From our Quantum Computing blog a few weeks back (Link), I received a question about when I thought Singularity might occur. For those who don’t know, Singularity is considered the point when Artificial Intelligence (AI) surpasses the intelligence of the average Human. Read all about AI here (Link).

DISCLAIMER – I am of sound mind and I have never contemplated “harming” myself. I don’t want someone somewhere to think I know something I really don’t. This is my science fiction novelist brain at work. If any of this is actually real, it’s a coincidence.

Singularity Cubed

I actually see three (3) separate events that will change Humanity forever. The first is AI Singularity. The second is Q-Day or the day Quantum Computing is able to defeat all existing encryption. Finally, when the first Humans augment their minds with sophisticated AI to learn faster or become more than Human, it’s over.

AI Singularity is not even a question. I believe AI has already surpassed us, not in ChatGPT, but behind closed doors. I know, Ray Kruzweil does not agree (Link). But I believe what we see in the open market is a form of “Consumer Grade” technology. What do I mean? How long did the computer exist in business, government, and the military before we had the first desktop computer?

Consumers Are Last

Computers were first used in the 1930s! Sure, it was little more than a calculator. Turing’s Bombe machine (Link) cracked Hitler’s Enigma code in the 1940s. The first computer available for home use is often considered the IBM PC from 1981. It couldn’t do what the Turing Bombe machine could do. In fact, a real code breaking computer only became available to the general public when Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) came with independent video cards in the late 1990s. That’s 50 years!

The military used the Internet, invented and used as ARPA, since the 1960s (Link). We didn’t see the Internet until the 1990s and only because businesses figured out how to make money with it. The point is technology takes a while to filter down to the masses.

That said, some day we will learn that AI has matured well beyond the upcoming ChatGPT 5. Let’s face it, how would you take the news that an AI that was smarter than 10 Einsteins has been categorically cataloging information about every human being on the planet since 2017? You wouldn’t take it well. So, I understand why this isn’t out yet. What if you learned AI, not hackers, are breaching and collecting data on global citizens?

Quantum Singularity

Same with Quantum Computing. The real threat of Quantum is when it becomes a fully functional computer that works at the Quantum level, not just a single-algorithm calculator. I believe fully functional Quantum Computers exist and the only reason we don’t have them in our homes and offices is they haven’t figured out how to sell them at a profit…yet. That and it would destroy their current, archaic financial systems, what with this old encryption being useless and all.

Back to Singularity. The third piece is when AI and Quantum merge with Humans (or wipe us out). True Singularity is when we can’t go back. Human integration is an entanglement of Quantum and AI with Humans. “Nanobots not blobby humans”, as Ray Kurtzweil says, will explore space. When a fully functional AI integrates with a fully functional Quantum system, with or without a Human, then we’ve hit real singularity.

Point Of No Return

Computers will never be computers again after Q-Day. AI will never be machine learning again after Singularity. When the nuclear genie was released, did it make the world better, worse, or indifferent? We lived in fear of annihilation for decades. How will AI and Quantum change us? Not just beating us at chess but making us obsolete. Do we bow down to it? Try to merge with it? Let it do it’s own thing?

Take genetic modification. If we are ever allowed to genetically modify children in the womb, Humans will never be Humans again. Add to that a Singularity-driven AI, Humans will never be Human again nor will we ever know who or what is in control. Safe guards to keep us in control would be required, but all that’s above my pay grade.

When Humans augment their brains to learn faster, like the movie Matrix level fast, like learning Kung Fu in seconds, regular Humans and old school learning will be dead. You’ll still have the Amish, the Mennonites, and me living old school, hiding in the woods. Then you’ll have a full collection of the Augmented.

The Cost Of Singularity

Keep in mind, we’re never going to get this for free. It will always cost us something. At what point will we do something for the greater good, for Humanity and not for profit? Not unless we as an entire race are forced to do it to keep our race alive. And you know the “elites” will be more than willing to sacrifice the rank and file.

I think it’s already real. Autonomous cars, space modules that return to Earth, chips in the brain connecting to phones. This is all consumer grade electronics. Do you really believe what Elon is selling us today is the top levels of technology? How long has it been available to the Ultrarich? The government? The military?

I can sit down with ChatGPT 4 today and do more than I could 5 years ago on any computer with zero knowledge. What version of AI is available to the Ultrawealthy? What about the dark side of the government, not the Social Security Administration or Department of Homeland Security, I’m talking CIA and NSA? What do you think the Pentagon is hiding in the basement? Actually, I don’t want to know.

Understand one thing. What we have available to the mainstream has already been in use for a decade or maybe three by people with much more access.

Just My Imagination

I want to believe CERN is a portal (Link). I mean, it is Quantum, let’s be honest. I want to believe it is a gateway or wormhole to the other side of the galaxy. I want to believe a fully aware AI is running on an operational Quantum computer directing nanobots and augmented Humans in the exploration of space.

I want to believe we’ve been in contact with “others” for decades or centuries. Think how Nikola Tesla used to say all the designs just appeared in his imagination. I don’t think we came up with this on our own. It’s probably “borrowed”. A higher power or the universe itself is prodding us along. See, that’s 100% science fiction.

Don’t Fear Technology

In reality, should we be afraid of it? Are you nostalgic? Then, yes. Things are going to change. No more newspapers. Money will eventually disappear. One day we will not function in daily life without AI. One day Quantum and AI will manage the air traffic, car traffic, and all functionality of cities and towns.

Is it better? Is it worse? Is anything better or worse since the Internet? Since the industrial revolution? It’s a personal question. I personally think it’s best to learn how to live without all of it, including electricity, but I’m a Hillbilly, remember? Will the technology kill us? Not likely by itself. Will Humans use this technology to kill other Humans? That seems to be the only thing Humans are experts at.