I am currently enamored with a notion: That just as a society could ascend due to a technological singularity, it could do so through culture.
Maybe others as well: spiritual, economic. Magic, if that exists.
In each of these, the idea is similar: The variable in question grows and expands until it is changing faster than imaginable, taking over the rest of society. That a society then changes until it becomes unrecognizable, perhaps disappearing altogether.
The Ancients in Stargate have essentially a cultural ascension, which is (in my mind) why it is Daniel Jackson who ascends and not Sam.
What do other forms of societal singularity look like?
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Cultural: cooperation replacing hegemony. What would it look like if a cultural change made it so that every place humanity now competes, segregates, and orders itself by status, we instead decided to cooperate, find equal solutions, and share resources? It hits the curve when it becomes demonstrable that it actually makes the world better for everyone, and results in a society that hits Fukuyama's totally imaginary end of history by resulting in stable equality.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly less dramatic than all becoming disembodied energy beings, but honestly it's often a bit harder to imagine it actually happening.
Does the adoption of the forty-hour work week count?
ReplyDeleteTony, I would think so. Now if only we could actually get it applied more broadly and fairly to actually hit the singularity point.
ReplyDeleteBrand Robins : Well, things have fallen from where they were. When it hit its real inflection, corporate wisdom was “Just look at the data! Allowing workers to work more than 40 hours is a massive failure of leadership, and should result in the firing of your CEO.” I agree that should make it into the service industries, but it was a pretty big thing at one time.
ReplyDeleteI feel like there’s a problem in that many cultural things are naturally measured as “adoption” which has a natural stopping point at 100%. What kind of cultural measure is there that could double, and double again, and keep doubling at an accelerating rate without obvious limit?
ReplyDeleteGosh, I wish my company believed that, Tony.
ReplyDeleteTony -- yes, yes, exactly. Like, it was a thing that was approaching cultural singularity, that never got there because of... well, pushback of reality.
ReplyDelete(Funny enough, a lot of places where we thought we'd get technological singularity hit similar problems.)
And yes: the forty hour work week transformed society to where it is barely recognizable. I think it is part of a larger societal shift.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm fundamentally a pessimist, and I have a problem with the word "ascend." But I'll try.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a singularity? Is it a point beyond which you cannot return, that we approach more and more rapidly because it feeds off itself, and beyond which it's difficult for us to imagine how things work because they are so strange?
If so, it might be hard to evaluate whether the singularity is a good thing or a bad thing. In Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand, Samuel Delany suggested that societies might destroy themselves rapidly in a Cultural Fugue, which looks a lot like a singularity.
Here are some ideas, some utopian, some dystopian, and some neither. Many of them won't pass Tony's test of eternal acceleration. I suspect that those kinds of singularities can't exist because physics.
Pay it forward singularity: A movement to spread kindness throughout the world becomes so popular and continues to accelerate until the economy becomes based on everyone spending all their time making gifts for other people, and receiving gifts with no expectation of payment.
Gender singularity: Gender identity becomes more and more individualized until everyone has a unique gender, and that gender is constantly in flux faster than anyone can keep up with it, including the person with that gender.
Migration/birth rate singularity: Wealthy countries have low birth rates, leading to economic stagnation and a heavy burden of older retired people dependent on young working people. Those that have open borders and social policies beneficial to all attract migrants from poor countries, war-torn countries, and countries with poor social policies. This will re-energize their economies. Those that do not have open borders and beneficial social policies will face economic stagnation and a loss of their own population. This process accelerates until everyone lives in Sweden, or all countries become more like Sweden in order to attract residents.
Political fragmentation singularity: Political parties become so fragmented that each person belongs to a unique political party, and alliances between parties act more like fluids than 2-D maps or building blocks.
End of the nation state singularity: Plebiscites to break countries up into smaller units accelerate until nation-states become the size of an individual human being.
Mixed race singularity: Marrying outside your ethnicity becomes more acceptable and eventually fashionable. After a few generations, every human being has light brown skin, dark, somewhat curly hair, and epicanthic folds. White people no longer exist, and race is no longer a thing.
Barbarism: People become more and more isolated, angry, and fearful until society descends into a state of constant warfare. All disagreements are resolved by combat. Position in society is determined by combat. You have something I want; we fight. Loser dies. People trying to change the system get killed.
Information silo singularity: Everyone's news feed is tailored to things that they already agree with. No one ever receives any information they disagree with. People become more and more deluded until what people believe has nothing to do with reality or what anyone else believes.
Mormon/Catholic singularity: As high incomes, education, and birth control become widely available, people have fewer and fewer children. However, there is one religion that admonishes its adherents to have as many children as possible. Eventually, that religion takes over the world.
Hypercapitalist singularity: wealth becomes more and more concentrated until only one entity, human or otherwise, owns everything.
Biodiversity collapse: As more and more species become extinct, the process accelerates until everything on the planet is dead, including human beings.
Political change singularity: After AI, human-computer interfaces, and global networks make direct democracy possible, political change begins happening so rapidly that no one can follow or understand it. Masses of people are jailed one day, only to be freed and offered reparations the next. Militaries are dismantled and reassembled every day. Other countries are sanctioned, invaded, abandoned, and made allies over the course of a few hours. Tax policy and social benefits change every second. Riots and spontaneous displays of unity appear and disappear as quickly. No one knows why.
ReplyDeleteDance of Terrorism/Fascism singularity: Not real fond of this one, but government crackdowns and civil violence could feed off each other until we have an Orwellian state combined with a constant threat of terrorist attack.
Pop culture singularity: Everyone is involved in creating pop culture, all the time, and there is no way for anyone to keep up with it all. It becomes very difficult to talk to other people outside your own sports team/favorite TV show/funny cat meme silo. Eventually, even those silos fragment until no one understands anyone else's references. Even language begins to fragment, with everyone developing their own slang. Very quickly, human beings are no longer able to communicate with each other.