Why are we here, what’s our purpose, how did it all start, how will it all end. These are all questions we have been trying to answer ever since we can consciously remember. It’s been fuel for philosophers, scientists, romantics and the religious. It is reason for war.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like these questions will be answered any time soon. This isn’t just due to a lack of intelligence or time. Human’s main deficit is that we’re in fact, human.
As long as we have to rely on our own senses and judgement, our phantasy limits us to our own paradigm. We cannot imagine colours we can’t see, matter that’s unknown to us, or for that fact, an unlimited universe.
Singularity will change that
There are many definitions of the term Singularity. The one this article is referring to means: a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence.
Singularity is the buzz word of our recent history. Almost all SF movies, books, articles relating to artificial intelligence in one way or another touch the topic: when will computers be smarter than humans and what will that mean to mankind. For ages we felt to be dominating the earth and therefore now feel threatened by the development of robotics and artificial intelligence.
But why not embrace it?
Even though we feel like we are the king of the world, really, we’re not. Most of us have lost the ability to read nature and use those skills to enlarge knowledge and understanding of what is around us. Both in our visual surroundings as well as in the known outskirts of the universe.
Technology has shed it’s light on our place in the universe. But there’s still so much to discover and this is where we’re facing problems.
All discoveries we do are facilitated by the technology we’ve created ourselves, our own hypotheses are tested and results are interpreted by ourselves. I’m not saying that we’re not smart enough to do this. What I’m saying is that without singularity, we will never be able to overcome our limitations. Without Singularity increasing our capacity, we will never be able to grasp the findings we want to understand.
Is Singularity then the end to metaphisics or even philosophy?
There’s a very thin line between Science and Philosophy, and yet the two are rivals. Where philosophy takes the values of being as a starting point, observation through and outcome of research forms the base of science.
Nevertheless, the two go hand-in-hand. The observations and fundamentals of science should be kept into perspective with philosophy. Especially now that recent discoveries and developments in technology have an increasing impact on our context as human beings, philosophy is more important and relevant than ever.