"Vernor Vinge - Technological Singularity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

Technological Singularity by Vernor VingeMagazine: Whole Earth Review
Issue: December 10, 1993
Title: Technological Singularity
Author: Vernor Vinge

Technological Singularity

by Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge's vision of a technological "singularity" in humanity's
near future has haunted me since I first read of it in his science-fiction
novel, Marooned in Realtime (1986). I'm persuaded that the acceleration of
technology-acceleration is even now distorting human institutions and
expectations, whether or not we are approaching a metaphorical "event
horizon" beyond which everything becomes unrecognizable.

When I invited Vinge to write something about his current views on the
singularity for the recent issue of Whole Earth Review that I guest-edited,
he replied that he had just presented a paper on the subject for the
VISION-21 Symposium, sponsored by the NASA Lewis Research Center and the
Ohio Aerospace Institute. In due course he revised the piece and sent it
along. I can think of no other technical paper that has so many references
to science-fiction literature, as well it should.

Vinge is a mathematician at San Diego State University, specializing
in distributed computing and computer architecture. One of his short
stories, "True Names" (1981), is often mentioned along with John Brunner's
Shockwave Rider and William Gibson's Neuromancer as an inspiration to the
current generation of online computer pioneers. Vinge's two "Realtime"
novels (combined in Across Realtime -- 1991) have been nominated for Hugo
Awards, science fiction's top prize. His new novel, A Fire Upon the Deep,
won the 1993 Hugo; it's reviewed on p. 95.

--Stewart Brand

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TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY

(c) 1993 by Vernor Vinge
(This article may be reproduced for noncommercial
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including this notice.)



A slightly different version of this article was presented at the
VISION-21 Symposium sponsored by NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio
Aerospace Institute, March 30-31, 1993. --Vernor Vinge