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Where it came from: The thought of a technological singularity actually originally was produced out of the mind of a science fiction writer by the name of Vernor Vinge. Vernor wrote about superhuman artificial intelligence in his books dating back to 1960s. At this point the thought of artificial intelligence being anywhere near where it is today would have been a laugh, an afterthought, almost a joke. (Grossman 2009) Being the first person to really use the term singularity though, he properly predicted the possibility of a full technological singularity and its utter consequences on human kind. He wrote later about what it really means for the human population in a more serious matter in a write up to NASA in 1993. (Vinge 1993) The article was later published in a scientific magazine and word spread quickly through the small intelligence community at the time about this idea of a singularity. I.J Good, a British mathematician also proposed a concept similar to this idea out of the science fiction book. He basically said that an unintelligent machine that can surpass the intellect of man would be the last invention man would ever create. Both these predictions were largely ignored through time until fairly recently, and their early research is now being credited. (Institute 2012)
Sources: Video: Kurzweil, Ray. The Six Epochs from The Singularity is Near. Youtube.com.
Transhumanist Forums, 7 June 2009. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOC0DBvhuaY&feature=related
Photo: Kurzweil, Ray. Countdown to Singularity. N.d. Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence
. Kurzweil AI Network, 10 Nov. 2009. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/images/countdown1.png
