singularity: hurry up already

For those of you not in the know, ‘Singularity’ is the concept that sometime in the next 20 or so years, extrapolating from current trends, computing capabilities will so greatly exceed the human brain’s capacities that it becomes impossible to predict what happens afterward. [The link is to a very good piece by Vernor Vinge on the subject.] While the term doesn’t have much common currency, the aftereffects of singularity make for common sci-fi fodder: the Terminator and the Matrix are both set in post-singularity worlds. As you might surmise, generally speaking, the speculation is that singularity will probably not be so good for us: humans are either tolerated as pets, or loathed as vermin, by our new digital overlords.

On the other hand, perhaps we’ll all be remade as ideal, godlike beings, stripped of our every imperfection to experience eternal bliss in a digital heaven.

Ugh. I’ll take the vermin loathing, please. And hurry up about it.

Anyway, the somewhat overrated Charles Stross wrote a novel, Accelerando, about the moment of singularity as it happens, and for some reason I read it.

And as I haven't written any haiku in a while, here goes:

Singularity,
When it happens, hopefully
Won’t be this boring.