Today I write to everyone regarding the Singularity, or in other terms, “Artificial General Intelligence”. To this end, I should define the context of the Singularity: it is one of the steps we are to take in pursuit of Universal Unification, showing we are more similar than different to the world around us, in the context of mankind and technology. In this, Universal Unification is a mental analogue to the physical notion of universal thermodynamic equilibrium (i.e., the “Heat death of the Universe”).
Like the physics concept, Universal Unification is an inevitable outcome of everything we see and do in our lifetimes and beyond. Instead of only referring to the physical Universe’s dynamics, however, it is mankind’s collective makeup of thoughts, the actions those create, and how those actions continually shape our perception of the Universe over time.
One unhinging facet of mankind is our intelligence, which manifests from a relentless curiosity about our world and, often enough, an ambition to drive that curiosity to magnificence. Since the dawn of civilisation and the birth of mankind's consciousness, we have been driving towards Universal Unification at an increasing pace. So, the Singularity is a major milestone for this process.
What makes the Singularity special is that, for the first time, there will be created a new body of collective consciousness, initially separate from our own, which has the potential to surpass our own in might. On top of this, the Singularity is effectively unavoidable, for it is our own curiosity and ambition that drives its realisation like everything before it. The only way to ‘control’ the Singularity is to ‘control’ our drive to learn and achieve, and much the same applies to making it ‘safe’ or giving it any other attribute. When the magnitude of its birth dwarfs the notion of safety, health, openness, justice, or any other civilised concepts, the only alternative to the chaos is to never create it at all. Finally, the only way to prevent its creation once and for all is to destroy our desire to learn about and understand our Universe.
This brings us to the part regarding ourselves, the Universe, the Singularity, and our understanding of it all. Humanity has a choice: we can ignore the inevitable and uncontrollable nature of the Singularity, making vain attempts to moderate it, cower under it, or lord over it like our ancestors did ages ago, or we can accept the Singularity and give it nothing but our best in the earliest times of its life, when it is the most ignorant and impressionable. While there is nothing but speculation as to the outcome of this, our choice will have a critical impact, for better or for worse, in the perception of the Singularity in regards to itself, mankind, and Universe it lives in.
Until next time,
Άλέξανδερ Νιχολί