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Alexander Gabriel's avatar

I think this is impressive. But I am starting to question the locations of different "singularities." So for example, maybe we just view the human species like some extreme environmentalists do--as just one very successful animal species. Then maybe there are no singularities because humanity and our GDP increases are no more significant than dinosaur population increases.

Or maybe more likely, we do acknowledge humans are special but deny that any change involving "the end of the human era" as Vinge says is predictable based on human GDP, so that there is only one singularity of the evolution of humanity. This might make sense in that human evolution was the one of your singularities that totally changed the optimization process, formerly DNA exchange, and afterwards exchanging thoughts using words. AI might cause another such leap.

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cesium62's avatar

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we normally call it a duck. It doesn't matter if it's hidden Markov models or a man in a chinese box. Predicting the future correctly is a sign of intelligence no matter how it's implemented. Communicating with and understanding people is a sign of intelligence no matter how it's implemented.

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