In 1993, professor Vernor Vinge of San Diego State University, published a paper predicting a point in the near future where technology itself would be capable of creating greater-than-human intelligence. This point, Vinge characterized, would see large computer networks and their associated users “wake up” as superhumanly-intelligent entities. In such a scenario, technology would be capable of improving upon itself in such rapid succession, that from the purely biological perspective, it would be seen as an “intelligence explosion”. This future point in time at which technological development irreversibly changes the conditions of human civilization, has come to be known as ‘The Singularity‘.
“This change will be a throwing-away of all the human rules, perhaps in the blink of an eye — an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control.
It’s fair to call this event a singularity. It is a point where our old models must be discarded and a new reality rules, a point that will loom vaster and vaster over human affairs until the notion becomes a commonplace. Yet when it finally happens, it may still be a great surprise and a greater unknown.”
– Vernor Vinge, Technological Singularity
Due to the rapid progression of fantastically powerful computer networks, this point of no return, the technological singularity, now appears more accurate and imminent than ever. The bitcoin network, for example, has demonstrated exponential growth in total hashrate since it first came online in 2009.
The uniqueness of the bitcoin network, and the manner in which the blockchain verifies large quantities of data, creates the perfect application for artificial intelligence to make sense of communication patterns (transfers of value) which appear seemingly unrelated to the untrained eye. Artificial intelligence will be capable of performing fantastic analysis of the data time-stamped into the bitcoin blockchain. These analyses will give rise to astonishingly accurate predictions. It will also give rise to entirely new, novel, and nefarious industries such as the concept of pre-crime (disruption, prevention, and incarceration of individuals for crimes yet to be committed).
When observing the development of smart-contracts within the cryptocurrency industry, namely the Ethereum Project, it becomes clear that Turing-completeness is very capable of being implemented ontop of blockchain technology. With a Turing-complete scripting language (such as Ethereum’s native Solidity language), large computer networks are capable of performing, for a fee, any operation that can be expressed logically and in mathematical terms. This ability for the blockchain to become Turing-complete is one of the main attractors to technologies such as Ethereum and is an attempt to introduce artificial intelligence to this new type of payment network.
“… the ever-accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.” – John von Neumann
It is entirely likely, that in this “history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue” will be characterized by technological unemployment. In the lead-up towards the point of singularity, employment positions which are occupied by machine intelligence will transition from routine-drudgery to positions of creative, political, and spiritual leadership. Automation will replace jobs once thought unattainable by machine intelligence. The work that is truly productive will be the vocation of a continuously smaller fraction of the human workforce. Owners of capital and the means to produce, will increasingly see a disproportionate growth in their accumulated wealth. Empowered by virtual networks, knowledge will spread almost instantaneously.
‘… even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ – Daniel 12:4
Contrary to the belief of many in the bitcoin and cypherpunk industries, is the idea that the future will be more centralized than the past rather than an emerging era of decentralization. We will have a new living language, a new world currency, a one-world government (all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court), and a one-world religion. With increased centralization comes the possibility of increased control. One of the main methods of control is surveillance and in order to achieve such a state of economic affairs, cashlessness is necessary. Cash will be outlawed.
“In truth, a clash of probable worlds is occurring on your globe between a world that is based on control through machines and technology vs. a world that is awakening to the value of nature and the spiritualization of matter.” – The Pleiadians
The prerequisite for all these things to occur is not only the increasing power of computer hardware but the intricacy of technology merging with biology. When brain-computer interfacing becomes so intertwined that the individual can no longer operate without their computerized assistant we can adequately determine that they have abdicated their humanity in favor of joining the new race of cyborgs.
The progression towards the singularity heralds a new Earth. This process, which could aptly be compared to a birthing process, will experience growing pains and periods of great strife. What the technological singularity entails is not entirely predictable. What is known however, is that it is inevitable.
Brace yourself, the singularity is near.
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