Trump is the Singularity

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-06/donald-trump-is-the-singularity



Somewhat disingenuous on my part.

The article in itself is interesting, an op-ed piece for Bloomberg suggesting Trump is like a runaway AI. I was originally trying to come to terms with how Trump would affect the Technological Singularity. Generally, the idea is the overall driving force of accelerated change is immune to specific disruptions like this, but the thought of this administration was too disastrous and unbearable to not think it would cause a blip in the overarching scheme of things. While horrible at least we have seen good people still exist and the mechanism of government in the US still has some feeble but real control to the runaway Trump effect.

Too be sure, a Singularity is not immune to disastrous extinction events and the like. Some would say humans still have a measure of control, and that's possible, but for the most part, the path is almost irrevocable at this point..the aggregate weight of our activity and accomplishments are near critical mass.

Trump is an anomaly, though indicative of a natural instinct of humans--even in the developed western world--towards a knee-jerk reaction to high-speed change that interestingly is happening right now in multiple countries. Trump happening tells us we are moving too fast..people want to catch their breath and look backward. It's a biological one too, of our reptilian human brain unadapted as yet to the scale and qualities of the changes both technological and social. Let's simplify we say, almost subconsciously.

What's interesting is that this potential roll-back has spurred the preservation of data, fomented rebellion in tech circles in social media and with information exchange. They are using the very tools of accelerated change to preserve and accelerate it.

As I've pointed out before...politicians, ultimately only have a minor place at this point in the scheme of things. Sure there is bureaucracy everywhere in science and tech, and laws to accompany them but there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how things work and our direction. Generally, policy and laws are too slow to react to be damaging to accelerated growth. Trump's team is too dumb to know coal jobs are not the future or notice how since my last post here on this subject, the massive displacement coming from automation is more tangible and understood.

So is Trump a big runaway AI meme generator? Is this already dystopia? Well, Kurzweil recently updated his prediction for human level AI from 2045 to 2029. I have to say, I tend to disagree there, barring something in his Google research we don't know about. No, we're not near developmentally. With a little thought, a little less knee-jerking, Trump is an afterthought. A footnote. He's too impotent, too unaware, and I still don't think we are headed for a dystopia.

RAMA

 

Wild guess, you're a liberal? And the above is solely based on that.

 

Headed for It?

Dude. You're soaking in it.

 

I'm not.

There's no excuse for Trump.

 

If by singularity, you mean giant anus, then yes. On the other side is the porcelain chapel of temporary respite followed by the whirling vortex of cleansing purity.

 

I thought this was a science forum, and not a political one.
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Well, pretty basic but...

It isn't. Because the overall driving force of accelerated change is the existence of market forces highly favorable to competitive, rapidly-changing information technology in its current technological paradigm. Should those market forces shift dramatically for whatever reason -- say, if one or more of the countries that fund most of those research were suddenly involved in a devastating war or experienced some kind of major economic depression -- the rate of acceleration would stagnate dramatically if not hammer down to a flat growth curve. This is actually an example of a case where a very extreme form of political change can have that exact same effect, where some government decides unilaterally that all that mamby-pamby AI research is unnecessary and we need to spend $80 billion on a new aircraft carrier instead. Now just imagine if Trump decides that the automation of manufacturing is actually part of the problem and starts giving massive tax breaks to companies that don't use robotic manufacturing processes...

That's only actually true as far as the United States and Europe. The entire rest of the human race is still basically living in conditions that could be described as "late 19th century." The technological density and access predicted by the singularity doesn't extend that far even IN America; you could give everyone in Jakarta an iPad, but it wouldn't make them as wealthy or as successful as their counterparts Tokyo.

That makes sense. He's so used to being wrong about everything that it seems like he'd rather be proven wrong sooner rather than later.

 

I expected the Singularity to be a lot more intelligent. Me sad now...

 

Yes - Trump is the singularity - meaning...he has ONE working brain cell...

 

Fitting that SLS will launch with him as president.

Then we'll have two loud orange things no one can stand...

 

Now if we just had one working moderator who could close this thread...
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Oh come on - just having fun...

 

Trump has no effect on things that don't exist.

 

Actually he has two.

One is lost and the other is searching for it.

 

The newsletter section of zeihan.com has comments about Trump and international affairs.

Peter Zeihan-a student of geopolitics-comments that the USA is entering a period of retrenchment, if not isolationism, and that Trump is speeding up the process.

 

I agree, that's a natural reaction to a looming amount of debt and spending on the part of the previous 2 presidents.

 

But possible wars with other nations won't solve the problems at home now will they?

 

We'll have to wait and see if any wars start.