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oldmanhero OP t1_j15oq8p wrote

Reply to comment by SensibleInterlocutor in Are we already in the midst of a singularity? by oldmanhero

That's not even necessarily true for physical singularities. There are many physicists who believe that the only places where singularities might occur (ie at the centre of black holes) have instead a "smeared" or "ring-like" construct rather than a point-like thing.

I would argue that if we have ceased to be able to keep up with and understand the changes happening in our world - and if we cannot plan for them, we do not understand them - then we are definitionally within a technological singularity.

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SensibleInterlocutor t1_j15p36l wrote

The technological singularity is a point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. That is a point in time, not a span of time, which is why it is called a singularity.

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oldmanhero OP t1_j15pfwt wrote

That's not my understanding from numerous sources. Kurzweil discusses the idea of a singularity in the same sense as the aphorism that "The future is already here, just not evenly distributed".

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SensibleInterlocutor t1_j15qdan wrote

I'm afraid you won't be convincing me that the singularity is longer than one instant

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