The singularity is coming!

Those that read my Skype-tag sometimes ask me what a singularity is.

I usually answer them with the description given by I. J. Good in 1965:

"Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make."

The other meaning is the one often used by astronomers, describing the state at the beginning or end of the universe (usually called "big bang" or "big crunch"), in which things such as "space" and "time" are meaningless.

I recently read "programming the universe" by Seth LLoyd, which describes the process of the universe expanding since the big-bang as a calculation-process. As more and more matter is converted into energy, the calculation of the universe nears the "end-singularity".

This is not new, and many sci-fi writers relate this to the human development, drawing parallels between this expansion of information and that of the human race. I read the Isaac Asimov Story "The last Question" when I was a child, and remember what an impact it made on me as a plausible future for mankind.

We can safely say that if we're lucky, our ultimate destiny as humans and that of the universe are linked. And this is if we're VERY lucky. Because once the first singularity is achieved, nothing can stop hyper-intelligent machines from considering their makers (us) as retarded, superfluous, or a simple "waste of good mass". In the best-case scenario, our creations will take care of us like we take care of our pets, or somehow assimilate us into their beings (as a kind of pet-programs).

Whichever singularity comes first, one will get us in the end.

But the real interesting question is: has this not already happened?