Talk:Technological singularity

Please add this proof that the “singularity” model is bullshit:

Please go to Dr. Albert A. Bartlett's presentation on “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy” (part 5) and jump to 4:48 (I recommend watching all the parts up until that time before, so you can understand the implications.), for proper proof of why a singularity can and will never happen, and the whole thing is Kurzweil’s typical pseudo-scientific nonsense.
— 94.221.17.98 (talk) 23:38, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm not so sure I'd use the phrase "bull shit" on a Talk Page. (Also, it's correctly two words.) Nevertheless, please feel free to add the material you're referring to into the Article. The Mysterious El Willstro (talk) 05:20, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Dr. Albert A. Bartlett's presentation is very interesting, but technological progress and oil consumption are very different matters, so it's definitely not "proper proof of why a singularity can and will never happen". Obruchez (talk) 21:47, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Repeat links

This article has a ridiculous number of WP:REPEATLINKs. Can somebody help clean it up Bhny (talk) 18:34, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

In what Sections does the Article link plain English words or self-redirects? Those are what that policy refers to, and so far I don't see any as the Article stands. The Mysterious El Willstro (talk) 05:15, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Generally, a link should appear only once in an article, but if helpful for readers, links may be repeated in infoboxes, tables, image captions, footnotes, and at the first occurrence after the lead. The article currently has 6 links to Ray Kurzweil, which is 5 too many. (ok I've fixed that one now, but there are more like that) Bhny (talk) 23:31, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Clearly wrong

"In The Progress of Computing, William Nordhaus argued that, prior to 1940, computers followed the much slower growth of a traditional industrial economy, thus rejecting extrapolations of Moore's law to 19th-century computers."

The only computers that existed before 1941 were natural ones. (All biological organisms are technically computers, they just happen to be natural computers rather than man-made ones. They take information from the environment, make calculations, and return output in behavioral form. All of them process information chemically, and animals with nervous systems (including humans ourselves) process electronically as well as chemically. Bear in mind that anything processing information internally with at least one input device (sensory organs or receptor organelles in the case of organisms) and at least one output device (muscles or motor organelles in this case) is thereby defined as a computer.)

At any rate, the very first artificial computer was the ENIAC device, built by the United States Army at the advent of World War II. It's purpose was to calculate firing coordinates for canons on tanks and ships. So, the reference in the Article to "19th-century computers" is a complete anachronism. The Moorse Telegraph and Edison Light Bulb were early electronic devices, but, getting back to the definition of a computer, they did not conduct calculations (the Moorse Telegraph transmitted typed dots and dashes purely at face value, without a conversion algorithm or anything like that), and the Edison Light Bulb had no input or output devices.

In short, the source by Nordhaus needs to be reanalyzed to correct and clarify the above-quoted part of the Article! The Mysterious El Willstro (talk) 05:43, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Added Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton's science fiction book Prey addresses the issue of rapidly self improving artificial intelligence causing unintended problems, so I included it in the list of authors who have written such stories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eworrall (talk • contribs) 19:38, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Mathematical definition still missing

The term Singularity is borrowed from math and/or physics. The article should provide a more stringent mathematical definition of TS, with a link to an appropropriate article. Some sources seems to define it as a singular point (an infinite value) in the second derivative of the economical and/or cultural development, corresponding to a discontinuity (mathematics)) in the derivative, corresponding to a knee or a breakpoint in the development curves, i.e. a sudden change of the exponent in the exponential development. See this illustration: http://www.chicagoboyz.net/blogfiles/2005linearlog.png . Such SP:s have occurred after several revolutions in the history, for example after we became homo sapiens, and after the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Can we show real economical statistics for this? Some expected the IT revolution to also result in a SP, but the economic growth of the western society is rather slow these days as compared to before the IT revolution. Why?

Other authors seem to associate with a singularity in physics, such as a black hole, and mean that the development (asymptotically or faster?) goes towards infinity. But it always does anyway, as long as the groth is positive. I don't get that view - it must be further clarified.

The article should further clarify the difference betweeen the omega point and a TS. Mange01 (talk) 20:39, 30 March 2011 (UTC)