Speaking about the Singularity

I will be speaking about the Technological Singularity at the University of Milan in Crema on November 22 at 4PM. The talk entitled “La prossima singolarità tecnologica: realtà o miraggio?” will be followed by a roundtable discussion, and should be fun! It will also be recorded, and I will be posting as soon as possible the podcast and videocast of the recording online.

The Technological Singularity has gained more visibility recently as a concept, following the earlier exposures by Ulam, and Vinge, with the publication of Ray Kurzweil‘s rich, and engaging book, “The Singularity Is Near“. The core of the idea is that the acceleration of our knowledge about the Universe, and the technological advances that we gain from it accumulate to a level where we are unable to anticipate its consequences, and the world it creates around us.

Ray was kind enough to grant me permission for the use of his charts, and time permitting I will complement his line of reasoning with my angle:

  1. The business models’ evolution accelerates, and with it our degrees of freedom
  2. Shared knowledge is the directed force behind current and future paradigm shifts, not limits, and isolation
  3. Memetic engineering is a must: we cannot afford to blindly bumble in search of winning policies
  4. a) Reason and Religion are antagonistic: the risk of dogmatic approaches to problem solving is unsustainable
    b) Why aren’t we living already inside a femtotechnological noosphere expanding at speeds approximating c, or are we?

I’ve been told that there will be people from the clergy participating in the roundtable discussion, which promises to be lively.