The concept of the technological singularity was popularised by Ray Kurzweil in books like “The Singularity is Near”. The idea is that the development of technology, particularly of AI ( alongside genetics and nanotechnology) is increasing so fast that the time will come when almost overnight things will so substantially change (e.g. the creation of a super intelligent AI) that it is impossible to work out what comes next.
We are fairly sceptical about whether the technological singularity will happen any time soon (Kurzweil talks about 2050 ish - but keeps pushing the date back), and certainly whether it will happen because of the drivers that Kurzweil considers (almost exclusively an outcome of Moore’s Law). But it is very much a part of the landscape of the discussion about AI and the futures, so we’ll post relevant links and observations below and on the blog, and we provide a summary of the concepts and arguments in Chapter 13 of the book.