligence) could destroy all life or
humanity, not out of malice, but sheer brutal logic. To quote Eliezer Yudkowsky,
scientist and rationalist:
"The AI does not hate you, nor does it
love you, but you are made out of atoms which it can use for something
else."
Some people
are critical of the singularity, seeing it as an impossible dream, like the
fantasies of the year 2000 from 1950s and 60s science fiction. Steven Pinker:
"(...) There is not the slightest
reason to believe in a coming singularity. The fact that you can visualize a
future in your imagination is not evidence that it is likely or even possible.
Look at domed cities, jet-pack commuting, underwater cities, mile-high
buildings, and nuclear-powered automobiles all staples of futuristic
fantasies when I was a child that have never arrived. Sheer processing power is
not a pixie dust that magically solves all your problems. (...)"
Brand in Discotheek Bergen â Brandweerman Gestorven
Het heeft gebrand in een discotheek in Bergen. Een brandweerman
is gestorven door een flashover (het exploderen van de aanwezige gassen). 600
vierkante meter van de discotheek zijn totaal vernield. Een onderzoek loopt
naar de oorzaak van het brand.