What Is Singularity?

As you may have noticed, this Wiki is titled "Singularity". But what is the Singularity and how does it relate to the concepts in this class? The Singularity, as it relates to digital technology, is a concept proposed by Dr. Vernor Vinge in 1993∞. Vinge uses the singularity, the infinitely compressed mass at the center of a blackhole that is capable of trapping light, as a powerful metaphor for his view of the digital future. To quote his essay where the term originated, The Singularity is the point at which humanity "will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence" (in a variety of proposed forms) (Vinge). It could also be viewed as a point along the historical continuum at which a change occurs that is so fundamentally radical that observers before the break have no framework for conceptual understanding of their counterparts after the change. In this way, the rise of spoken language could be thought of as a singularity.

Vinge's concept, though intially an apocalyptic vision, has since become a touchstone within the extropian∞ and transhuman∞ communities as a welcome event in which humanity will reach level footing with gods. For the transhumanists, the prospect of this radical, technological extension of consciousness is a welcome and inevitable conclusion to the entirety of human history.

By pushing traditional composition education into the digital realm, it is my hope that we can see the benefits of digital extelligence∞ and, possibly, start to understand our place in the coming Singularity. Further, by the end of the semester, I hope students will have become more acclimated to life in a society that, while not necessarily zooming in on godlike digital existence, is rapidly becoming more and more integrated into a lightning-paced, exciting, and fully global network of information.

Further Media Consumption:
Singularity Images:
Videodrome∞
Akira∞
2001∞

Singularity Words:
Accelerando∞ by Charlie Stross (really anything by Charlie Stross∞)
Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom∞ by Cory Doctorow
Ribofunk∞ by Paul DiFilippo
The Age of Spiritual Machines∞ by Ray Kurzweil

--
Vinge, Vernor. " What is The Singularity?" http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html∞ (August 24, 2005)