Singularity Thoughts part 5: Competing theories
So, I’ve had some interesting thoughts while reading some of the singularity websites my friend (shout out to Kyle!) recommended. Last blog post I said that I thought our story might be more of an Intelligence Explosion. Upon further reading, I think I’m still right, but that it will also have a good deal of Event Horizon theory in it too. How much can I share without ruining the story…
I’ll just stay general with my thoughts. The basic idea of the intelligence explosion is that as soon as you reach the level of artificial or super intelligence, (basically making something smarter than yourself) that intelligence will do the same, remaking itself more and more intelligent. Once you initiate it, it takes off like crazy. The event horizon is basically that since we aren’t superintelligent we have no idea what being superintelligent would be like, so we can’t see beyond the point where we become superintelligent (by becoming cyborgs or having computer-brain interfaces or something). Life post-singularity would probably be different and weirder than we would expect.
Add to both of those the worry about Friendly vs non-Friendly AI. How will the new superintelligent being feel about the rest of us? Will is be kind or will it want to enslave and/or kill us? Is it a person who added computer interfaces to his brain and is now more intelligent? Or is it a computer that gained self-awareness and the ability to reprogram and rebuild itself?
Our story will have a mix of all of that, probably. The singularity may be reached in different ways at different times. It will be good, bad, and definitely weird. The hard part for me is to figure out the best way to share how weird it will be while still having it be believable and relatable to the reader.
Anyways, to finish off, here’s a cool article I saw today that sets the stage for how the Singularity might even be able to happen.
Artificial neurons made from carbon fibers running through my brain? Cool. Scary, but cool.