What is "The Singularity"?

A technological singularity is a theoretical event that occurs when artifical intelligence surpasses human intelligence. When this happens, an "intelligence explosion" will occur and technology will advance so rapidly that ordinary humans will be unable to follow it. The possibility of a technological singularity is a notion that both exictes and intrigues me. What would it mean for humanity? The possibilities are staggering and would transform our world dramatically. One of the most revolutionry possibilities is the rapid advancement of medical technology which would lead to a cure for all diseases, organs that never fail, halting the aging process and eventually reversing it, and even immortality.

How likely is it that The Singularity will happen? This is a question that scientists and futurists debate among themselves and there seems to be no clear answer. Some scientists believe it will happen as soon as the year 2045. These scientists claim that when you take into account the exponential progress of technolgy, that date does not seem so far-fetched.

The expontential nature of technology is obvious when you look at the fact that not too long ago a camera, a video recorder, a computer, and a phone would cover the entire surface of your desk. Today all that technology exists in my mobile phone that I carry around in my pocket. As a matter of fact, I have posted this blog entirely from my mobile phone using its speech recognition feature. That is pretty exciting stuff to me.

Futurists predict that soon we will be wearing our devices in the form of glasses that project images into our retinas and utilize augmented reality. In the future, we will see the Internet become more integrated into every aspects of our lives. Tiny, discreet webcams that are worn in our clothing, hats, glasses, etc. will enable "Lifeblogging", where we will be able to capture every waking moment of our lives with audio and video. The implications of this could be huge. Forget where you left your keys? Search your database to see where you last saw them. We will no longer have to rely on our unreliable memories for what we or other people said. There will be a record for everything that we say and do so there will be no debating it.

This could be a godsend or a nightmare depending on your perspective. While this could lead to people being much more honest, many people will not like the idea of their every move being forever documented. Privacy issues will definitely be at the heart of this issue.

The technologies presented here don't even scratch the surface of what may be available to us in the future. More blogs will follow to discuss more possible future technologies and chronicle the latest technological breakthroughs. One thing is for sure, the future will definitely be exciting.