Technological Singularity: Fundamentals and Applications

By Fouad Sabry

What Is Technological Singularity

The technological singularity, also referred to as simply the singularity, is an imagined point in the not-too-distant future at which the rate of technology advancement will become unmanageable and unreversible, bringing about shifts in human society that cannot be predicted. An upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, where each new and more intelligent generation appears more and more rapidly, causing a "explosion" in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence, according to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, which is I. J. Good's intelligence explosion model. In this model, an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a "runaway reaction."

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Technological Singularity

Chapter 2: Ray Kurzweil

Chapter 3: Artificial General Intelligence

Chapter 4: Superintelligence

Chapter 5: Mind Uploading

Chapter 6: Singularitarianism

Chapter 7: AI Takeover

Chapter 8: Friendly Artificial Intelligence

Chapter 9: Existential Risk from Artificial General Intelligence

Chapter 10: Accelerating Change

(II) Answering the public top questions about technological singularity.

(III) Real world examples for the usage of technological singularity in many fields.

(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of technological singularity' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of technological singularity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jul 2, 2023

Book preview

Chapter 1: Technological singularity

The technological singularity, sometimes referred to as the singularity itself An upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a runaway reaction of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing a explosion in intelligence and ultimately leading to a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence, according to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, which is called the intelligence explosion. In this version of the singularity hypothesis, the term intelligence explosion is used.

John von Neumann was the first person to use the term singularity in reference to a technical phenomenon. The effects of the singularity, as well as its possible advantages or disadvantages for the human species, have been the subject of much discussion.

The results of four surveys of AI researchers, research that was carried out during the years 2012 and 2013 by Nick Bostrom and Vincent C.

Müller, It was estimated that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be produced between the years 2040 and 2050 with a median chance of fifty percent.

According to Paul R. Ehrlich, the fundamental intelligence of the human brain has not significantly changed over the course of the millennia, which means that technological progress has been hampered by this fact, despite the fact that technological advancement has been accelerating in most areas but slowing in others. mainly due to the fact that if an artificial intelligence were to be developed with engineering capabilities that were on par with or even surpassed those of its human creators, then the AI would be able to either independently improve its own software and hardware or design a machine that was even more capable. This more competent machine may then proceed to create an even more capable machine for use in the future. These repetitions of recursive self-improvement might speed, possibly permitting tremendous qualitative change before any upper constraints imposed by the laws of physics or theoretical computing set in. [Citation needed] [Citation needed] It is hypothesized that over many iterations, such an artificial intelligence might considerably exceed the cognitive capacities of humans.

The creation of artificial general intelligence by humans carries with it the risk of triggering an intelligence explosion (AGI). Shortly after the achievement of technological singularity, it is possible that AGI will be capable of recursive self-improvement, which would lead to the fast creation of artificial superintelligence (ASI), the limits of which remain unknown.

In 1965, I. J. Good expressed the hypothesis that artificial general intelligence may lead to an explosion in the amount of available knowledge. He mused about what the consequences of superhuman machines may be, in the event that they were ever developed:

Let us define an ultraintelligent machine as one that is capable of far surpassing all of the intellectual activity of any man, regardless of how bright that guy may be.

Considering that the creation of mechanical devices is one of these intellectual endeavors, An very intelligent machine could be able to develop ever more advanced machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.

Therefore, the first machine that is very intelligent is the very last innovation that man will ever need to create, assuming the machine is cooperative enough to instruct us on how to keep it under control, of course.

The concept of a superintelligence, also known as hyperintelligence or superhuman intelligence, refers to a fictitious being that has intelligence that is far higher than that of even the most brilliant and talented human brains. The term superintelligence may also be used to refer to the kind or level of intelligence that is possessed by an entity of this kind. John von Neumann, Vernor Vinge, and Ray Kurzweil define the concept in terms of the technological creation of super intelligence. They argue that it is difficult, if not impossible, for humans living in the present day to predict what life would be like for humans living in a world after the singularity has occurred. There are a number of futures studies scenarios that incorporate aspects from both of these options. These scenarios show that it is probable that people will interact with computers, or upload their thoughts to computers, in a manner that permits significant intelligence amplification.

Some authors use the term the singularity in a more general sense to refer to any significant shifts in our society that are brought about as a result of the development of new technologies such as molecular nanotechnology, The term speed superintelligence refers to an artificial intelligence that is capable of doing everything that a person is capable of, the only difference being that the machine operates at a quicker rate.

Paul Allen, Jeff Hawkins, John Holland, Jaron Lanier, and even Gordon Moore, whose law is sometimes quoted in favor of the notion, are just some of the notable engineers and academics who have cast doubt on the possibility of a technological singularity occurring in the foreseeable future. The new intelligence increases that are made feasible by each previous development constitute the initial component in the acceleration of the process. On the other hand, as intelligences improve, additional advancements will become more and more sophisticated, which might potentially negate the benefit of increasing intelligence. In order for progress toward singularity to continue, each improvement should, on average, result in the creation of at least one further improvement. In the end, the rules of physics will finally make it such that no more advancements can be made.

Increases in the speed of processing and improvements to the algorithms that are utilized are the two sources of intelligence advancements. These reasons are conceptually independent of one another, yet they mutually reinforce one another.

The pace of future hardware advancements is sped up by previous hardware breakthroughs, and this is true for both human and artificial intelligence. To put it simply, It is challenging to make an accurate comparison between silicon-based technology and neurons. Berglas (2008), on the other hand, adds that computer voice recognition is becoming closer and closer to human skills, and that this capacity seems to need just 0.001% of the volume of the brain. Based on this comparison, it seems that today's computer hardware is just a few orders of magnitude away from having the same amount of processing capacity as the human brain.

A number of writers have proposed extensions of Moore's law, which is widely stated as a cause to predict a singularity in the very near future. This exponential rise in computer technology is implied by Moore's law, and it is commonly cited as a reason to expect a singularity. Hans Moravec, a futurist and computer scientist, published a book in 1998 in which he made the hypothesis that the exponential development curve might be stretched back to older computing technologies, before the integrated circuit.

Ray Kurzweil proposes a theory called the law of accelerating returns, which states that the rate of technological progress (and, more broadly, all evolutionary processes) will continue to pick up pace in the future.

Extrapolating historical patterns, particularly those relating to the shrinking gaps that exist between technological advances, is one method that is used by some individuals who advocate for the singularity and claim that it is inevitable. In what is considered to be one of the first usage of the word singularity in reference to the advancement of technology, Stanislaw Ulam recounts a discussion he had with John von Neumann on the speeding up of development:

One of the conversations focused on the ever-increasing rate of technological advancement and changes