Vernor Vinge

Author, The Coming Technological Singularity

Vernor Vinge is a professor of mathematics at San Diego State University. He is a science fiction writer whose works include A Fire Upon the Deep and Rainbow's End. He is the author of the seminal essay "The Coming Technological Singularity" in which he postulates "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."

He said regarding the event horizon synopsis of technological progress, "Before the invention of writing, almost every insight was happening for the first time (at least to the knowledge of the small groups of humans involved). When you are at the beginning, everything is new. In our era, almost everything we do in the arts is done with awareness of what has been done before. In the early post-human era, things will be new again because anything that requires greater than human ability has not already been done by Homer or da Vinci or Shakespeare."

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video

2008 Singularity Summit, Interview with Bob Pisani

audio

2.15.07 Long Now Foundation, What If the Singularity Does NOT Happen?