What is “the singularity?” It’s basically the Terminator movie in practice. The singularity predicts that there is a point where computers become so intelligent that they are able to self replicate, they are able to generate knowledge at a supremely faster rate than humans can, and that eventually humans become unnecessary. There are a couple other components to this theory though (certainly there are many opinions). One of the very interesting ideas is that consciousness can be replicated. If you think that the human consciousness is really a series of physical and chemical reactions, then these reactions can at some point be replicated. If it is just chemistry, then consciousness could apparently be ported over to any machine. The second idea is one of these about human immortality. While computers may be much smarter, again, human thought and memory is a series of chemical reactions. Again, these chemical reactions can be ported (downloaded) into a machine, and combined with consciousness, creates human immortality (perhaps not the body, but the mind). Combine that with the processing power of a machine and you now have super humans.
So while I don’t really subscribe to science fiction, there really are serious scientists studying this type of stuff. Chemists and biologists that are trying to understand the brain also are operating in the theory that the brain operates as a huge computer and are attempting to understand how this computer works.
So I go into this not to talk about science fiction and humanity, but about knowledge and innovation. The limiting factor for innovation is time. Over time, we have infinite processing power, we simply take longer. However, when you can download ideas into networks of people, innovation and knowledge growth occurs faster. Then you add computing power from machines and you then get exponential growth. So the idea that starts with the singularity really gets applied today in social medias in connecting people and attempting to download as much knowledge as possible into these medias in the form of blogs and wikis and anything else. It’s a far stretch to compare social medias to the singularity, but the step to me seems apparent.
The point is that we hope to automate the management and use of knowledge and learning to accelerate innovation and collaboration. I think that social medias can’t be ignored as a great accelerator and multiplier for these goals.
(Don’t ask where I come up with this stuff. I don’t know either.)
3 responses to “The Singularity”
different for social media. He believes that the community base makes communications substantially different from a cell phone or PC. Therefore, the argument probably goes, there is a 100th Monkey effect lurking in the near future. Interesting notion.The SingularityWubwub, the sort of anonymous author of Systematic HR, echoes Durbin: “The point is that we hope to automate the management and use of knowledge and learning to accelerate innovation and collaboration.
Dubs, you’re really getting behind social media. Next thing I know you’ll be following me on Twitter!
[…] The SingularityWubwub, the sort of anonymous author of Systematic HR, echoes Durbin: "The point is that we hope to automate the management and use of knowledge and learning to accelerate innovation and collaboration. I think that social medias can’t be ignored as a great accelerator and multiplier for these goals. […]