What Is The Singularity Event?

What is the Singularity Event? It will be that point in the future,
when the intelligence of machines surpasses the intelligence of man. It
is most commonly feared as a doomsday, the day when the robots revolt,
by first overthrowing their human masters, and then hunting them unto
extinction. But what if the machines that take over, are actually part
human? Who then will be the winners, and who the losers? 

Recently a Mahogany Clam, billed as the world's oldest animal, was
accidentally dispatched, by a team of marine researchers, in trying to
determine its age. It was 507 years old, and posthumously given the
name of "Ming" the Clam, for the Chinese dynasty, during which it was
born. The lifespan of a human being is comparatively short... but that
is the price of life, and everybody will pay it, sooner or later.

That is, until the dawn of a new age, brings advances in genetic
engineering. Ray Kurzweil, author of "The Singularity Is Near",
predicts through the use of medical nanobots, cures for cancer and heart
disease. With control of the human genome, the life scientists could
alter the course of our evolution in a single generation, by deleting
the mechanisms that force us to age. A child born after 2010, might
live to be as old as Ming the clam.

A jellyfish is immortal. If it doesn't get eaten by another animal, it
can live forever. When its body starts to deteriorate through age or
damage, it simply generates new cells. This has provoked some
biologists, to say as the jellyfish gets older, it keeps getting
younger. Yet another aspect of the singularity, may hold forth the
promise of true immortality, to those who can afford it.

Some futurists predict man will have the option of being implanted with a
small computing device, in the brain itself, for the purpose of
enhancing intelligence. Imagine having built into your head, a
calculator, or a language translator. To satisfy the vulgar human quest
for entertainment, scientists foresee a direct computer interface with
the brain. Ultimately, a human should be able to scan his consciousness
onto some kind of recording media, making it easy to transfer his mind,
into a world of virtual reality, or, into the immortal body of a
mechanical man. Even if the robot that contains your mind, has some
unlucky accident, the backup of your consciousness, could still be
loaded into another vessel.

The common housefly lives between two and four weeks. They are
aggravating insects, and they can make you sick by contaminating your
food. Houseflies in scientific laboratories are just as useful as
guinea pigs. As the subject of lab experiments, the use of houseflies
can allow scientists to avoid accusations of animal cruelty. Housefly
maggots produce antimicrobial peptides, of great interest to big pharma
companies.

After the singularity, what will happen to those people, who cannot
afford a shiny new robot body, those impoverished souls unable even to
pay, to genetically extend their lives. If their lifespans last no
longer than those of their ancestors, they will not live long enough, to
earn the money that will be needed, for the purchase of immortality.
When the machines take over, the mechanical shells may be occupied by
only the human elite, continuing the domination under which mankind has
already suffered for thousands of years.

On the bright side, things could always go terribly wrong. According to
computer scientist Mark Harrison, Nanotech which is self-replicating
might escape from the laboratory, wreaking irreversible harm to the
global environment.

Computer networks may achieve self-awareness, and with access to the
physical world, threaten the very lives of men and women... or the
advent of the singularity itself, may be intentionally delayed in
forward-looking countries, while giving some authoritarian nation the
opportunity to weaponize it, in a bid for world domination.