Techdirt. Stories filed under "singularity"

How Copyright Would Make The 'Singularity' Infringement If It Ever Arrived

Mike Masnick — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:17:00 PDT

The folks at On the Media point us to a truly hilarious imagining by Tom Scott of what would happen after your physical body "died" in an age of both "The Singularity" and excessive copyright laws. For those unfamiliar with the concept of the singularity, it's a somewhat wacky attempt to suggest that at some point (perhaps soon, according to supporters), computers will become so powerful (along with our understanding of the human mind), we'll be able to "upload" our minds to a computer network and effectively live forever (among other things, but that's all that you really need to understand to get the video).

Of course, as the video eventually notes, there would likely be a bit of a conflict between copyright law and uploading everything in your mind, so either you'd need to work out some sort of license for that... or have large parts of your cultural history erased to avoid infringement.

Now, this is obviously a silly envisioning of the future, and the whole singularity thing has always seemed a bit nutty anyway, but there's actually something important to think about in all of this joking. It is a good demonstration of how ill-prepared copyright law always is for major changes to technology, and how even solving little things (like being able to buy music online) hardly solves the larger issues that begin to show up when more and more of our lives are interconnected online. Already, we're seeing how people are effectively using things like Google and the wider internet as a "backup brain." But when you're actually storing memories in your head -- and then backing them up online -- copyright law may have a problem with the backup.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

DailyDirt: No 9000 Computer Has Ever Made A Mistake Or Distorted Information...

Michael Ho — Wed, 5 Oct 2011 17:00:00 PDT

The "Singularity" describes a future when technology obtains superhuman intelligence -- and when people won't be able to outwit their technological creations. So far, humans have lost to computers playing chess and Jeopardy! (and a few other games) -- but machines aren't our overlords just yet. Here are a few more datapoints pointing to better and better artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence projects are slowly encroaching into the fields of science.. and law. We'll have to automate the creation of bad lawyer jokes to keep up. [url]
Ray Kurzweil predicts automated language translations that are as good as human translations by the year 2029 I predict there will be exponential growth of hilariously bad translated text in 2030. [url]
Workplace robots could be more helpful if they just had better machine vision. Industrial robots could expand beyond repetitive tasks if they could see and recognize changes. [url]
Maybe we can distract our future computerized masters by pitting them against each other (playing Ms Pac-Man?). The only winning move is not to play... [url]
To discover more interesting robot-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

Techdirt

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

The NFL Or SkyNET: There Can Be Only One

Timothy Geigner — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:34:47 PST

We've all giggled at examples of technopanic in the past. We laughed at ER doctors warning about walking and texting at the same time. We snickered at the notion that Google's steetview was a threat to children. Some of our palms may have met our faces at the notion that digital drugs could be a real life danger.

It turns out the joke is on us. SkyNET is coming, my friends, and we're going to lose the war. And you know why? Because of football, hockey and boxing.

So says Rick Telander in a piece for the Chicago Sun Times, in which he declares that traumatic head injuries in those sports are stealing away our ability to fight the machines. Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up. To preface, it should be noted that Telander isn't some crackpot pseudo-journalist. He is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, hired away from Sports Illustrated, where he was also a Senior Writer. He attended Northwestern University on a football scholarship and then went to training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. Personally, I think he might have taken a few blows to the head himself.

Telander starts off talking about the trauma of head injuries in pro sports, namely boxing, football and hockey. We're okay so far. Bruising from sustained blows to the head lead to long term medical effects in players -- something that is becoming a growing issue. Then Telander goes completely off the reservation in answering his own question as to why this is more important now than ever:

"Consider it wasn’t until last year that the devious and know-nothing NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee was restructured with seemingly authentic and un-buyable neurologists at the helm, and the word ‘‘Mild’’ was dropped altogether. Mild. Brain injury. Ha. I am reminded here of ‘‘minor’’ surgery, which, of course, is surgery on somebody else."

Hmm, well okay, the NFL is beginning to take brain injury more seriously. But the problem has been known for some time. It's thanks to boxers becoming pale drooling ghosts of their former selves that we have the term "punch drunk". But whatever...

"Second, we live in a world that is progressing into a vast arena in which mankind has never lived, never even comprehended, the stadium of human-enhanced computer dominance. It is a place where intelligence, real or artificial, will be all. Scientists say that by as early as 2045 there may well be a computer that dwarfs mankind. By then, according to the current cover story in Time, a computer might exist that will surpass ‘‘the brainpower equivalent to that of all human brains combined.’’ That’s smart. Unless we’re really dumb. And we’re not, except when we do dumb things, like let our heads get damaged continually and call it something like ringing a bell. In our new environment, how can anyone allow his or her IQ, or their children’s, to be lowered?"

Uh, what? Because technology is progressing, head injuries are now more important? And we can't play football? Or hockey? Or box? But why, Rick, why?

"If you think the talk of silicon joining and even replacing the organic mind is nonsense, remember that your own laptop does the work a global library once did. Consider, as Time points out, that ‘‘your average cell phone is about a millionth the size of, a millionth the price of and a thousand times more powerful than’’ the best computer at MIT 40 years ago...But the olden days are gone. And you can be assured that if the battle between machines and humans ever becomes confrontational, it won’t be won by fists and forearms, helmets and sticks to our delicate heads."

And there you have it. We cannot have football, hockey or boxing because the war against the machines is coming and we're turning those who would lead us in that fight into men with brain-mush in their formerly bright heads. Because prospective General Brett Favre has clearly shown how acclimated with the dangers of technology he is. And no one is cautious around new technology media like budding Admiral Chad Ochocino. Hell, I don't even want to think about a Colonel Patrick Kane leading the charge against a host of Terminators.

Once again, we all agree that brain injuries in sports are a bad thing. But the idea that it's suddenly become more important due to the rise of the machines? That seems like the product of one too many sports-related brain injuries.

My suggestion? Just make it mandatory that all machines on earth must do a ten year stint playing football or hockey. Today's matchup, the Texas Toasters up against the Rochester Refrigerators! Join us next week on ESPN when the Carolina Computers skate the ice against the San Diego Smartphones! I could go on, but I'll leave you with Boers and Bernstein's take on their radio show, the most listened to sports show in Chicago (the good stuff starts around 4 minutes and 30 seconds...):

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Singularity University Finally Launches; Trying To Tackle Big Problems

Mike Masnick — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 02:39:34 PST

While the news is full of stories about the launch of Singularity University, this isn't exactly news. Ray Kurzweil admitted he was working on the idea at least a year ago, and the details of various planning meetings were made pretty public during last year as well. There had been some push among some to not call it the Singularity University, as the word Singularity has some negative connotations attached to it (mainly, people thinking the whole concept of a coming "singularity" -- or the point at which technology advances to a point that "lets humans transcend our biological limitations" -- is just outright nutty). However, Kurzweil is nothing if not a persistent promoter of the idea, originally popularized by Vernor Vinge, and he was adamant about the Singularity name sticking around.

Still, while I'm a bit skeptical of the whole "singularity" concept, you can't deny that the university's plans are ambitious (and potentially inspiring). It's brought together a wide range of folks from a variety of different fields, and the idea is to have intensive 9 or 10-week programs (some news reports say 9, others 10) for grad-level students, where they learn a variety of different subjects, but then work together to try to tackle a "big problem" (world hunger, climate change, etc.) using their diverse backgrounds and knowledge. For the privilege of saving the world (and, who knows, maybe avoiding mortality) you get to pay $25,000 -- which seems a bit steep. The "school" is also offering 3- and 10-day classes intended for those already in the workforce, which sounds like traditional executive education programs, which tend to be big moneymakers for universities.

It should be fun to at least watch where this goes. It's great to see big ambitious plans take shape, though it's really difficult to actually make them successful. I'd bet that it will prove much harder than the organizers expect... but if it works, that would certainly be pretty cool.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story