IEEE Spectrum special report on the Singularity
June 10th, 2008 –
The June issue of IEEE Spectrum is devoted to a special report on the Singularity, with articles by Dr. Vernor Vinge, Dr. Rodney Brooks, and others.
IEEE Spectrum is the flagship publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest technical professional organization. It is nice to see the Singularity receive considered debate in this publication, despite severe problems with the report.
There is some good discussion in the issue, but also the usual trappings like “wishful thinking,” “rapture,” “weird,” “fabulism,” “true believers,” and “we don’t know anything.” Quantum physics, black holes, and the Big Bang still seem strange to a lot of people, but scientific hypotheses should be refuted or supported on their own terms with rational argumentation, not with a sense of confusion, mystery, or “that’s just weird.”
The term “Singularity” has various definitions. The Singularity Institute focuses only on the “intelligence explosion” variety: the idea of a self-improving smarter-than-human-intelligence, particularly an Artificial General Intelligence, and the attendant perils and opportunities.