[asa] Singularity

The web site

http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html

is an essay by Vernor Vinge on what will "certainly happen" sometime
before the year 2030 when computer technology reaches fruition. It is
worth reading.

One part of the essay contains this: "A mind that stays at the same
capacity cannot live forever; after a few thousand years it would look
more like a repeating tape loop than a person. ... To live
indefinitely long, the mind itself must grow ... and when it becomes
great enough, and looks back ... what fellow-feeling can it have with
the soul that it was originally?"

When I look back on the person I have been, I find little in common
with my boyhood self -- or even my self at age 20, 30, 40. Maybe by
50! <G>. What will I think 200 years from now in the heavenlies? Most
likely some of the issues will have faded into insignificance. But all
of them?

Vinge is affiliated with the Department of Mathematical Sciences
San Diego State University

jb

-- 
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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