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Jayson_Virissimo comments on Open thread, September 2-8, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion

0 Post author: David_Gerard 02 September 2013 02:07PM

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Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 02 September 2013 10:03:17PM 1 point [-]

Just had a discussion with my in-law about the singularity. He's a physicist and his immediate response was: There are no singularities. They appear mathematically all the time and it only means that there is another effect taking over. Correspondingly a quick google thus brought up this:

http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/09/q-what-are-singularities-do-they-exist-in-nature/

So my question is: What are the 'obvious' candidates for limits that take over before the all optimizable is optimized by runaway technology?

Comment author: CellBioGuy 02 September 2013 11:43:33PM 6 points [-]

Lack of cheap energy.

Ecological disruption.

Diminishing returns of computation.

Diminishing returns of engineering.

Inability to precisely manipulate matter below certain size thresholds.

All sorts of 'boring' engineering issues by which things that get more and more complicated get harder and harder faster than their benefits increase.