This is an interesting write-up* on "The Singularity Summit 2007 and
the Future of humanity" held in San Francisco, CA on September 8-9,
2007. Singularity has been defined as "the technological creation of
smarter-than-humanintelligence"
(http://www.singinst.org/overview/whatisthesingularity/).

Singularists point out that human evolution from primates has resulted
only in threefold increase in brain capacity. By contrast, the number of
transistors on a chip of the computer has grown manifold during last 50
years. By 2029, so it is predicted, smarter-than-human intelligence
machines will be a reality!

Dr D.C.Misra

September 10, 2007



________________________________________________________________________

*Are computers becoming smarter than humans?

Technology is hurtling toward a point where machines will become smarter
than their makers, altering what it means to be human

Marcus Wohlsen,

San Francisco, September 9

AT THE center of a black hole there lies a point called a singularity
where the laws of physics no longer make sense.

In a similar way, according to futurists gathered on Saturday for a
conference
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_02\
0_009&kword=&mode=1> , information technology is hurtling toward a point
where machines will become smarter than their makers, altering what it
means to be human in ways almost impossible to conceive.

The Singularity Summit: AI and the future of humanity brought together
hundreds of Silicon Valley techies and scientists to imagine a future of
self-programming computers
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_02\
0_009&kword=&mode=1> and brain implants that would allow humans to
think at speeds nearing microprocessors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers at the summit warned that now
is the time to develop ethical guidelines for ensuring these advances
help rather than harm. "We and our world won't be us anymore," Rodney
Brooks, a robotics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_02\
0_009&kword=&mode=1> , said. When it comes to computers, he said, "who
is us and who is them is going to become a different sort of question."

Eliezer Yudkowsky, cofounder of the Palo Alto-based Singularity
Institute for Artificial Intelligence, focuses his research on the
development of so-called "friendly artificial intelligence." His
greatest fear, he said, is that a brilliant inventor creates a
self-improving but amoral artificial intelligence that turns hostile.
The first use of the term "singularity" to describe this kind of
fundamental technological transformation is credited to Vernor Vinge, a
California mathematician and science-fiction author High-tech
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_02\
0_009&kword=&mode=1> entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil raised the profile of
the singularity concept in his 2005 book The Singularity is Near, in
which he argues that the exponential pace of technological progress
makes the emergence of smarter-than-human intelligence the future's only
logical outcome.

Kurzweil, director of the Singularity Institute, is so confident in his
predictions of the singularity that he has even set a date: 2029. Most
"singularists" feel they have strong evidence to support their claims,
citing the dramatic advances in computing technology that have already
occurred over the last 50 years. In 1965, Intel
<http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_02\
0_009&kword=&mode=1> co-founder Gordon Moore accurately predicted that
the number of transistors on a chip should double about every two years.
By comparison, singularists point out, the entire evolution of modern
humans from primates has resulted in only a threefold increase in brain
capacity. With advances in biotechnology and information technology,
they say, there's no scientific reason that human thinking couldn't be
pushed to speeds up to a million times faster (AP).

(Source: Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 10, 2007, Monday, p-20,
http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=10_09_2007_020\
_009&kword=&mode=1, accessed: September 10, 2007).



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