#The Singularity

The Singularity is to Silicon Valley what The Promised Land was to the Hebrews. Many researchers in the field dream of building an Artificial Intelligence so advanced that it would be possible to set it to build an AI even more advanced, one that would be incomprehensible to humans. This AI could change our civilization in unpredicted or unplanned ways.

This event is called the ‘Singularity’ by enthusiastic Futurologists. I call it a prime example of utter stupidity.

To some in Silicon Valley, this Singularity has spiritual overtones. John Higgs mentions how religious groups such as The Way of the Future have already been created around it. It is even referred to sometimes as ‘the Rapture of the Nerds’, which makes it sound like something out of a bad teen movie. Yuval Noah Harari writes of Dataism, the worship of data, but that’s what life will be reduced to if the Nerds have their way — data to feed the machine.

Where did this nightmare begin? With the Industrial Revolution? Certainly, seeds were planted then, when our connection to the natural world was fractured. Two world wars later, and after a brief period of consensual social democracy, Neoliberalism reared its ugly head; greed and inequality became the norm, and when Thatcher declared there was no such thing as society, the worst characteristics of individualism created a neo-feudal world unseen in the UK since the Middle Ages. Zero-hour contracts, low wages, soaring rents and technological developments are gradually rendering the human work force redundant.

And guess what, in today’s newspaper (18/08/20) is an article headed ‘Cyborgs take step closer to reality thanks to polymer.’ Just what we need with seven billion people on the planet!

J. Higgs (2016) Stranger than we can Imagine. Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Y.N.Hurari (2018) Homo Deus. Harper Collins USA

REQUIEM.

What happened to the Welfare State?

Where did it go at such a rate?

It disappeared with appalling speed

Under the weight of Tory greed.

Jumped up grocers from humble beginnings

Rose on the back of stock market winnings

To challenge the fabric of our society

And steal from the poor with blatant impiety.

‘This is what happens if you educate scum;

‘.Well, they’re right in that, look what they’ve become.

None of the nouveaux riches would have risen

Without the help of socialism.

And so we are living the nightmare dream

Of a grocer’s daughter who wished she were queen

And a B-movie actor who found his vocation

In ripping apart the American nation.

What happened to the Welfare State?

It got lost up the arsehole of Thatchergate!