GC English The Concept of Technological Singularity Discussion

One of the best ways to look at what the future may hold is to look at where we were in the past. Eighty years ago (mid 1930’s) we had no TV’s, no computers in our homes (computers were extremely limited in what they could do being barely more than basic calculators and took up entire rooms), no freeways, phones were controlled by switchboards, we had party lines (two or more people shared the same phone line), many homes had an “Icebox” that required ice to be delivered to keep the food cold, the medical benefits of penicillin was just being researched, cameras were set up on stands, focused manually and required plates.

Fifty-five to sixty years ago (late 1950’s to early 1960) TV’s were black and white, we had three broadcast channels (no cable), TV dinners were all the rage, large businesses had computers, keypunch cards were used to feed information to the computer (each card contained one line of code, so thousands of cards might be needed for a single program), phones had rotary dials, you called your answering service and spoke to a person to get your messages (if you used a service), watches had internal gears and needed to be wound to work, calculators did only basic mathematical functions and weighed a few pounds, the use of a calculator in an exam was considered cheating, antibiotics are widely available, specialized medications are being developed to treat common diseases, cameras were portable, focused manually and required film.

Thirty years ago (mid 1980’s) TV’s were color, cable provided more options, including specialized content, personal computers were taking off, 512 kilobytes of information could be stored on a 5 1/4″ floppy disk, a vast improvement over using a tape drive, basic programs were available for the computers (including word processing and spreadsheets), the Internet was only heard of by the military and academics, answering machines were external devices attached to the phone, portable or cordless phones were about the size of a one liter bottle and weighed 3-5 pounds, portal phones had to remain within the range of the base signal, calculators were programmable and you might be allowed to use one on an exam (best to ask ahead of time), libraries were physical locations that organized books and journals using card catalogs, specialized medications are being developed to treat rare diseases, cameras were portable, had automatic focus and some developed film instantly (Polaroids)

Today TV’s are in high definition, shows can be requested, 100’s of channels are available, laptops and tablets weighing a few pounds have wireless communications and you might be allowed to use one on an exam (best to ask ahead of time), USB drives hold gigabytes of information, nearly everyone has a cell phone or other movile device weighing just ounces with message, texting and Internet capabilities.You can stream video, run apps and download other content. Information is readily available via the Internet and World Wide Web, library collections are largely digital and most articles and some books are available online. Many medications are available over the counter, cameras are digital and pictures can be printed at home or uploaded to the Internet, families stay in contact via email, online communications (chat, IM, VOIP, etc. ) and social network sites.

The Technological Singularity

What other technologies have changed over the years. How has society changed in response? What changes do you expect in the next ten years? The next 25 years? The next 50 years? Do you believe we are experiencing the Technological Singularity now? Why or why not? 

respond to them:

student #1

A technology that has changed drastically since the turn of the century is that of photos and videos. Pictures used to be physical, now we can store them as small as a few kilobytes on many devices. Videos weren’t a thing until digital video was created, before then everything was physical film and reels shown on a projector. Now videos can be recorded and stored online and on hardware, just like pictures. One aspect specifically that has changed a lot is the editing of said photos and videos. Photoshop and other similar software are able to change just about anything regarding the photo/video, something that can be very helpful but also scary. People can appear slimmer but they can also be framed for something they didn’t do. You can make someone smile in a picture but fake news can be created in an instant and spread like wildfire. This has led to many social media and news platforms providing a built-in fact-checker to analyze what is posted and search for false information or content. Since this feature usually isn’t handled directly by a human, fake content can still sneak by if it looks realistic enough, so that can create some problems. I don’t think we are in the Technological Singularity just yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens in the next 25 years or so. We’re almost at a point of no return with things like Artificial Intelligence, but it isn’t quite proficient or strong enough to take over humanity or anything like that. It will be very important to tread lightly concerning “improvements” to the software and technology. I think that depending on AI is a very slippery slope which can lead to AI having the ability to use humans to achieve its own goals.

student #2

One extremely influential technology that is not listed which has evolved over the years is satellite technology, specifically in the form of satellites used for image-taking using both cameras and other sensors on-board. This has enabled the development of better maps of the world allowing for other technologies such as GPS navigation, better weather forecasting, and environmental monitoring. Society has benefitted massively from these technologies. With GPS you no longer had to plan routes in cars, planes, or boats using a paper map which is time-consuming and requires technical training and knowledge to correctly plot a course. You simply put a destination in to the GPS and the computer will calculate the most efficient route for you to take along with giving you the ability to determine where you are which is incredibly useful in environments where it would otherwise be hard to determine manually such as in the middle of the ocean or at night where they are no visual markers to aid you. Weather and environmental monitoring has expanded our ability to predict changes in weather and climate in greater distances into the future. We used to only be able to predict out a few days max without satellite technology, but now we are able to see hurricanes and other major weather phenomena forming weeks in advance of when they make landfall giving impacted communities crucial time to prepare or evacuate.

In the future I expect the technology to only get better and better at the accuracy and amount of information provided which we can utilize. Commercial satellite imaging available to the public can only continue increasing in quality, as it has been speculated that military and spy satellites possess resolutions much greater than we, the public, can see currently.

I think we are on the cusp of experiencing something like a technological singularity right now as incredibly transformative technologies arrive on the scene such as the fledgling development of AI, brain-computer interfacing, and the ability for instant communication and social media to greatly impact real-world events and politics. In 10, 20, or 50 years when we look back on the 2020s, it may very well be in the context of things like ChatGPT being viewed the same as how Ford’s Model T transformed transportation with the creation of a machine widely available to the public that eclipsed older technologies and impacted how societies operated on a fundamental level. 

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