I used to think it was just a silly idea that no one really took seriously, but here I am blogging about it. After reading Bill Tozier’s rip on Ray Kurzweil’s concept of The Singularity, I’m led to record some…

Sterling, points out (tho I can’t remember the source) that it’s probably better to think of singularities, plural, rather that singularity, singular. And, since I’m always trying to pluralize everything, I tend to agree.

So, imagine Kurzweil is close to being right. One moment of singularity will be the indistinguishable-from-intelligent computer. It will produce trillions of design innovations a second, far too many to ever be produced.

However, the people making this stuff won’t be traditional industry, but 3D printers. The world of consumption will be personalized.

Which leads to your concluding question. “Are we all becoming different from each other?”

Yes. 25 years ago, if you wanted to talk to your co-workers about what you watched on tv last night, you had limited options. While some had cable or VCRs, most were reduced to 3 commercial channels and 1 public channel. Today, our view habits have been atomized. There’s a good chance no one watched the documnetary on Banana Slugs you watched last night.

While prediction is difficult, especially about the future, it seems we (at least the we in the industrial west) have more and more opportunity to have less and less of a shared culture. The American obsession with individualism is driving us all to The Oculas!

http://www.theoculas.com/