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Main boards => The Chat Room => Topic started by: -Oy- on February 15, 2022, 09:36:32 AM

Title: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: -Oy- on February 15, 2022, 09:36:32 AM
What Is The "Singleton Hypothesis", And What Does It Mean For The Future Of Humanity?

Could we be destined to be governed by a single super intelligent and possibly AI entity?

https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/what-is-the-singleton-hypothesis-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-humanity/ (https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/what-is-the-singleton-hypothesis-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-humanity/)

Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: Michael Rolls on February 15, 2022, 09:43:00 AM
to submit to such an entity, humanity would have to surrender to it willingly and agree to be bound by its decisions. Absolutely no chance whatsoever in the foreseeable future. Perhaps if the vast majority of the human race were to be wiped out by some cataclysmic event - nuclear war, giant asteroid strike, pandemic, whatever, leaving just a smattering of shell-shocked survivors only too willing to accept a benevolent decision making entity - looking back millennia and how ancient tribes fought amongst themselves, I find even that highly unlikely.
Mike
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: klondike on February 15, 2022, 10:19:34 AM
IMO the willingness of a large proportion of populations world wide to submit fully to the recent covid restictions when so many of the rules we saw here put in place were obviously, even at the time they were set, completely non-sensical yet declared to be based on "the science" suggests that we are far more pliant than I would ever have believed.

Why? Because of fear and constant reinforcement of those fears by every form of media available.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: Scrumpy on February 15, 2022, 10:21:57 AM



Quote: ' If a singleton goes bad, a whole civilization goes bad'.. 'All eggs are in one basket'.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: -Oy- on February 15, 2022, 10:43:24 AM
Maybe the further we look into the future - many thousands of years - the likelyhood becomes more. That's if we still have a planet lol.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: Michael Rolls on February 15, 2022, 11:27:58 AM
Quote from: klondike on February 15, 2022, 10:19:34 AM
IMO the willingness of a large proportion of populations world wide to submit fully to the recent covid restictions when so many of the rules we saw here put in place were obviously, even at the time they were set, completely non-sensical yet declared to be based on "the science" suggests that we are far more pliant than I would ever have believed.

Why? Because of fear and constant reinforcement of those fears by every form of media available.
But that isn't true of the (for want of a better word) leaders. Can you imagine the leadership of the likes of Russia and America, China and Taiwan, Israel and Iran, etc., ever accepting a superior entity to whihc they would be equally subjugate?
Mike
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: klondike on February 15, 2022, 11:46:08 AM
I was thinking more of the population being willing to subjugate themselves to their current leaders or newly current. It seems to be easier than I would have thought for a government to get the population behind them. Of course that was proven back in 1916 and again in 1933 but it seems little has changed. Propaganda and a common enemy real or perceived and people follow.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: Michael Rolls on February 15, 2022, 12:21:03 PM
fair point - but surely doesn't meet the Singleton criterion
Mike
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: klondike on February 15, 2022, 01:15:31 PM
It's a step towards that. We cannot go from where we are now to there without such intermediate steps. It shows that the many are already willing to trust and follow the few.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: Michael Rolls on February 15, 2022, 03:03:39 PM
Fair 'nuff
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: -Oy- on February 15, 2022, 07:44:29 PM
I read a series of Sci-Fi books by Neal Asher - the Polity Universe. LOTS of books but the main premise is that on Earth we get to the point where we have very powerful AIs running a lot of things, which ultimitely leads to an AI called "Earth Central" that takes over everything.

The idea being that we humans cannot be trusted with our future as we'll ultimately destroy each other and the planet. The end result is this Benevolent AI accelerates technology to the point where the human race exapand across the galaxy, ultimately encountering other species bent on our destruction - and going to war against them.

If you like that sort of reading I can recommend them. The place to start is a book called "Prador Moon."
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: zoony on February 15, 2022, 08:08:08 PM
Surely he must be American.. In any situation the American solution seems to begin and end in gunfire and violence from kid's programmes to adult... Interesting contrast to our domestic crime series'.
Title: Re: The "Singleton Hypothesis"
Post by: -Oy- on February 15, 2022, 08:10:08 PM
Quote from: zoony on February 15, 2022, 08:08:08 PM
Surely he must be American.. In any situation the American solution seems to begin and end in gunfire and violence from kid's programmes to adult... Interesting contrast to our domestic crime series'.
Chelmsford  :hmm: