Singularity

The Singularity is coming.

Throughout modern history, we have banned certain technologies for the safety and stability of human civilization, or just to lessen human suffering. We, referring to civilized nations, have shunned the use and development of nerve gasses and bacteriologic agents. We have deemed these technologies as too horrendous, causing great suffering amongst its victims. We have discontinued the use of land mines because these weapons last long after a war is over, killing and maiming innocent people – frequently children. Though we could theoretically try to develop "smart” mines; mines which disarms themselves or become inert after a specified time, we choose not to because it has been deemed that this it is too horrible a weapon. While not entirely outlawed, most civilized nations and non-governmental organizations decry experiments in cloning and fetal stem cell research because it is offensive to our sense of humanity. Finally, we attempt to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons because the consequences of their use are just unspeakable in the scope of death and human suffering their use would bring.

So, it can be argued that we do allow for some technologies to be shunned and not pursued, if not outright banned. But there is a technology that we are pursuing with all abandon, celebrating every advance, which may prove to be even more horrific than nuclear weapons. What technology is this, you ask? Its the very technology that allows me to write this, and for you to read it. Computer technology. And it threatens all mankind with extinction just as powerfully as an asteroid striking the Earth.

The Singularity means the end of human civilization, if not humanity itself. Crazy talk, you say. Perhaps, but let’s explore the Singularity. The Singularity is defined as “the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence”. Moore’s “Law” gives us an idea of how its happening. Moore’s “Law” states that the amount of transistors that can be put on a chip doubles about every 24 months. Following this, every other computer related statistic has also increased exponentially, in step with Moore’s hypothesis. History itself points out that major events are happening faster and faster. Life first arose around three and half billion years ago; it was only eight hundred and fifty million years ago that multi-celled life arose; only sixty-five million years since the dinosaurs died out; only five million years since the hominid family split off within the primate order; and less than a hundred thousand years since the rise of Homo sapiens in its modern form. Agriculture was invented ten thousand years ago; Civilizations appeared about five thousand years ago, Socrates lived two and half thousand years ago; the printing press was invented five hundred years ago; powered, heavier-than-air flight was invented just over a hundred years ago; the computer was invented around sixty years ago. At some point, as technology continues to expand at this exponential rate, we will inevitably reach a point where machines will be “smarter” than humans, reaching what we currently refer to as “Artificial Intelligence”. Or it may be a brain-computer hybrid, or any other ideas that have been floated out among science fiction movies of the last half century or so. This is not my idea, and I haven’t been watching too many movies. Well, perhaps I have. Yet there are a community of scientists, engineers, philosophers, and futurists who believe this. Where I differ from them is that I believe there are a danger in what they acknowledge is going to happen. They see it as the next step in human evolution, akin to our ascent from hominids. But to achieve this step in human “evolution” we may be dooming ourselves to extinction.

They say that we must continue to progress in computer technology, that to do so is dangerous, and tyrainnical, that it’ll be forced underground. This is ludicrous because it takes mounds and mounds of money to research and develop this technology. Gone are the days of inventing this stuff in your garage. We recognize that there are dangerous technologies. They say they will be able to incorporate safeguards into the emerging technology, to protect us in the event that the AI becomes dangerous. It’ll never happen, and they are just fooling themselves. There’s just no way to guarantee that the machines will follow Asimov’s Three Laws once they become sentient. Or the machines could take it to the ultimate opposite extreme, and imprison us “for our own good”. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’ll never be put back in. Just as it is with the nuclear genie. We have never been able to successfully safeguard this technology, and it threatens us over 60 years later. Have we learned anything from allowing this technology to spread and grow?

Don’t get me wrong. I am no Luddite. I am indeed thrilled with the advance of technology. It is amazing to me. While I can see the benefits of certain medical technologies, I don’t think all of it is good. Am I saying we should stop researching and developing more advanced technologies? No – and maybe. There is no way of knowing what will happen when the first computer becomes self aware. There are also endless philosophical, ethical, and theological questions this will bring about. If it is self aware, does this mean it has a soul? What if we come to a point where we feel we need to destroy it? Will it try to stop us, or even retaliate in some way? Remember that all the while, technology will continue to advance at an exponential rate. At some point, it’ll become so super-smart, we will not even be able to comprehend it.

Amongst the futurists, they see many technologies coming together, technologies headed in the same direction. We are currently working on brain-computer interfaces that allow the human mind to control a computer. But who’s to say it won’t create a technology that works in the opposite direction. We are working on artificial intelligence, where a computer will be as smart as, or likely smarter than a human. But what’s to say a smarter than human computer won’t find a way to treat us the way we treat chimpanzees. Or worse. Nanotechnology promises to cure all diseases, or even make us immortal. If our perception of time speeds up as we age, what will our minds be like after 200 or even 500 years? As we perceive the years to speed by like days, would we be able to maintain our sanity? Could all of these create a “trifecta”, so to speak? Too much of anything is often a bad thing, and the same can be said for the convergence of these technologies. Furthermore, do we really believe that those who are advanced will help those who are not, that they’ll use their power for good? For those with a more pragmatic (or even pessimistic view of the world) we find that hard to swallow. Human history is full of examples of one person or group seeking to dominate their fellow man. With super intelligence in the hands of a select few, it is entirely conceivable that the rest of humanity could be enslaved.

There are so many “what ifs” its mind boggling. But let’s look at it from a positive perspective. Maybe none of these bad things will happen. Maybe the Singularity will usher in a great event in human civilization like the invention of the printing press did for literacy. Maybe, with the power of our minds melded into computers, we’ll be able to solve problems that have plagued human civilization for millennia. Maybe we’ll find a way to cure disease and poverty, find limitless energy, and reach out to the stars. Maybe we’ll be able to raise our minds to such heights that we’ll be able to perceive solutions to problems in ways we cannot even imagine now. With everyone’s minds connected in a new type of Internet, all of the differences we have that divide us will be erased, as we find we all just want the same thing; to be happy and to seek fulfillment. And we’ll help each other do so, because we’ll all understand each other.

Still, those “what ifs” keep haunting me. Why? Because I believe it alludes to something very important; our humanity. The things that are predicted by these futurists; transferring the consciousness into machines, becoming one with machines, becoming immortal by proxy, etc. are offensive to the dignity of a human. By merging ourselves with machines, we turn ourselves into tools. We are allowing ourselves to become less than human. We are no longer fully human. It’s one thing for us to unwittingly create machines that become so-called self aware, and perhaps even dominate the human race. It’s another thing entirely for us to allow ourselves to distort our humanity into something unrecognizable.

I’m not saying we should halt all tech development and research, and not progress in our knowledge or technology. I don’t have the answers. But if I saw you headed down a road, and I knew the bridge ahead was unsafe, it would be irresponsible of me to say nothing. What I am saying is that I trying to warn us that the technological bridge we’re about to cross may not hold our weight.