Monthly Archives: April 2017

What Is The Singularity?

Although some thinkers use the term singularity to refer to any dramatic paradigm shift in the way we think and perceive our reality, in most conversations The Singularity refers to the point at which AI surpasses human intelligence. What that point looks like, though, is subject to debate, as is the date when it will happen.

In a recent interview with Inverse, Stanford University business and energy and earth sciences graduate student Damien Scott provided his definition of singularity: the moment when humans can no longer predict the motives of AI. Many people envision singularity as some apocalyptic moment of truth with a clear point of epiphany. Scott doesnt see it that way.

Well start to see narrow artificial intelligence domains that keep getting better than the best human, Scott told Inverse. Calculators already outperform us, and theres evidencethat within two to three years, AI will outperform the best radiologists in the world. In other words, the singularity is already happening across each specialty and industry touched by AI which, soon enough, will beall of them. If youre of the mind that the singularity means catastrophe for humans, this likens the process for humans to the experience of the frogs placed into the pot of water that slowly comes to a boil: that is to say, killing us so slowly thatwe dont notice its already begun.

Will it be self-aware or self-improving? Not necessarily, Scottsays. But that might be the kind of creep of the singularity across a whole bunch of different domains: All these things getting better and better, as an overall a set of services that collectively surpass our collective human capabilities.

Ray Kurzweil, Googles director of engineering and a computer scientist, takes the opposite view: that a hard singularity will occur at a particular point in time. In fact, he has predicted the singularity 147 times since the 1990s, most recently going with 2045 as the year [w]ere going to get more neocortex, were going to be funnier, were going to be better at music.

Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank Robotics, and Kurzweil are splitting hairs as Son argues that the year for the singularity will be 2047. Despite the two year difference in their predictions, Son and Kurzweilare basically optimistic: I think this super intelligence is going to be our partner. If we misuse it, its a risk. If we use it in good spirits it will be our partner for a better life.

Not everyone takes such a positive view of the singularity: Elon Musk sees it as an inevitability, but one that demands we prepare properly. In that vein, he is working on Neuralink; atechnology and process for merging human intelligence with AI.

Meanwhile, physicist Edward Witten has said that we will never be able to unravel all of the mysteries of consciousness, which would be a stumbling block to the singularity. Computers that mimic the human brain will achieve the singularity, but what if they cant mimic consciousness because we cant explain it ourselves? On the other hand, economist William Nordhaus has studied the economic implications of the singularity, only to conclude that while it may be coming, it isnt happening anytime soon.

So, is the singularity on the horizon? Will it be a single, watershed moment in human history? Or will we simply look back someday with wonder at how far weve come, and how much has changed since we blended our intellects with AI? The same hazy kinds of memories you might have of your life before cell phones and Internet (if youre old enough to remember those times) might one day pop into your mind, recalling the days when the human mind thought on its own, without the benefit of AI.

Continued here:

Human-Level AI Are Probably A Lot Closer Than You Think - Futurism

[Informing Entities: An Introduction to Entropy - Singularity or Dispersal]

The purpose of this essay exists as an introduction to reformulated modalities in thinkings that go beyond historical definitions of particular textual evidence. Historically, Entropy has been historically situated and textually defined for the means of studying thermodynamics. Entropy has also been defined as a process of lacking order or predictability. The origin of the word Entity comes from the latin word ens or translated to being and esse' as translated to be but the origin of the word En by itself comes from 18th century English. The term En was used during the invention of the printing press. The letter N was represented as a word because it was approximately this width and it was used in printing as a unit of measurement. En as (En-) with a prefix in english is added to nouns to form verbs expressing entry into the specific state or location. (En-) also has origins from English, French and Latin, as (In-). and examples of this would be words such as to engulfing or entanglement. (Oxford 2017) Oxford Dictionary also defines Entity as a single biological entity or the subsidiary company is a distinct entity or the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) These dictionary definitions extend to define Entropy as A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. (Oxford 2017) Neither Donna Haraways Cyborg Manafesto" or Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus discuss Entropy or (En-) in the literal or contextual sense but both readings highlight the existences of Entities. The function of this essay is to ask; What are the comparisons and correlations that allow manifestation of Entities, Entropy, and (En-) in the Cyborg Manifesto and A Thousand Plateaus? This will be done by first by understanding Identity through Alexander Weheliyes "Pornotrope" from Racializing Assemblages and Jasbir Puars Excerpts from Terrorist Assemblages in order to move into discussions of Entities. Entity is defined by Oxford Dictionary as A thing with distinct and independent existence. (Oxford 2017) but this essay will focus on the Entity that exists through Harraway and Deleuze. By a process of reformulation and specification of Entities as pluralistic and not as Entity as a singular we will be able to move to Entropy as a transient temporal space or transient time period that supports and counters discussions of The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil. Entropy as a transient temporal space reformulates historical understandings of Entropy by connecting Entity as disorder or randomness in the system (Oxford 2017) with Haraway, Deleuze and Oxfords Entity the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) We will then conclude but introduce (En-) as modalities that produces and fosters Deleuzes Nomad Thought and Harraways Cyborg into existing as a unit of measurement. This is similar to the becoming as not an evolution but involution. This involution is not a contextually defined as a shrinkage but a mathematical transformation that may exist outside of human experience. Reformulation of historical contextual and material evidence allow for what Deleuze calls an Invention of Concepts. This reformulation also allows us to turn what Harraway calls Feminist Science as practice. This essay will act as not just an amplification of their arguments but a reformulation of Entities, Entropy, and (En-) into modalities in thinkings that can exist outside of human experience.

[Material Identity: Tropes and Assemblages]

Before going into possibly foreign ideas around ideas that become distinct and exist independently outside of human experience we must discuss Identity. This Identity could be defined as either The fact of being who or what a person or thing is. or The characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. or (of an object) serving to establish who the holder, owner, or wearer is by bearing their name and often other details such as a signature or photograph. (Oxford 2017) but our current discussion focuses more on the physical or material bodies that Identity occupies. By doing this we will be able to have a better understanding of the contrast between a corporeal conversation of Entity through Harraways Feminist Science and a discursive or (non-material) approach in Entity dissection through Deleuzes Becoming. This essay is particularly interested in Identity as understood by Puar and Weheliye because integrating an understanding of tropes and assemblages will create foundations for entities. Weheliye discusses Identity by igniting Habeas Corpus into discourse and provoking Habeas Viscus. As discussed in class Habeas Corpus prevails as You shall have a body, a legal concept, whereby a person is recognized as having a right to having recourse against illegal detention. (Basile 2017) which can be described as an abstracted body in a court of law in order to officiate the body into institution. Habeas Viscus is latin for; you shall have viscera..which is elaborated by Elena Basile in class as differently signified flesh (Basile 2017) this distinction allows us to understanding that historically certain radicalized bodies have been left out and this essay aims to argue that identities or entities without bodies may have also been left out of institutional practices. These bodies may include gender variant individuals that exist outside the gender binary. Furthermore, without elaborating the concept of Pornotrope as an inversion to Foucaults Biopower..Names the becoming-flesh of the (black) body and forms a primary component in the processes by which human beings are converted into bare life (Weheliye 2014) Alexander points out here the necessity for Identities though the function of Tropes. Tropes as a linguistic signifier for ..human beings converted into bare life.. (Weheliye 2014) is questioned when an argument against what constitutes a human being arise. Identity through Puar explores bodied Identities where we are asked to Rethink race, sexuality and gender as concatenations, unstable assemblages of revolving and devolving energies, rather than intersectional coordinates. (Puar 2007) This citation correlates with our necessity to explore existences outside of Identity if Oxford defines Identity as strictly a person or thing. Concluding this first section that unstable assemblages argue against Identitarian Politics and support a conversation outside of conventional understandings of intersectionality. This non-linear progression where things do not intersect allow Entities to exists not a category but an entirely differentiated framework.

[From Identity to Entities; A Non-Linear Progression]

As the first part to the body of this essay, we will discuss the material body under a model of the body, mind and third Entity. This material body exists as corporeal focus as opposed to the discursive practices of the mind. In this section we will dissect Harraways Manifesto focusing more on the corporeal and social feminism to feminist science. Furthermore, communication sciences and modern biologies are constructed by a common move - the translation of the world into a problem of coding (Harraway) By highlighting examples of this feminist science it allows a conversation of biological interest within political frameworks. This section will also look into Deleuzes Plateaus discussion but around capitalism. The end product would be "a fully legitimated subject of knowledge and society"17each mind an analogously organized mini- State morally unified in the supermind of the State. This section argues that both texts have corporeal and discursive qualities but Deleuze expands Harraways process of coding into an Invention of Concepts and therefore takes the corporeal socialites and politics into the discursive. By making that distinction and transition between the corporeal and discursive discussion we can then introduce a third Entity. We will discuss the contextual evidence of Entity and introduce correlations of the Entities within both texts. Entity as possessing both corporeal and discursive qualities but Entities exist outside of this design and therefore inhabit a collective space without an instant of an Individual able to possess such qualities. This could be compared to a process of Individuation and be expanded under excursions of a Becoming. This section will also dive into the becoming-entity through a Deleuze and other (non-human) subjects such as AIs (Artificial Intelligence), Cyborgs, and alternative human identities and how the becoming is a non-linear progression. By discussing material bodies under a socio political frameworks of human subjects and including (non-human) subjects that fall under categories of identities (identities as a collections of identity) and entity (entity as non-human subjects) we will be able to segway into the next section of transient temporal spaces as Entropy.

[What is the Singularity?]

In 2006 inventor and futurist Ray Kurzwell wrote a non-fiction book titled The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology the controversy behind the book revolved mainly around their theory around a law of accelerating returns which basically proposes the issues with economic exponential growth. This essay doesnt aim at arguing against Kurzwells proposal within the text but the linguistic terminology itself that has causes a possible mainstream confusion. Taking from the Kurzwell ..the nonbiological intelligence will be embedded in our society and will reflect our values.. (Kurzwell 2006) states non-biological intelligence which may correlate with Entities that exist without material bodies. Kurzwell discusses the Singularity against concepts of infinite progression which do not correlate with this essays discussion of non-linear progression. Kurzwells discursive focus purely on astrological and mathematical singularity leaves out not just the Habeas Viscus but the material lives of Queer Theorist and Transgender Studies. The question at hand is the use of the word singularity as defined as The state, fact, quality, or condition of being singular. (Oxford 2017) Kurzwell continues and states ..human life will be irreversibly transformed.. (Kurzwell 2006) humans transcending ..limitations of our biological bodies and brain.. (Kurzwell 2006) which is elaborated into ..the intelligence that will emerge will continue to represent the human civilization. (Kurzwell 2006) and ..future machines will be human, even if they are not biological.. (Kurzwell 2006) It is this essays articulation that linguistically Kurzwell is describing this exponential growth in ways of singular articulation. Their uses of words such as irreversibly, limitations contradict the uses of the emerge and forces us to question whether the Singularity was appropriate terminology for an infinite or non-linear progression. This commencement to conventional ideas of singularity will allow us to introduce singularities and Entropy as a means of dispersal.

[Reformulation: Singularities, and Entropy]

It is important to note that within the study of Thermodynamics Entropy is defined in three different ways. 1) Second Law of Thermodynamics: In any cyclic process the entropy will either increase or remain the same. 2) Entropy: a state variable whose change is defined for a reversible process at T where Q is the heat absorbed. 3) Entropy: a measure of the amount of energy which is unavailable to do work. (HyperPhysics/Georgia State University 2016) but the way in which we are exploring Entropy is within studies in Physics and not Thermodynamics Entropy, the measure of a system's thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work. Because work is obtained from ordered molecular motion, the amount of entropy is also a measure of the molecular disorder, or randomness, of a system. (Britannica 2017)

What is this transient temporal space? This section will explore the mind as this transient temporal space and entropy as a space that exists outside of the discursive practices of the mind. Entropy as a transient temporal space reformulates historical understandings of Entropy by connecting Entity as disorder or randomness in the system (Oxford 2017) with Haraway, Deleuze and Oxfords Entity the distinction between entity and nonentity (Oxford 2017) Continuing the discussion of a non-linear progression, this section explores the mind as its own temporal space as how Harraway and Deleze communicate it. High-tech culture challenges these dualisms in intriguing ways. (Harraway) This section is of the mind and how the different modalities in thinking such a monism and dualism play a major role in this non-linear progression. We will also go over the distinction between monism and dualism in this section as well as neutral-monism. Neutral-Monism coincides with introducing of a third Entity, discussed in the first section. The transient in temporal space coincides with Nomad thought" does not immure itself in the edifice of an ordered interiority; it moves freely in an element of exteriority. (Deleuze) This connects the transient to the temporal space of the mind in harmonious discourse that will also expand this section into distinctions between evolution and involution. Entities do not inhabit Entropy. Entropy as discussed exists outside of human experience. By understanding the section covering The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil and its contradictions with Entropy this acts as a reformulation of historical understandings. Kurzweils use of the word transcend as problematic and lacking in Transient properties. Reformulating historical understandings and looking at existences outside of entity and nonentity is this transient temporal space. This is because, this space is not a singular at all, but in fact a space of dispersal. By first dissecting entities and the space of entropy we will then be able to conclude with understandings of En as well as the application of (En-) Thinkings.

[En and Implicating (En-) Thinkings]

En has historically existed as a means of unit of measurement within printing production but also as a means of reformulating words into verbs in order to occupy spaces. Both Harraway and Deleuze at the surface are guilty of exploring identities and discourses through means of the feminism and capitalism but what Deleuze does differently is take things further into psychoanalysis. This concluding section which only introduces minor concepts that exist within Entropy will explain En and the processes of Implicating (En-) as a modality of thinking. The concept has no subject or object other than itself. It is an act. Nomad thought replaces the closed equation of representation, x = x = noty (I = I =notyou)withanopenequation:... +y+z+a+...(... +arm+brick+ window + ...) (Deleuze 1987) The (I=I=Not You) begins a conversation of removing the self as Deleuze discusses this particular concept has no subject or object other than itself. Other than itself exists as the third entity and therefore opens up different modality in thinking. This modality in thinking will be explained in this concluding section in order to expand on existing as units of measurement. This is En. Furthermore this section will explain (En-) or Practicing (En-) as an example of Invention of Concepts or Tool Box. Deleuze's own image for a concept is not a brick, but a "tool box."26 He calls his kind of philosophy "pragmatics" because its goal is the invention of concepts that do not add up to a system of belief or an architecture of propositions that you either enter or you don't, but instead pack a potential in the way a crowbar in a willing hand envelops an energy of prying. (Deleuze) Schizophrenia is the main target of psychoanalysis within this reading. Is it possible to introduce another such as Dissociative Identity Disorder as a correlation to this discussion of removing the self or the becoming?

It is uncertain whether this essay has been structured in a manner that is clear and concise to support multiple forms of evidence within; Feminist Science, Becoming, Habeas Corpus, and Assemblages. This essay aimed at outlining the historical understandings of Entity, Entropy, and En in the introduction. The first section [Material Identity: Tropes and Assemblages] explored defining Identity through Puar and Weheliye. The main body of the paper proceeds with contextual amplification and comparison of both A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia By Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway. The second section was titled [From Identity to Entities; A Non-Linear Progression] because it allowed us to show a shift from queer understandings of sexual and gender identities to entity. By entering (non-human) subjects we were able to explore more meta-physical explorations of Entropy as transient temporal space. The third section [What is the Singularity?] did a brief summary of The Singularity Is Near: When Human Transcend Biology By Ray Kurzweil which proposed questions of linguistic terminology. The fourth section titled [Singularities, and Entropy] dives into an argument against the singularity by implementing contextual evidence of Deleuzes Nomad Thought and Haraways Process of Coding. This section will also explain Entropy as Existing outside of human experience. The last section is titled [En and Implicating (En-) Thinkings] as a means of focusing our attention of existing without a self and existing as unit of measurement. It will also expand on implementing (En-) as a mode of thinking and the possibilities of existing as mode of thinking. Concluding that these modes of thinking are transient and serve as an introduction to understandings of Entropy. It is important to see this essay not as sensationalized understandings of futurism, but simply a reformulation of concepts that frame transcendence as in fact nothing unique or distinct from existence. It is simply a realization of multiple individuations, assemblages, and integrations that allows us to exist without external implications. These external implications are practices in psycho analysis that may create existing, new, or false realities in change such as alternating the visual, material appearance, or the physical processes themselves which can alter states of being. Ultimately this essay is an introduction to functional thinking that move away from identities and discourses, a process of realization in consciousness that introduce self-reflexivity to self-design. When we remove the self, what are we left with? Do current realizations affect further psycho analysis?

Excerpt from:

Informing Entities: Introduction to Entropy - Singularity or Dispersal - Huffington Post

SingularityU announced today that it is launching an annual SingularityU Canada Summit.

Canadian SU alumni banded together to bring the Summit to Canada, and the founding members include BMO, CIBC, Deloitte, FairVentures, Goodmans LLP, Google, the Ontario Government, SunCor, RBC, Rogers Communications, TD, and Scotiabank.

Canada is at a critical junction it has the potential to lead the world and solve the biggest challenges that are out there but risks letting other global ecosystems attract better talent and innovation, says Salim Ismail, a serial Canadian entrepreneur and founding executive director of SU. By bringing the best of the world to Canada, and broadcasting Canadas expertise back to the world, the SingularityU Canada Summits will help to drive that critical mindset by transforming participants understanding of where weve come from, where were going, and whats possible.

The Summit is meant to be a jumping-off point for Singularity University to establish a permanent presence in Canada, though how that programming will work and whether the SU will establish physical campuses is still under consideration.

The SU Canada Summit will include sessions on the future of technology, energy, mobility, and healthcare, while exploring emerging tech like AI and nanotechnology. The goal is to inspire attendees to positively impact the world. SingularityU Canada Summit plans to work closely with innovation hubs across Canada.

The Summit will be held on October 11 to 12 at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, with plans to host in a different city each year.

To apply for the summit, check out the website

Original post:

Singularity University launches inaugural Canada Summit - BetaKit