<![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity]]> Singularity - I don't buy the argument.

I also don't buy the contention that a 17th century Irish potato farmer is going to be overwhelmed by the internet. He'll definately have a few 'oh wow' moments, but after that (and presuming he can read and write) he'll be off searching for mail order potato planting hardware or potato fertilizer or cheaper sacks to collect his potatos in; then he'll start a blog just prior to opening up an online store for Genuine Irish Potatos...

Humans are very quick to adopt new tools and rarely bother themselves with where it came from, how it was developed or what its social implications are. If they can understand how to use it and it makes life easier, they'll use it.

rimworlder

]]> <![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity]]> I agree with the part of Valente's argument that outlines how very problematic this term can be. Unless it's gravitational or mathematical, I cringe when I hear people say "THE Singularity". Do they mean a technological singularity, as do Kurzweil and co.? If so, I can understand that, because that's how the term has thus far most often been used.

However, Valente unfortunately broadens the term "Singularity" further towards meaninglessness. I don't think it's helpful to expand the term to include divorces, etc. There are already more precise words and umpteen conventional metaphors to describe those transitions already.

"THE Singularity" as a term is already too broad and inclusive to be communicatively helpful - besides serving as a fashionable futures-studies "here-be-dragons" buzzword, the term doesn't often clarify any in-depth discussion of the future.

Both futures studies and sci-fi unfold in the parts of the mental landscape which deal with the not-yet-known. I'm glad that IO9 is here to invent new and ridiculous buzzwords to help us speak about the unknowable.

SteveReed

]]> <![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity]]> I see a film in Catherine's words, especially the last paragraph. How far are you folks from that FFC ranch?

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

]]> <![CDATA[We Don't Need Your Stupid A.I. to Have a Good Singularity]]> eh, I don't know about this. Read up on Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge and they will give you a better idea of what "singularity" means. It's not one moment or event, it is a point in time where our paradigms have shifted so much we are completely unrecognizable to the previous generation. That is the singularity I am waiting for!

Stranger-in-a-Strange-Land

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