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With all the talk around here what the Singularity may be, what do I think will happen?
Should we stop technological progress? Should we sit back and relax while becoming superfluous? Should we be afraid?
Is Artificial Intelligence something different from us, something strange?
Series on the Singularity
Series on the Singularity
As I see it, we should (and will) merge with AI.
To start, we will use ever more tools. More parts in our life will get mixed with our online identities, to a point where those tools will become part of your presence - somebody writing a book about you would need access to your data to get the full picture. This is already reality - what happens to your Facebook account after you die is already a legal problem.
Those tools will (with our consent) start interacting with each other, forming a cluster of interconnected services. This is starting - Google News now holds all your subscriptions, and the Assistant ties various services together. There is no ecosystem yet though - only centralized aggregators.
My cluster of services will start interacting with your cluster. It will be my services asking your services if you'd like to meet, when and what venue you prefer. Most of these interactions will happen without relying on us to press "ok".
Finally, the tools will integrate technology and biology. Better hearing first - then permanent recording, overlaying information on the retina, watching Netflix with the eyes closed, better memory. Quicker access to information, outsourcing parts of your cognitive processes, shared and recorded experiences, up- and downloading consciousness - we can't imagine the world of 2040.
You will like the process, because it will give you ever more super powers.
In the early 2000s, I was fascinated by downloading the entire Wikipedia onto my Palm - and I mean the paltry 50K articles available at the time. Without pictures! It felt surreal, like sitting in a car for the first time and looking at Google Maps - you could see what was around the corner!
Fast forward to today: Talking to the Google Assistant, infinite photo backups, video calling on the go would have send my younger self running away screaming. That younger self wouldn't have understood how all of that could work without big hard drives - there was no cloud a few years ago, software as a service didn't exist. We're getting there fast!
The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy
We're there already!
We're there already!
When you stop and think about it, you are already living an artificially augmented life. AI is becoming good at helping us swim in an ocean of choices:
Apps correct your spelling.
Apps chose what way you drive home - you really just execute behind the wheel.
Apps suggest what entertains you Spotify, Netflix.
Apps suggest how to spend your attention. Whatever social medium or source of news you use, there is more than you can take in. You automatically rely on filters - I doubt you want to see what random stuff your 500 acquaintances posted between 8:56 and 9:15am this day, you want to see what is relevant to you. AI already makes those choices for you.
Apps suggest who you date.
All those infos are really part of you, aren't they? It is not exaggerating to say that those tools are part of you already, just like the bacteria in your gut. It's a symbiosis - you get the powers, they get the ad clicks.
The robot apocalypse? Won't happen
The robot apocalypse? Won't happen
The article about Singularity and the AI was gloomy about the potential impact of AI. Our technology progresses faster than our biology, so it is bound to surpass us. Unless... we enhance ourselves - by merging with IT and eventually with AI. It will not be "they vs. us", but "all together". We will use smarter tools in a way we didn't think possible.
The most important thing we can do is keep up with progress. And help others along.
Our job is to keep up so the singularity does not happen.
Our job is to keep up so the singularity does not happen.
Are you ready for some thoughts about what you can do today? Read on.
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