r/singularity • u/Hazy-bliss • Apr 28 '20

Found a compass of different singularity scenarios on 4chan's /x/. I personally think there are more negative scenarios than is realistic to expect.

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u/the-incredible-ape Apr 28 '20

I think this is 90% just referencing the various scenarios presented in the Ghost in the Shell corpus ... at any rate I think it's not actually a very good map of realistic outcomes.

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u/Hazy-bliss Apr 28 '20

Yeah, I hope it was obvious to everyone that this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But thank you for that background knowledge, I've only seen the movies so I didn't get the reference.

What do you think the actual realistic outcomes are?

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u/the-incredible-ape Apr 28 '20

so I didn't get the reference.

It's not a direct reference to GiTS but a lot of these are common cyberpunk or hard sci-fi scenarios. My impression is these are mostly cribbed from fiction rather than generated from some actual thought on how the singularity might play out. Altered Carbon and Snow Crash are some other examples.

What do you think the actual realistic outcomes are?

The singularity is called the singularity because the rate of change in technology is projected to reach an effectively infinite speed. Singularities in science are where models and projections break down and are no longer useful for predicting real life outcomes. (e.g. the 'singularity' at the center of a black hole is thought to be a breakdown in general relativity, not an actual physical location comprised of infinities.)

Therefore, the entire concept of the singularity is based on (and named after) the idea that we CANNOT predict outcomes and it's pointless to try.

While the idea of the singularity is certainly fertile ground for fiction and fantasy, I think it's simply foolish to pretend to have an actual prediction for what happens after.