PeterKinnon comments on Open Problems Related to the Singularity (draft 1) - Less Wrong

39 Post author: lukeprog 13 December 2011 10:57AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (40)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: PeterKinnon 16 December 2011 09:24:42PM -2 points [-]

Unfortunately this entire discussion is deeply flawed.

Why? GIGO - Garbage in - Garbage out.

However good the logical systems used for processing information they are of no avail without meaningful input data.

Present technologies cannot be used as a basis for prediction because of the unexpected bifurcations and inherent non-linearities in technological developments.

Further problems stem from the use of the very inappropriate buzz-word "Singularity". Certainly a dramatic change is imminent, but this is better considered as a phase transition - the emergence of a new and dominant non-biological phase of the on-going evolutionary process that can be traced back at least as far as stellar nucleosynthesis.

Indeed, the inevitable self-assembly of this new entity can be clearly observed in what we at present call the Internet.

The broad evolutionary model which supports this proposition is outlined (very informally) in my latest book: "The Goldilocks Effect: What Has Serendipity Ever Done For Us?" It is a free download in e-book formats from the "Unusual Perspectives" website