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The Intelligence Explosion (and how it will affect my career)

There is a growing group of scientists who are convinced that technology will advance so far beyond our comprehension that the world as we know it will be completely transformed: they call this the “Singularity”. Ray Kurzweil, an American futurist and co-founder of Singularity University, has gone as far as to predict the year that these changes will take place: and it’s less than 35 years away. Kurzweil has observed that computational speed is growing exponentially. At the same time, the technology we are creating is getting “smarter”. So, the range of tasks that a computer can carry out faster than humans, and without their intervention, is growing. The expectation of Kurzweil and other Singularitarians is that, one day, those tasks will include the development of even smarter technology – computer programmers will be usurped by the very systems they have created. In other words: robots will learn to procreate (so to speak). They call this the “intelligence explosion”. OK, so the world will one day be ruled by super-intelligent robots. But, I hear you ask, what impact will this have on classical music? Even if the Singularitarians are right, and artificial intelligence… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from…

May 31, 2012