Technological Singularity Explained - Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns

The technological singularity has become a popular talking point among many famous futurists and media personalities. However, most people are still unsure of what it really means. We're going to explain the concept of the technological singularity, and let you know how this event could alter the destiny of mankind - for the better or for the worse.

I’m Zachary Maslanik, lead video producer at cybrink.com and I will be bringing you up to date with all the latest developments in science, technology and business. Cybrink will be your window into the future, so subscribe now for more content.

So… technological singularity.

The idea was first popularized by Ray Kurzweil in his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. In his book, Kurzweil observes that the rate of change in technological progress tends to increase exponentially. In other words, technology tends to build upon itself, becoming better and better and at a rapidly accelerating pace. Kurzweil named his observation 'The Law of Accelerating Returns'.

Taking this concept one step further, Kurzweil suggests that at some point in the near future, artificial intelligence will become so advanced that it will be able to make better versions of itself. In theory, this could enable artificial intelligence to enhance its own cognitive capabilities through a cycle of continuous self-improvement, quickly resulting in sentient machines with smarter than human intelligence.

Kurzweil believes that what follows is technological change so rapid and profound, that it will represent an unprecedented paradigm shift in human history; a technological singularity. Unenhanced human intelligence will be unable to keep up. So what will this look like? Frankly, it's difficult to know. After all, the word 'Singularity' was borrowed from physics – it is a point in space time where all the laws of physics break down. Similarly, it is difficult to predict what the world will be like post technological singularity.

One option is that our new artificial overlord is friendly, helping us to create a new and improved utopian world. Or maybe our creation turns upon us, like Skynet, setting out to destroy the human race with a little help from the 38th Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps even scarier, maybe artificial intelligence could morph with human intelligence to create a hive mind, where everyone's thoughts are connected, and everyone thinks exactly the same.

Until then, let's just enjoy the benefits technological progress and improvements in artificial intelligence can bring to all of our lives.

Thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, please make sure to subscribe and leave a like. Here’s a question for you! Ray Kurzweil has predicted that we will reach the Technological Singularity by 2045, what do you think? If you had any thoughts, be sure to leave a comment and let us know! We'll see you next time with more interesting insights into the future from cybrink.com.

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