Intel predicts singularity by 2048

[Rosy Cheeks]

Yeah well, let's just wait and see what happens, eh?

I don't know how the future will look in 40 years, but I know one thing; people are extremely bad at predicting it.

Go back 40 years in history, and see what people then imagined what out world would look like today. They imagined household robots cooking and cleaning, personal airplanes flying to and from work, bases on the Moon and Mars, etc etc.

No one was capable of prediciting personal computers, internet, mobile phones, telecommunication satellites (well, Arthur C Clarke did use it in one of his SF novels), genetic engineering or 25% THC weed.

Imagining something we could do during optimal conditions and what we'll be able to do in a pragmatic context are two entirely different things.

In 2048, our world will be chronically overpopulated, there will be extreme water shortage, rising sea levels, mass extinction of plant and animal life, rising temperatures with extreme weather conditions. Who knows, we might not even be able to feed people correctly by 2048.

Singularity by 2048? Let's start by putting out a quantum computer on the market and take it from there. One step at the time...

 

[9Lives]

^I agree on the part..that things seem to be heading in a totally different direction.

im 90%doom and gloom /10% im probably just an idiot...at least the part of me that tries to be a realist right now.

But i disagree on the part that people are bad at predicting future. Considering how little we have to go on i would say we are only bad at timing the future.

Go back 40 years in history, and see what people then imagined what out world would look like today. They imagined household robots cooking and cleaning, personal airplanes flying to and from work, bases on the Moon and Mars, etc etc.

go forward another 40-80 and these things could be reality. Considering of course we don't kill ourselves first..

One thing i've been thinking about is that the end of civilized life as we have known it does not have to be the end of science. Most of the resources are still in the hands of the few. All that resource could do a ton of science. Suppose they just ''cut us off'' lol

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

But i disagree on the part that people are bad at predicting future. Considering how little we have to go on i would say we are only bad at timing the future.

go forward another 40-80 and these things could be reality.

Well yes, and in an unspecified future we might be able to produce time travel, interdimensional travel, intergalactic travel, etc, since impossible is nothing. If you give humanity an unlimited time to achieve something, it will. Only, that's not futurology to me, but probability theory. It kind of falls within the 'Infinite Monkey Theorem', which states that if you put a chimpanzee in front of a typewriter, letting it hit the keys randomly, then one day it will type out - randomly - the Complete works of William Shakespeare. It could happen tomorrow or in two billion years, but it will happen.

There are two types of Science Fiction (to me), the kind that tries to simply invent an imaginative Universe that is situated in the future, and Science Fiction that tries to imagine what the future will be like (related to futurology). Often, the imaginative SF beats the futurology SF in reality thinking.

A few sharp minds have been able to imagine what the future will produce, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Jules Verne, etc. Most others though imagine the future as an extention of their contemporary world, with a few exotic gadgets and inventions added.

Which is why 2048 space cadettes in Science Fiction movies from the 80's travel between the stars, but still wear headbands and hairspray perms.



The 20th century imagined by a 19th century illustrator. Combustion engine, what's that?

1999 Moonbase Alpha staff imagined by late 70's script writers.

 

[blazabud]

how can you say that?

And still, even if more clever than us, why it couldn't be selfish and violent? Or just service the whim of its owner?

What I have read about the Singularity reckons it will be an intelligence way beyond our own. Some of these futurists seem to think that we will be made to look pretty simple in the face of this possible advance. At the end of the day, I doubt we are the pinnacle of intelligence in the Universe. No way. We don't know fuck all yet, IMO. It seems as though artificial data processing power has the potential to outstrip our biological equipment. Whether they can make it work so well remains to be seen. I am assuming that this thing, if it comes true, will run on logic, as opposed to emotion? If it does, then we ain't gonna have to worry about it getting angry, are we? Can you have real intellect without emotion?

bb

 

[Stoner4Life]

hey, not fer nothin' but we gotta get past 2012 first.......

 

[hunt4genetics]

Watching the performance of "Watson" last night on Jeopardy reminded me of this thread.
At times Watson's performance was darn near scary. At other times rigid and akward.

Was last night a major step towards the unknown, that will soon become the mundane?