Singularity will mark the end of humankind



A couple of years ago I stumbled across a Time magazine with a very interesting, and somewhat controversial, cover. On it was a man with a plug in the back of his neck with a green light, and a cable that ran from it in a robotic fashion. The cover was further explained in the main story, which was about a theory known as “singularity.”

This theory suggests that around 2045, human beings will become one with machine and greater-than-human “super intelligence” will be achieved through technological means. These super-intelligent “entities” will dominate and merge with humanity until the differences between man and machine are indistinguishable.

The concept of singularity has been addressed in many science fiction novels by authors such as Phillip K. Dick, and even in science fiction films such as “The Terminator” series and “The Matrix” trilogy. According to author Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction is a precursor to science fact. A lot of things that were written in the past as science fiction have manifested today and become science fact.

It could be said that the fictional “Matrix” and “Terminators” will eventually become realities. Cybernetic assassins and a computer program that imitates reality and enslaves human beings are science fiction concepts. But if Clarke was right in what he said, then the things from science-fiction movies could become science fact far in the future.

 With the technological revolution, human potential is limitless. This is either a very good thing or it is a very dangerous thing. The computer could be our savior, but it could also be our downfall. If the singularity theory is a certainty, then humanity will inevitably be enslaved, and possibly destroyed, by its own creation.

Singularity is not a far-fetched concept; it is a very real and plausible theory. It tries to explain the future of life on earth now that technology is so prominent. Humanity has gone through the Agricultural Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the Internet Revolution, and we are now at the beginning of the Technology Revolution. The advancement of human intelligence will eventually give birth to artificial intelligence.

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