Why the Singularity Ain’t Coming

Over at IEET, piero scaruffi recently published a thorough case against Ray Kurzweil’s sanguine vision of ever-accelerating progress and the whole idea of artificial general intelligence. I disagree with plenty of it and discern nothing novel, but the historical survey of AI and its proponents throws a welcome bucket of cold water on AGI prophecies. Channeling Jaron Lanier and Sherry Turkle, scaruffi worries that computers making humans stupider and undermining cherished values. (As with Lanier, scaruffi’s cherished values appear include capitalism.) Like Dale Carrico, scaruffi suggests the the internet isn’t a big deal and that the species has seen rapid change in the past too. I recommend reading with a healthy dose of skepticism.