Zedagain

Tag: singularity

  • Scarcity is Becoming Obsolete, Are We?

    I like talking about change. I am very optimistic about the future. All the things that challenge our world are changing.

    In the past, society was based upon scarcity. People wanted access to things they could not have. People started to exchange goods they had access to for other desirable goods. To facilitate this societies created currency, a portable representation of assets. Barter changed to commerce.

    Commerce is great. For a three year monthly cash commitment to a mobility provider (www.fido.ca) and a small start up payment, I got this sweet iPhone I am typing this blog on. This is very reasonable when compared to a feudal barter transaction! Feudal Zack might have wanted access to the duke’s library and archives ( the nearest communication and information analogue I could think of ). What would that have cost me?! My life indentured to a duke as his scribe? He certainly wouldn’t let me have 24/7 access to the Internet and a low day time minutes rate!

    The problem with commerce is that it depends on scarcity. Technology is pushing against that barrier. Would commerce work in a society based on abundance? Probably not. If a freely accessible energy source was tapped would our society be poised to use it? If distribution was not a concern would we have shipping magnates? If production was reduced to a 3D printer that could self replicate would we need production lines or slaves making phones in some other country? I doubt it.

    So what could a society barter in a world without want? Artistic expression? Information architecture and discourse? Unique insights and divine interpretations? It sounds cool. Like a Greece inspired Olympus conclave.

    There is also the opposite possibility. Horror films and science fiction stories love to frighten the audience with a world where abundance is withheld from Joe Everyman. Freedoms and liberties suspended. My favorite two are 1984 and The Island. 1984 has been heavily dissected but is very illuminating anyway, history and information is altered, controlled, destroyed or withheld to control three mighty societies. The Island is very blunt in it’s criticism of technology unfettered but features a society who creates a small internalized society and harvests from it.

    As a society we need to be poised to alter with these winds of change. I would rather be writing haiku than doublespeak.

    Fleeting time well spent.
    Our changes leave us behind.
    Singularity.
    ~singularity haiku by Zack

    Govt inc 2(taxation) 2 aid troops.
    ~ newspeak

  • Singularities. There and Back Again!

    From www.Dictionary.com
    “sin·gu·lar·i·ty [sing-gyuh-lar-i-tee]
    -noun, pl.-ties for 2–4.
    1. the state, fact, or quality of being singular.
    2. a singular, unusual, or unique quality; peculiarity.
    3. Mathematics singular point.
    4. Astron. (in general relativity) the mathematical representation of a black hole.
    Origin: 1300–50; ME singularite < LL singulāritās. See singular, -ity

    singular point
    -noun Mathematics
    1. a point at which a given function of a complex variable has no derivative but of which every neighbourhood contains points at which the function has derivatives.
    Also called singularity.
    Origin: 1885–90i”

    In Science Fiction
    “Singularity: A force of change that affects society in a drastic permanent way. After the point of Singularity nothing can be accurately predicted,”

    If you read science fiction you have read about “the Singularity”. The notion is that some item of technology will change things so much that nothing can be logically predicted beyond that point. It sounds pretty fantastic but the concept should not be discounted. History is full of singularities.

    To be a Singularity or “Singular Point” the change needs to affect all levels of society. Things really need to change. The definition of “Singular Point” indicates that some component of a complex formula will not obviously affect its own formula but will affect all neighbouring formula. If we apply this interpretation to a societal Singularity we have some parameters to examine history with. Most previous Singularities have been either warfare or information system technologies.

    The easiest example of a military technology that caused a Singularity was the Atomic Bomb. The arms race evolved with the first use of an Atomic Bomb. Things changed. Ground wars started to lose impact. Long distance aircraft became a key factor in offensive military campaigns. It had become possible to completely eliminate an enemy without landing troops! The exploration of atomic energy provided a very inexpensive fuel source. The changes are still echoing through society as we struggle to normalize the area around the Chernobyl reactor meltdown site and the Hiroshima bomb site. The Atomic Bomb was an obvious Singularity but not the only one.

    Two recent technologies have caused Singularities.

    The ARPAnet started as a military communications grid that would survive massive infrastructure damage, the government cancelled the application as a failure and they felt the ARPAnet was too open to infiltration. The project was hosted at universities across North America and survived the lack of military interest. It grew and was altered to encourage a larger network. It became the Internet. A massive shared resources network that has changed every level of government, military and commercial endeavour in ways that could never have been expected.

    A small device that was offered by Sony in 1979 caused a societal revolution of its own. A simple device that was created to play music on the go. The Sony Walkman really changed things. A new word started to creep across the planet. Mobility! The Sony Walkman was a portable way to serve information. It changed communications, digital photography became commonplace and portable music players have penetrated almost every other portable electronic device. The Sony Walkman might not seem like a big deal but it is still rocking the boat!

    A larger Singularity is coming. It might be an energy system, it might be an information system or it might be a transportation system but whatever it is, things will irrevocably change. These changes might be exciting or they might be horrifying. The concept is popular because we live in a time of change. When historians dissect their past in the deep future they will be looking at key events and how those events reverberated through history. The only thing that can be predicted accurately is that the change will catch us unprepared.

    Good thing I love surprises!