Do you think all this talk about the singularity is ridiculous?
You know, that a moment in time sometime between 2035 and 2045 where progress is so rapid it outstrips humans’ ability to comprehend it.
Some suggest at this point, the future of mankind will be redesigned by non-human intelligence.
Do you think that’s bunk? Impossible? Improbable?
Or do you think it will be the worst thing that ever happened to mankind.
You would be known as a singularity denier. You’d also be in good company.
Elon Musk of Tesla Motors has been pegged as one.
Bill Gates too. Both are afraid of what a super-intelligent AI might do if it accelerates past human intelligence.
Of course dystopian thinking has been around as long as, well, utopian thinking.
So herewith are 10 reasons why the various deniers fear the singularity:
- You really want a machine to be smarter than humans? Can we trust them?
- Slavery and subjugation of the human race by strong AI machines
- Singularity = Extinction of mankind
- A war so technologically advanced that it will kill billions and all that will be left will be the machines. See also #3
- Economic collapse, tech-driven recession or depression
- We are the machines and the machines are us, then see 1 through 5
- The death of the planet regardless of nanobot technology that can cleanse the air or the seas or you and me
- The great hard drive crash – somehow all knowledge stored on the planet is lost thanks to some failure or flaw in the systems that manage it.
- Death becomes obsolete and so we will need more space and exit the planet
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