Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Recently there has been a lot of discussion around singularity and whether we soon will be entering a phase where artificial general intelligence will become reality. However, before we delve deep into the philosophical and ethical implications of singularity, we have to understand what it really is, its actual limitationsand why it may happen in a way that is different than anticipated.
Singularity is the notion that the exponential acceleration of technological development will lead to a situation where artificial intelligence supersedes human intelligence and will eventually escape our control. Some even predict catastrophic consequences for humanity where machines will become the dominant specieson this planet. This may seem a bit far-fetched, at least for the near future, given that advancements in hardware development and robotics are not catching up with software when it comes to artificial general intelligence. However, one can argue that the recent hype and developments surrounding the metaverse will definitely open the door to the rethink of Singularity. But what is the metaverse, and why is it such a big deal?
Recent market analysis has estimated that the metaverse market opportunity could be around $800 billion by 2024. This could be seen as an expected meteoric rise for the metaverse, given such an estimated market size; however, the question that many people are asking is,what is the metaverse?
Presently, there isn't a single definition; if you think about todays internet as a virtual two-dimensional (2D) space where you can produce and share content,create valueand connect with anyone anywhere, then the metaverse may be thought of as a virtual three-dimensional (3D) space where you can do everything that you can do in today's internet while being fully immersed (through VR/AR) in that space exactly as you would be in the real world, but in a virtual realistic graphics-driven manner while being able to interact, connect, transactand create with others.
Simply put, existing in the metaverse is the equivalent of living inside the internet. This opens the possibility of the creation of a new world, a new economyand new possibilities.
However, unlike the internet, the VR immersion would trick the human brain into releasing the same chemicals (endorphins, serotonin, dopamine) the same way as you would in the real world, which will make it more naturaland more realisticfor humans to inhabit than the internet. It's a virtual environment where you can interact with people in a digital space. It is going inside the internet instead of just looking at it!
Today, some may think that VR is for video gamers; buthistorically, games have always preceded mainstream adoption. Space Invaders and Super Mario were played way before we started using Google. The same applies to VR: it is simply a gateway into the metaverse.
To elaborate on this point more, If we think about it, we have had mainframe computers thatevolved to personal computers, which then evolved to mobile devices. In the case of the metaverse however, the leap or the iteration does not necessarily go to a faster device. Instead, to virtual simulations of virtual worlds and virtual environments where through VR and AR, we can finally make it possible to buy things in the real world through these environments. But, in particular, also to buy things that just happen to exist in these virtual environments. Connecting computers to the internet has catapulted them to mainstream use and marked the beginning of the dot-com era, and the last 15 years were clearly shaped by the mobile phone, which led to full mass adoption.
This makes the metaverse a very practical concept. It's not just VR concerts, 3D gatheringsor digital assets, the metaverse is an idea that brings these concepts together and tries to explain how they are all connected.
Matthew Ball, an outspoken proponent of the metaverse, has outlined a few key ideas that show what this evolved form of the internet will look like.He identified that the metaverse is permanent, which means it will never reset, pauseor exit. He also identified that the metaverse will be live (in real-time) as much of the internet today is designed for asynchronous use (think YouTube videos). There will also be no limit on concurrent users: this is one of the most difficult problems from a technical point of view (think ZOOM calls). Because of the massive parallelism, the metaverse experience will be very different from the internet today.
However, the most important observation is that the metaverse will have a fully functional economy. The internet is fast becoming the best place to make money; almost every business has gone online, but the digital economy still has a long way to go. Most transactions are still fragmented, especially in virtual spacesand investments in digital goods are still in their infancy. Furthermore, due to the potential for interoperability between different providers, user-generated content will play a huge role in the metaverse.
Related:The New Wave of Web 3.0MetaverseInnovations
One of the most important elements is the payments infrastructure, which will undoubtedly be one of the cornerstones of the metaverse. The ability to buy, selland most importantly, own things in the metaversecould be the most transformative part of this new era. This will lead to a situation where decentralized ledger technologies or blockchains will actually be the most practical, if not ultimate, solution for value exchange and for storing value. The opportunities for economic growth will be unfathomable, as this is literally creating a new worldwhere users will interact, transact, own, exchangeand share economic value.
This opens a whole new door for cryptocurrencies thatpolicymakers are still struggling to regulate in the realworld; how then can they be well-regulated in a metaverse?
Covid-19 has highlighted the fact that we have already migrated our life to the digital world: we work, transact businessand communicate online. The next frontier will be to existinside this digital world that has taken shape around us.
Related:5 Reasons Why NFTs Are TheMetaverse'sIdeal Revenue Model
As mentioned at the start of this article, it may still be hard to create human-looking android machines that will take over the real world. However, in a world where everything is digital, it will not be difficult to create intelligent self-replicating agents that can send and learn from their environment, and evolveto take over its environment. The metaverse will provide just that.
Decades ago, The Godfather of AI Marvin Minsky introduced the concept of the society of mind, where our cognitive processes and cognitive architecture arenot confined to one particular place and arenot isolated processes; it is the collective behaviors of many subtly ingrained concepts that our minds are capable of. Obviously intelligence, when polluted with negative traits like greed, avarice and vindictiveness, can become a curse to mankind.
While this is not a new concept in the domain of AI, it assumes great significance, given that our brains are massively complex networks of hundreds of billions of neurons that are in constant communication with each other.It is what helps humans to understand what is going on.Neurons start triggering and responding to a multitude of fast-paced reactions, setting up patterns within the brain that subsequently decide the course of actions to be performed by our mind and body in perfect unison. Historically, AI experts have tried to replicate this process using artificial neural networks (ANNs), but this was mere software-based trickery to simulate the human brain.
This is now changing rapidly as the hardware design is starting to transition, with the advancement of Neuromorphic computingin which traditional semiconductor architectures are being disrupted and re-engineered to mimic the structure of the human brain, where processing and memory are being combined in one unit, the neural structure that Marvin Minsky created and many other structures areslowly becoming a reality from a hardware standpoint. This in turn is already making AI faster, betterand more general. This is incredibly exciting because if used properly, it will produce applications that are incredibly intelligent and may eventually supersede human level general intelligence.
This is particularly relevant for the metaverse, which will not only be a place where avatar-wearing humans are interacting with other avatar-wearing humans in a virtual 3D space, but will potentially be the first place and chance where artificially intelligent agents can finally exhibit a quasi-human behavior, without the physical limitations of building an actual humanoid robot in the real world. With the advancements in AI, and specifically Neuromorphic computing, which is accelerating the approach of artificial general intelligence (AGI), we may witness a metaverse where an AI is indistinguishable from a human!
Related:Why the Time Is Right for Businesses to Start Making the Move to the ...
Continued here:
Singularity Is Fast Approaching, and It Will Happen First in the Metaverse - Entrepreneur
- Singularity Future Technology Ltd (SGLY) is up 43.55% Tuesday In Premarket Trading - InvestorsObserver - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through March 16) - Singularity Hub - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Palia reaches over 3m players in six months thanks to "invaluable" Switch partnership - GamesIndustry.biz - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Beyond the Singularity: Exploring the Fusion of AI and Art - Hong Kong Standard - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Your Comprehensive Guide to Telos Staking Success | by Pizza Singularity Sapphire | Feb, 2024 - Medium - February 20th, 2024 [February 20th, 2024]
- BTS' Kim Taehyung's 'Singularity' Performance Featured in Harvard Professor's Book - BNN Breaking - February 20th, 2024 [February 20th, 2024]
- Title: Understanding the Singularity: Unveiling the Future of Humanity - Medium - December 12th, 2023 [December 12th, 2023]
- What happens at the center of a black hole? - Astronomy Magazine - December 12th, 2023 [December 12th, 2023]
- IBM Is Planning to Build Its First Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by 2029 - Singularity Hub - December 12th, 2023 [December 12th, 2023]
- 22 Laws of Singularity And How You Can Apply Them To Live A Better Life - Medium - December 12th, 2023 [December 12th, 2023]
- Singularity: Here's When Humanity Will Reach It, New Data Shows - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- sentinelOne expands singularity marketplace with new SOAR, insider threat, training, and prioritization integrations - ZAWYA - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Reaching the Singularity May be Humanitys Greatest and Last ... - March 4th, 2023 [March 4th, 2023]
- Singularity: Explain It to Me Like I'm 5-Years-Old - Futurism - March 4th, 2023 [March 4th, 2023]
- SINGULARITY FUTURE TECHNOLOGY LTD. : Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing, Change in... - March 4th, 2023 [March 4th, 2023]
- Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on Artificial Intelligence: Not worried about The Singularity, well still be in control - MacDailyNews - February 12th, 2023 [February 12th, 2023]
- Cauchy principal value - Wikipedia - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- Singularity Future Technology Ltd. (SGLY) Stockholder Notice: Robbins LLP Reminds Investors of the Class Action Against Singularity Future Technology... - December 14th, 2022 [December 14th, 2022]
- ROSEN, A LEADING LAW FIRM, Encourages Singularity Future Technology Ltd. f/k/a Sino-Global Shipping America Ltd. Investors to Secure Counsel Before... - December 12th, 2022 [December 12th, 2022]
- Singularity (mathematics) - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- GitHub: Where the world builds software GitHub - November 21st, 2022 [November 21st, 2022]
- Review: The Singularities, by John Banville - The New York Times - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- We need to manage AI better as we are approaching the Creative Singularity - RedShark News - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through October 15) - Singularity Hub - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Ferguson: A second helping of QB play from Thanksgiving weekend - CFL.ca - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Kanimozhi slams Union govt over conducting CGL exams in only Hindi and English - The News Minute - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- New Bayonetta 3 Trailer Reveals An In-Universe Singularity, And Lots Of Witches - Gameranx - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Singularity Future Technology Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Notice of Delisting and Intention to Request Hearing - Yahoo Finance - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Six Recent Discoveries That Have Changed How We Think About Human Origins - Singularity Hub - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- This AI Uses a Scan of Your Retina to Predict Your Risk of Heart Disease - Singularity Hub - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- The Moon May Have Formed Just Hours After Earth Collided With a Protoplanet - Singularity Hub - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- UK HealthCare hosting 2 nationally esteemed guests for 60th anniversary symposium - UKNow - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Why Transcend Fund believes the opportunity for game investments is only getting bigger - VentureBeat - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Austin Powers References in This Fool, Ramy, Bros - Vulture - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Bayonetta 3 Everything You Need to Know About this Bewitching Beat em Up - Wccftech - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Longtermism: The Future Is VastWhat Does This Mean for Our Own Life? - Singularity Hub - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Ohio creates elections integrity office while voter fraud is already 'exceedingly rare' - ideastream - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Elon Musk Warns of World War III - TheStreet - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Durga reminds us of our collective obligations - Daily Pioneer - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Glitch in the algorithm - The Bucknellian - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- As the Robot Fry Cook Takes Over the Kitchen - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- The Singularity Image Format (SIF) Selected as a Finalist in the HPCwire Readers' Choice Awards - PR Web - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Singularity Image Format (SIF) Selected as a Finalist in the HPCwire Readers' Choice Awards - Benzinga - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Singularity of the Dual Mandate - Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- What Is the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory in My Hero Academia? Explained - Twinfinite - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Introduction to week 4 of Tekedia Mini-MBA: Exponential Technologies and Singularity - Tekedia - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- A $500 Million International Project Will Create the Most Detailed Map of the Brain Ever - Singularity Hub - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- There Are Cheaper, More Sustainable Ways Than Desalination to Meet Our Water Needs - Singularity Hub - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- #3DStartup: Unlimited Tomorrow and its 3D Printed Bionic Prosthetic Arm - 3Dnatives - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- First As Parody, Then As Free Speech: The Onion Goes To The Supreme Court. It's About As Awesome As You'd Suspect. - Above the Law - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- 10 Hot Cyber Threat Intelligence Tools And Services In 2022 - CRN - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Nintendo comes out strong with its offering of upcoming titles - The UML Connector - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The metaverses evolutionary roots could aid its success | Mint - Mint - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Tech That Will Push VR to the Limits of the Human Eye - Singularity Hub - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Super-Earths Are Bigger and More Habitable Than Earth, and Astronomers Are Discovering More of the Billions They Think Are Out There - Singularity Hub - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Scientists Have Long Dreamed of a Memory Prosthesis. The First Human Trials Look Promising - Singularity Hub - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- NASA's DART Spacecraft Will Smack an Asteroid at 14,000 MPH Todayand You Can Watch - Singularity Hub - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Why You Should Read This: 'The Gold Coast' - Alta Magazine - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- The Multitude of Stromae - Mail and Guardian - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is Getting a Location-based VR Experience Next Year - Road to VR - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- What the pandemic taught us about teaching (On the Other Hand) - Montclair Local - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Where to get the Boom Sniper in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 4 - The Nerd Stash - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Machine learning has predicted the winners of the Worlds - CyclingTips - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Vaonis Vespera Review: Easy To Use But with Underwhelming Results - PetaPixel - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- The biggest problem with gravity and quantum physics - Big Think - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- V gets inked on his butt cheek? BTS star spills the details about his friendship tattoo - Zoom TV - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Robots & Humans: Are we heading towards Singularity? - INDIAai - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through September 17) - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- A Swedish Company Wants to Transform Offshore Wind With Vertical-Axis Turbines - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Decarbonizing the Energy Sector by 2050 Could Save the World $12 Trillion - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- This Sleek Solar Car Goes 600 Miles on a Charge and Is Gearing Up for Production - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Meta Built an AI That Can Guess the Words You're Hearing by Decoding Your Brainwaves - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Gory Throwback FPS 'Prodeus' Exits Early Access This Thursday, Launching for PC and Consoles [Trailer] - Bloody Disgusting - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Meet the New Vespera Telescope From Vaonis - Universe Today - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Of God and Machines - The Atlantic - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Humans Destroyed Forests for Thousands of Years. We Can Become the First Generation to Expand Them - Singularity Hub - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Intel Core i9-13900K beats the 12900K by +10% in CPU-bound games - KitGuru - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- INVESTIGATION ALERT: The Schall Law Firm Encourages Investors in Singularity Future Technology Ltd. with Losses of $100000 to Contact the Firm -... - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- How To Open Singularity Rock in Tower of Fantasy - Attack of the Fanboy - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Intel i9-13900K Tested in Ashes Of The Singularity, Offers Neglible Increments in Performance - Appuals - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]