What is the Technological Singularity?

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Every time I read one news story related to artificial intelligence I came up with the word uniqueness, and along with it comes that Singularity Technology. I have already researched the term, however, it is still confused in my mind, I cannot understand clearly what is the singularity related to artificial intelligence and even if this term was created by someone from the field of computing.

Therefore, I would like to have my doubt resolved.

Doubt

  • What Would Be the Technological Singularity?
  • 5

    We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resisting is useless.

  • Johnny Depp made a film about it, in which he was the uniqueness

  • 1

    @Jeffersonquesado You’ve seen the movies of the series Terminator?

  • @Victorstafusa my childhood was in the 90s, Terminator 2 was the movie my parents put to calm me xD

  • I quoted from Johnny Depp because he’s new and he handles very interesting things. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence the movie

  • 1

    @Jeffersonqueso excellent his quote from this film, this film is an adaptation of the book that best treats this theme "The Age of Spiritual Machines" of Kurzweil .

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2 answers

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As a general concept (uniqueness)

In engineering, uniqueness is when a mechanism reaches a state where you can’t predict what happens next.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_singularity

In mathematics, singularity is the point where a given set behaves abnormally, or is not defined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_(Mathematics)

Applied in AI (usually spelled "The Singularity")

The term was coined by John von Neumann in the mid-1950s.

It’s basically the moment when the machine intelligence beyond the human, to the point of losing control and predictability of the situation. At this point, this machine can build even more intelligent machines, and who knows what they will decide on their own.

Wikipedia:

"unbridled reaction" of an upgradeable intelligent agent with the ability to self-improve (such as a computer running software-based artificial intelligence) would generate more and more rapidly, individuals endowed with a powerful super intelligence that qualitatively, would surpass all human intelligence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

4

Changing kids what you said Bacchus brilliantly in his reply, the term refers to that moment or single point (of singular, hence the term Singularity) in history in which technology (focused on AI - artificial intelligence) would become so advanced that machines would have an infinite processing capacity and predictability, so that they would cease to be merely slaves based on instructions and would go on to make wider and limitless decisions, in a way that is superior and incomprehensible to human capacity.

In the cinema such situation was approached in a fictitious way in films like Matrix (1999), The Terminator of the Future (1984), A.I - Artificial Intelligence (2001), among others.

Some renowned scientists have predicted such an event decades ago. To name a few, such as the well-known mathematician Alan Turing:

In his 1951 article entitled Intelligent Machinery: A Heretical Theory, Alan Turing wrote about machines that eventually will surpass human intelligence:

"Once the machine’s method of thought has begun, no It will take too long to overcome our weak powers. ... In any moment, we must wait for the machines to take control, manner that is mentioned in Samuel Butler’s Erewhon ".

Another famous American scientist, Vernor Vinge, introduced the term technological uniqueness in the January 1983 issue of Omni magazine specifically linked to the creation of intelligent machines:

"Soon we will create intelligences greater than ours. When that happen, human history will reach a kind of uniqueness, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as space-time tied in the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our own understanding. This uniqueness, I believe, already haunts several science fiction writers. This makes extrapolation impossible realistic for an interstellar future. To write a story of more than a century, it takes a nuclear war between ... so that the world remains intelligible".

Later, he further developed the concept in his essay The Coming Technological Singularity (1993):

"In thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Soon after, the human age will be ended. [...] I think it is fair to call this event a singularity. It is a point where our models must be discarded and a new reality is valid. As we get closer and closer to this point, it will be wider and broader on human affairs until the notion is make it a common place. However, when it finally happens, yet can be a great surprise and a greater unknown".

It is important to emphasize that, for Vinge, the singularity can occur in four ways:

  1. The development of computers that are "awake" and superhumanly intelligent.
  2. Large computer networks (and their associated users) can "waking up" as a super-humanly intelligent entity.
  3. The computer/human interfaces can become so intimate that the users can reasonably be considered super-humanely intelligent.
  4. Biological science can find ways to improve the intellect natural human.

As the subject is broad and interesting, so as not to get too extensive, I finish the answer here. I hope it helped a little more in understanding.

I used as research source the site below, which still provides 17 definitions of the term relating their respective scientists:

https://www.singularityweblog.com/17-definitions-of-the-technological-singularity/

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