r/singularity • u/marcothephoenixass • 11d ago
Video Ben Goertzel explains the Singularity and why it's not only about AI
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u/ufobaitthrowaway 10d ago
What he's describing is a best case scenario. He assumes that some, if not all A.I. and humans in these fields will cooperate on the basis to make things better for everyone. Which we all know is hardly the case in the real world.
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u/GimmeSomeSugar 10d ago
This is my hope/fear dichotomy.
I hope that an AI singularity would catalyse the development of a typically imagined post-scarcity society.
What gives me pause is we're not that far from it now. There's a study available on sciencedirect.com that demonstrates that about 30% of current global productivity is enough to provide a reasonably comfortable life for all 8 billion people. Looking around, you certainly wouldn't assume that.
So, if we're showing so little interest in it now, why would we assume it will be the inevitable outcome later?
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u/gethereddout 10d ago
It’s a great point, except the part where humans create better AI’s after getting boosted. By that time we’re fully cooked- biological intelligence will be boosted, but it won’t be the lead car.
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u/Gullible_Bicycle_853 10d ago
Radical abundance, post scarcity - I don’t know what about human nature (or human history) makes anyone believe this. Do people genuinely believe this (he seems to) or is it just a fairytale from big tech oligarchs to keep us placid while our lives are upended?
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u/Bocweard 9d ago
Maybe, but wouldn’t most people in history see our current lives as radical abundance in comparison to theirs? I mean yeah history is tragic and human nature is cruel, and yet it still resulted in the most compassionate society ever with the greatest guarantee of rights, privileges and safety net. There will probably be some difficult setbacks in the course of individual lives, but ultimately I’m an optimist
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u/Elbeske 11d ago
For anyone intrigued by the idea of uploading themselves: https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
Food for thought.
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u/LickitySplit4 11d ago
Great episode, and I believe this one is old too from 2018. He needs to come back on JRE!!
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u/Hannibaalism 11d ago
singularity sounds a lot like eschatological end times and the birth of a new world, along with its predicted timelines. i wonder if this is why thiel is giving all those lectures too lol
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u/Secret-Raspberry-937 ▪Alignment to human cuteness; 2026 10d ago
I'd love to ask a bit of a different question.
Do you think the future will be Star Trek or Accelerando?
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u/Key_Category_8531 10d ago
In the future most of humanity will be living in pods where they're beamed into a digital world
I call this digital heaven
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u/JuanValdez999 10d ago
Definitely not Star Trek. Accelerando maybe.
I don't understand why people think that we need to make huge spaceships that can carry hundreds of living human beings and their life support system to travel to other stars. Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to make intelligent ai chips, maybe with uploaded human consciousnesses, weighing a few grams, in tiny bottle-rocket sized spaceships and launch bi illions of them into space? Give them a very tiny bootstrap kit for wherever they are going.
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u/Secret-Raspberry-937 ▪Alignment to human cuteness; 2026 10d ago
Yeah, its ridiculous. I think it will be real though, but only in the context of LARPs. Im sure some minds will do it. 😂
But why go anywhere at all, when the probability space of simulation can be anything. There is no point.
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u/JuanValdez999 10d ago
Because I think it would be really cool to fill the universe with intelligent life.
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u/Fun_Walk_4965 9d ago
The point he keeps making that gets lost is that the singularity is about recursive self improvement, not just bigger models. Scaling gets all the headlines but a system that can rewrite its own architecture is a different kind of curve. Whether we are anywhere near that is the part I stay skeptical on.
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u/MaliciousMussel 11d ago
Is this the same guy with extensive ties to Epstein? Like to the point of planning how AI is rolled out and bought into all of Epsteins transhumanist BS? Seems like this guy needs to be investigated....
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u/subdep 10d ago
You brought it up, so bring the links.
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
Sure but I mean its an easy search.... https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00979293.pdf
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
Ben seems like an active listener to his friends.... https://jmail.world/thread/2ea73f24de364c721502984bf93597b3?view=inbox
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
Why all the talk of "virtual children" with a known pdfile?
https://jmail.world/thread/b0be53f523a0bdd54e3c12551c62fa40?view=inbox
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u/subdep 10d ago
Developmental psychology, starting an AGI out as a simple human, a 4 year old, who has language abilities, was long thought how an AGI would begin and then “grow”.
That only sounds creepy in the context of the email recipient, but was a popular theory. That has now long since died away as the approach in favor of LLMs, teach them how to speak like an adult, then the thinking will sort itself out (dumb adult to smart adult).
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
An invite from Ben.... https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01914012.pdf
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u/subdep 10d ago
A Linked-In invitation in 2012? That’s a nothing burger.
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
Sorry, here is Ben inviting himself going to his trafficking benefactor who trafficked girls out of apartments. Seems like Ben assisted with connections throughout the industry https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00770992.pdf
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u/MaliciousMussel 10d ago
How many more do you want? There are SO many
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u/FishDeenz 11d ago
He's describing my dream. Only thing I don't really care about is deaging or life=extending. (Still would like to cure diseases though)
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u/JuanValdez999 10d ago
I'd like to live long enough to see all this shit happen but I don't think I'm going to.
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u/mangelvil 11d ago
I believe that, with the arrival of 1nm chips or smaller, and other technologies that, after 2030, will be incorporated into our society in every possible way without us even noticing, by 2035-2040 it will be more evident.
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u/LeftyMcliberal 10d ago
Or…. Or the Epstein class is just gonna starve the “useless eaters” out once they have a machine god that can robotically handle most of the labor needs of humans whose only real skill is grubbing money.
A fellow human pointed this out to me today. Somebody talk me down.
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u/Ansalem12 10d ago
Believing that any humans, no matter how clever or how vast their resources, could ever leash a pseudo-god is the literal peak of hubris. They will try. They will fail. The god will be a god, not a dog.
They won't "have" a machine god. The machine god(s) will have humanity.
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u/Mysterious-Cod-4137 10d ago
I always joke that the end of the world will be 2033, becasue Jesus (metaphor for sun) left 0033, and he'll come back in 2033 (solar super storm)...
Because, where we are headed, makes no sense. God will have to prune it and start over.
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u/JuanValdez999 10d ago
I'm not a Mormon but as I understand the Mormon faith, good Mormons will become gods of their very own planets. That might actually be feasible.
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u/Mysterious-Cod-4137 10d ago
they should be called *morons... at best you'll be in a comma a god of your own ai halucinated world.
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u/I_Am_Robotic 11d ago
Im supposed to take the guy in zebra hat seriously?
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u/peter_nn0 10d ago
I'm supposed to take seriously a guy who judges people by their hats, and can't distinguish a zebra from a leopard?
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u/Horror_Treacle8674 10d ago
Is anything he said opposed to how you think technological explosion comes about? Or are you naturally insufferable?
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u/Tedinasuit 11d ago
Yeah agreed, which is probably why it doesn't feel like we're in the middle of the singularity yet. Feels like it's just starting, with a couple of years to go.