🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bwxqxw.sq.1@cs.cmu.edu> amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk writes:

> ...
> There is an exponential because of the unpredictable  
> interactions between areas of knowledge. A discovery in surface  
> chemistry leads to a new chip that allows an instrument that lets  
> physicists study an effect that leads to a new instrument that lets  
> biologists unravel new secrets of the mind... and so on.
>
> ...
> My own feelings are that 2020 is about the limit  
> at which things start getting very strange: the exponential will be  
> essentially vertical with respect to human perceptions of time.
> ...

Yes, Vernor Vinge makes these points most eloquently in _The Peace
War_ and especially in the sequel _Marooned in Real Time_.  He does 
not posit strong AI, but powerful automation and some new physics
are the rule.

Don't want to give much away, but he also deals with the other side
of the vertical line; there is a description of what life is like
just short of "singularity".  Much entertaining speculation, and some
of the characters are riveting.

Peter Monta   monta@image.mit.edu
MIT Advanced Television Research Program