SINGULARITY SUMMIT 10 NEXT MONTH IN SF

The Singularity Summit is scheduled for August 14-15 here in SF, and if you’re interested in seeing what the future might be like (without just waiting until it gets here), a bunch of smart people will happily tell you their thoughts on what might be in store for us as a species. Speakers include Ray Kurzweil (of course), James Randi, Dr. Irene Pepperberg, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, and many more.

So, what’s “The Singularity?” See it on a graph, after the jump.

The Singularity represents an “event horizon” in the predictability of human technological development past which present models of the future may cease to give reliable answers, following the creation of strong AI or the enhancement of human intelligence.

The general argument here is that the increase in computing power is a predictable trend, and if you extend that trend out into the future, you can see how long it takes until human brains become pretty much useless in the face of overwhelming artificial intelligence, at which point things are going to get totally crazy. And keep in mind that that graph is also taking cost into account, so according to the predicted trend (which is based on data from the past and present), by 2050 or so $1000 will buy you a computer that can out-calculate our entire race. Every second. Pretty wild stuff.

[ The Singularity Summit 10 ]