Glenn has been talking about the theory behind Ray Kurzweil’s book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology for many years. As technology becomes more and more advanced, the distinction between human and machine will blur even further. On radio this morning, Glenn discussed a similar theme. Citing a report that shows human knowledge could soon double every 12 hours, Glenn wondered what that future would look like.
“Here's something I find stunning. It is both thrilling, exhilarating, and exciting,” Glenn said. “Never before has anything like this ever happened. But also, at the same time, it is really truly frightening.”
Last April, David Russell Schilling explained the theory behind architect and futurist Buckminster Fuller’s “Knowledge Doubling Curve” in an article for Industry Tap:
Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.
In turn, this exponential growth of knowledge will require massive technological advances. As Schilling explains, “dealing with this information will necessitate the development of vastly more complex software, shareability, and artificial intelligence.”
It is at this point, Glenn believes, the argument for the merging of machinery, computers, and humans will be best made. In order to survive such an onslaught, you must hold fast to your convictions and truly understand what you believe.
“That's where we're headed. We have been saying: Simplify your life and know what is true, know what you believe because these guys are going to be able to overwhelm the system with information,” Glenn said. “You won't be able to navigate that much information. No one can navigate that much information. You will have to have supercomputers to be able to navigate, and that's where they will get you.”
“You have things built inside of you that no computer has. Computers can give you all kinds of information. They can try to give computers artificial intelligence, and they will, in our lifetime, create computers that you will not be able to tell the difference between human interaction and computer interaction,” he continued. “It will happen sooner than you think. But no computer can have that human sense. No computer can have that gut check of, ‘I don't care what everybody says. I'm going a different direction.’ That's what makes us truly unique. That is the strongest arrow in our quiver.”
Read the entire Industry Tap article HERE.