Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> writes:
> I have read about the concept of "doubling time" for knowledge. It
> is the time it takes us to double our amount of knowledge in a
> specific field. It is different for different fields. Biology was
> one of the smallest doubling times, down to 18 months a few years
> ago. This doubling time does not remain constant, but keeps
> shrinking. This does imply singularity in different fields at
> different times.
Of course, different fields are also limited by each other (and
stimulated). Genomics is rapidly approaching the limits of current
computing and might get slowed, especially once we get into the
protenomics era. The same could happen to computer hardware if
nanotech doesn't arrive in time - but it might get the software a
chance to catch up :-)
The problem with having a total singularity in a field is that all
fields are dependent on each other. The only fields that might have
real individual singularities are the finite fields where one day
everything can be known (stamp collecting?).
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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