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The Intelligence Explosion denotes the moment Artificial Intelligence reaches human level capacities and soon after far outstrips it. It’s sometimes referred to as ‘The Singularity’, a term borrowed from physics referring to an event horizon where the rules of physics break down.

 

The idea is that anything that happens after this point is fundamentally unknowable as the introduction of a super-intelligent force into existence offers possibilities that exceed our imagination, let alone our understanding.

 

Exponential growth in computing technologies points to this eventuality, though there is little consensus on when it may happen. Some AI experts think it is just a decade or two away, others believe it will never occur.

 

There is even less certainty over what will follow. It could mean extinction for human beings: the superintelligence need not be evil or misanthropic, it may just have a better use for our atoms. Perhaps it will act as a benevolent dictator enabling us to usher in an age of radical abundance. We may even merge with the suprintelligence with Brain to Computer Interfaces (BCIs) to form some kind of hive mind or other transhuman entity.

 

It may enable our consciousness to vastly expand and to exist in non-biological substrates allowing almost total morphological freedom. Though trying to hitch a ride on the back of a superintelligent AI may be like trying to board a train that’s travelling at 300 miles per hour.