A long way down
"Is the internet a collective pool of human thought that has the potential to evolve and continue the line of development into another level, another proverbial turtle on the way to wherever it is we’re headed?”
I'm fairly well read, but I'm not nerdy enough, so I had to think about it and read about it to form even a vague opinion. My first thoughts were 'all the way down' then 'Discworld' then 'Matrix'. To bonafide nerds maybe one of these came to mind: Artificial intelligence, Neural Networks, Symbolic Approaches, Cognitive Computers, Turing, Asimov,HAL, Sonny, SkyNet, WorldWeb or Technological Singularity.
(Or you’re thinking Meh. /digress)
Vernor Vinge coined the term ‘Technological Singularity’ which to the layperson means a point in time at which the expansion of artificial intelligence becomes infinite, a super intelligence surpassing any human’s. A Moore’s Law on crack, if you will. He estimated this to happen between 2005 and 2030. What this implies is that in our lifetime technology will (has) become not just faster and more intelligent than humans, but able to self-diagnose, modify or repair itself on a continuous feedback loop thereby becoming infinitely more intelligent.
In 2012, 18 years before the dead line, 17 year old Brittany Wenger built a breast cancer detection neural network app using Google’s app engine. It sources data from a machine learning repository and will eventually be scaled to collect information from every hospital in the world. The neural network attempts to replicate the brain’s thought processes, with networked computers acting as the neurons. Like humans, it works together to solve specific problems and learns from its mistakes thus improving its own diagnostic power and the data itself. It essentially becomes more intelligent. It took her less than a month. Is this evidence of singularity? I don't think so, but it's debatable.
Through action, innovation, learning and social interaction, Technology has become iteratively more intelligent. I believe this is how our brains evolved. In an age where we transfer our thoughts to the Internet enabling others to effectively 'hear' them, and us theirs, we’ve become limited versions of Dan Simmons' Hollow Man.
“Is the Internet a collective pool of human thought that has the potential to evolve and continue the line of development into another level, another proverbial turtle on the way to wherever it is we’re headed?”
The answer, for me, maybe not for you, is yes. The new question is:
What does this say of our reliance on the not so little turtle called Technology?
"Is the internet a collective pool of human thought that has the potential to evolve and continue the line of development into another level, another proverbial turtle on the way to wherever it is we’re headed?”
I'm fairly well read, but I'm not nerdy enough, so I had to think about it and read about it to form even a vague opinion. My first thoughts were 'all the way down' then 'Discworld' then 'Matrix'. To bonafide nerds maybe one of these came to mind: Artificial intelligence, Neural Networks, Symbolic Approaches, Cognitive Computers, Turing, Asimov,HAL, Sonny, SkyNet, WorldWeb or Technological Singularity.
(Or you’re thinking Meh. /digress)
Vernor Vinge coined the term ‘Technological Singularity’ which to the layperson means a point in time at which the expansion of artificial intelligence becomes infinite, a super intelligence surpassing any human’s. A Moore’s Law on crack, if you will. He estimated this to happen between 2005 and 2030. What this implies is that in our lifetime technology will (has) become not just faster and more intelligent than humans, but able to self-diagnose, modify or repair itself on a continuous feedback loop thereby becoming infinitely more intelligent.
In 2012, 18 years before the dead line, 17 year old Brittany Wenger built a breast cancer detection neural network app using Google’s app engine. It sources data from a machine learning repository and will eventually be scaled to collect information from every hospital in the world. The neural network attempts to replicate the brain’s thought processes, with networked computers acting as the neurons. Like humans, it works together to solve specific problems and learns from its mistakes thus improving its own diagnostic power and the data itself. It essentially becomes more intelligent. It took her less than a month. Is this evidence of singularity? I don't think so, but it's debatable.
Through action, innovation, learning and social interaction, Technology has become iteratively more intelligent. I believe this is how our brains evolved. In an age where we transfer our thoughts to the Internet enabling others to effectively 'hear' them, and us theirs, we’ve become limited versions of Dan Simmons' Hollow Man.
“Is the Internet a collective pool of human thought that has the potential to evolve and continue the line of development into another level, another proverbial turtle on the way to wherever it is we’re headed?”
The answer, for me, maybe not for you, is yes. The new question is:
What does this say of our reliance on the not so little turtle called Technology?
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