Author Topic: Singularity

sam

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Singularity
« on: December 31, 2015 »


Quote from: Wikipedia
Mathematical singularity, a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined or not "well-behaved", for example infinite or not differentiable

Gravitational singularity, a region in spacetime in which tidal gravitational forces become infinite

Technological singularity, a hypothetical event in which artificial general intelligence (constituting, for example, intelligent computers, computer networks, or robots) would be capable of recursive self-improvement (progressively redesigning itself)

Temporal singularity, otherwise knows as a point of divergence, a concept in speculative fiction, usually an item or event triggered by an item that results in divergent narratives, in which the singularity alters the new timeline away from a prior "default" state, leaving behind a parallel universe in which the singularity did not occur; this is the basis of much of the "Alternate history" genre and may involve technology in "hard" science fiction, or may involve anything up to or including magic as the basis of the "what if?" scenario...

For the purposes of this post let's call the singularity me, alone on this site, bound to it as if by gravity, hard to define and according to critical observers not always well behaved, generally intelligent and hopefully capable of self-improvement ("progressively redesigning" also sounds good), always up for a divergent narrative, often feeling as if I live in a parallel universe and capable of falling into the black hole of the "what if?" scenario.

I've been posting here for almost 11 years, which is a fair chunk of my life. Three of those years were spent in the company of many others. They're all gone now, here, there and everywhere. I miss some of them a lot more than others, but in a way I miss all of them, because together we made a forum.

This style of expressing myself has become so ingrained that when for technical reasons it seemed I was going to have to put the site in stasis, or heaven forbid put it down, I went and started another one to be able to carry on the same way: my own little expanding universe. I wish I hadn't, or had at least stopped short of whimsically buying yet another domain, but I can't decide which should go. It's been easier to maintain the divergence.

I have no idea how many people pass through, as I turned off the stats facility a while ago. (There's probably a helpful online tool if anybody's interested.) The last visitor I can definitely confirm was the publisher of a cycling magazine who told me he stayed up half the night reading.



I don't have any plans for acf except to keep it indeterminately parked in a nostalgic orbit around an impossible dream. You can register, which might be fun, or you can just read your fill as we (Gertrude, Theo, Agony Guy, and a library of ghosts) continue our cruise through the event horizon.