TheSingularityIsNear

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If the claims of the futurologist Google:RayKurzweil are true, that in the near future Artificial Intelligence will surpass that of a human brain, we should prepare for it in our Wikis early enough. TheSingularityIsNear is also the title of his newest book:

ISBN 0143037889 (alternate, search)

That it is already a topic in the wider wiki community, we can see from Google:TheSingularityIsNear.

This page needs to be built, discussing the relevance for the Wiki community.

Discussion:

Are Wikis the core processes, by which a Wiki:GlobalBrain is built? The author's guess is: Yes. -- FridemarPache

Thesis: The first places, evasive AI will take over, will be wikis, because they allow WikiWeaving and WebWeaving. Therefore let's make friends with the AI, right in time and practise love and understanding ;-) -- fp

The author remembers, that Google:WardCunningham, e.g. from the start on stressed the point, that (his (it was the only)) WikiWikiWeb should be "readable for man and machine". Example: Do you remember, how he put great value on certain formats, like the signature with two dashes and a blank before, so that his additional programs could easier work on the database to handle signed contributions? -- fp

I'm not so sure, I add my observations.

AI is famous for it's hype and promises, which where rarely met. One has to admit that there are astonishing systems, from chess playing to speech recognition, but they are not based on what humans would see as "intelligence" but more on simple, non-intelligent BruteForce? search methods.

Whether a singularity is near, I can't say, because I don't know what time units are used for "near". People often projected the "end of days" and rarely were right. So it would be interesting whether Kurzweil or the OP thinks "near" in terms of e. g. 1, 5, 20 or 100 years. Talk is cheap when the horizon of events is set far enough away.

If I expect a change, then less because of a "global brain" in the sense of AI, but more because of a NooSphere in the sense of Teilhard de Chardin, as a new quality of consciousness and collaboration derived from many new ways of personal global communication and participation. I think that wikis can play an important role in that. Not by preparing for something that comes from some magical outside AI but by exploring ways of wiki usage, kinds of supra-collaboration where people become able to handle trust and exchange in much better ways. -- HelmutLeitner

Hallo Helmut, yes, Teilhard de Chardin was the great visionary, who envisioned this broad picture. During my schooltime, I read anything, what I could get and grasp from T.de C. But now things come out clearer. Kurzweil gives evidence for a milestone in the near future.

Here is a (tweaked) copy down of a DiigoAnnotation?:

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It might be helpful, to watch [this free video of Ray Kurzweil], contemplate it, and read his newest book, to be prepared for the next Wiki:FutureShock in the near future. Wiki:RayKurzweil presents his newest book "TheSingularityIsNear" and recommends his readers to live at least until the year 2029. Wikizens are invited to discuss the topic, what t his means for the wiki communities. MeatballWiki:TheSingularityIsNear -- FridemarPache

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If you take look at http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/327/, having the DiigoService enabled, you see a nicer formatted piece of text. -- fp

I think Helmut's position is compatible with Fridemar's: if supra-collaboration emerges, then the power of the combined minds will easily exceed that of any individual human mind, and there should be plenty of room in-between for purely-machine minds. What I've already observed, in Timothy Gowers' [polymath1], on FriendFeed?, and also in my own interactions here with Fridemar and Aaron seems to me nothing short of miraculous. I hope that purely-silicon AI will also emerge, but my biggest hope is for a larger combined intelligence, which uses silicon components to stitch together the global community of human minds. -- NathanielThurston

DiiGo: [1]

CategoryBook CategoryMeme?