Ask HN: How do you define the singularity?

What if technological problems we haven’t solved yet are exponentially hard and even rapidly self improving AI would still barely make a dent in them?

Then boom, no singularity.

If it's down to a physical processing power limitation then I don't see any showstoppers to humans making a bigger version of a brain. It's not very elegant to just do it bigger, but it at least highlights an avenue to improving existing systems.

I mean we got here without any sort of intelligent hand, surely there is no mystical barrier to the improvements we can make.

OP is referring to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Very good question! Thank you for opportunity to think deep :)

As for definition, I like definition from science - singularity will happen when some group of people, who we name world scientific community, will mostly agree, that singularity happen. That is, epochs named only post factum, not before, not even when things happen.

But what exactly will cause singularity, is totally different question, and I could answer for it with some probability of become prophet.

So, there few theoretical things could happen (ordered just as I remember):

1. When human will create General AI, which will have IQ slightly better than median human.

2. When people invent some computer parts with neuro-interfaces, or some other tech/bio/genetic improvements, which will be usable as commodity, and approachable for large part of humanity (at least 5%), and made these people intellect much more powerful than current people.

Variation of this, is some form of biotech beings, which will have human parts and machine parts, and will be much more powerful than current people, and will got abilities to live in environments, which are deadly for humans, like space vacuum.

3. When people create powerful enough computers to support virtual reality indistinguishable from reality, and invent method, to transfer human Natural Intelligence to those computers, so people will got possibility, to live inside vr forever, and to easily transfer their personality for example to other planet, or even to other Galaxy.

4. Humanity will create some very powerful, cheap and clean source of energy, so energy consumption per capita, will grow at least few times, so we will just continue our current slow progress to space civilization of type 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

There are lot of other opportunities for singularity, but these I think most probable.

It's an inflection point.

When AGI blinks into existence, what happens after that moment might be so instantaneously transcendent that we don't even have the vocabulary to discuss it.

It's mostly useful for describing the time before AGI and the time after AGI.

What will actually occur is impossible to know.