How Singular? How singular is the Singularity? Will it happen in an instant? Lets consider again the derivation of the word. In mathematics a singularity is a value that is beyond any limit - in essence, infinity. The Singularity as we have discussed it in this book, does not achieve infinite levels of computation, memory, as any other other measurable attribute. But it certainly achieves vast levels of all these qualities, including intelligence. With the reverse engineering of the human brain we will be able to apply the parallel, self-organizing, chaotic, algorithms of human intelligence to enormously powerful computational substrates. This intelligence will then be in a position to improve its own design, both hardware and software, in a rapidly accelerating iterative process.

How We Will Live, Work, and Think in the New Age of Intelligent Machines; 1999...Computers able to perform a trillion calculations per second...Most routine business transactions take place between a human and virtual personality...Translating telephones are commonly used for most language pairs...Bioengineered treatments for cancer and heart disease greatly reduce the mortality from these diseases...Human musicians jam with cybernetic musicians. 2019...Computers equal the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain...Interaction with computers is through gestures and two-way spoken communication...Most learning conducted through software-based teachers instead of paper books and documents...Automated driving systems installed in most roads...People have relationships with automated personalities. 2029...Computers have the computing capacity of 1 000 human brains...Majority of communication does not involve a human...There is no human employment in production, agriculture or transportation...Computers have read all available human- and machine-generated literature and are now learning on their own...Machines claim to be conscious. 2049...The common use of nanoproduced food means that the availability of food is no longer affected by limited resources and bad crop weather. 2072...Picoengineering (developing technology at the scale of picometers or trillionths of a meter) becomes practical. 2099...There is no longer any clear distinction between humans and computers...Most conscious entities do not have a permanent physical presence...The goal of education, and of intelligent beings, is discovering new knowledge to learn...Life expectancy is no longer a viable term in relation to intelligent beings.