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Monday, May 05, 2014

Origin of Trancendant Singularity

I had thought that Kurzweil was the originator of the mathematical term singularity in the Transcendence sense, but the Wikipedia writes:

" ... The first use of the term "singularity" in this context was by mathematician John von Neumann. In 1958, regarding a summary of a conversation with von Neumann, Stanislaw Ulam described "ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue".[2] The term was popularized by science fiction writer Vernor Vinge, who argues that artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces could be possible causes of the singularity.[3] Futurist Ray Kurzweil cited von Neumann's use of the term in a foreword to von Neumann's classic The Computer and the Brain. ... " 

In the enterprise we worked for years withVon Neumann's daughter, Marina. 

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