Vinge seen as technoprophet

from the when-Vernor-speaks-smart-people-listen dept.
From the SingularityWatch newsletter edited by Senior Associate John Smart: Vernor Vinge lives in San Diego, and is now retiring from his professorship to write science fiction full time (Congrats, Vernor!). An August 13th article from the San Diego Union-Tribune decided this was an appropriate time to discuss his interpretation of the Singularity. From the article itself: "In 20 years, superintelligent computers will outsmart humans and take over the world. Sounds ludicrous, the stuff of science fiction. So how come when Vernor Vinge makes the prediction, smart people listen?" Read more for John's comments. More from John Smart: Understandably, the author Kathtryn Balint interpreted this as a warning of "doom." Even so, it is amazing to see this meme start to penetrate the public consciousness. When I see articles like this, I know that sometime in the next decade an article on the Singularity will make it to the cover of magazines like "Time." Perhaps then our academic community will be ready to formally study it! I'm not going to sit back and wait, however. In a few years our annual Singularity Conferences will certainly be well underway. Your promotion of this list to your future-oriented friends will greatly accelerate that process as well. Thanks.