Singularity 101

[andrewducker]

Over here Vernor Vinge talks about The Singularity. His personal definition is:
Humans, using technology, will be able to create, or become, creatures of superhuman intelligence.
[Poll #1390606]

Comments

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Arguably we hit "a" singularity when the Gutenberg press came out; now every human being on the planet can, with training and relatively minor expense, possess eidetic memories of events to which they were not personally present. That makes for a radically different world-view.

Another singularity would be the introduction of broadcast radio, which extends human hearing to encompass the world.

And the Internet could count, as it takes the printing press and radio combined and then squares and cubes it by making it accessable to anyone of remarkably modest means.

-- Steve isn't certain that a Vingean "rapture of the geeks" singularity will strike, ever, but is certain that we're probably going to reinvent what it means to be human more than once in his remaining lifespan.

[andrewducker]

He does, specifically, deal with the Gutenberg press in the interview...

[meihua.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you're using a different definition of "Singularity" from the article cited in the OP.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

It's quite possible; alas, I can't reach the article on my work computer.

-- Steve was working from recollection of prior definitions of "singularity", and recollection is one of those pre-singularity soft spots.