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Technological Singularity Research Paper

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Singularity: Scary or Scarce? American author Vernor Vinge once said, “If the technological singularity can happen, it will,” (Vinge 16). The fear of a singularity has been spread like wildfire over the past couple of decades due to the increased implementation of artificial intelligence into our everyday lives. From SIRI, to Cortana to now Alexa, artificial intelligence is starting to become a crucial part in many people’s lives. The question remains: when will it go too far? The definition for a technological singularity, according to WhatIs.com, “is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial super intelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.” Many computer scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before a singularity forms and the fallout from it can be catastrophic in nature. But, what if you start to examine the other side of the coin? A singularity is a hypothetical, albeit terrifying, scenario but is it truly worth all of the worry? I believe that a singularity is …show more content…
While that is nearly a small fraction of his article, he does that bring up as a possibility. Throughout the article though, he states numerous times that technology is evolving at a substantial rate that it is nearly a matter of time before a singularity occurs. He believes that a singularity will not only change how we perceive technology but also how our lives will be changed forever: “Eric Drexler has provided spectacular insight about how far technical improvement may go. He agrees that superhuman intelligences will be available in the near future -- and that such entities pose a threat to the human status quo,” (Vinge 15). Vinge believes a singularity will be catastrophic to our way of life, if it were to happen, and that society would be changed

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