Pluto in Aquarius: The Singularity arrives on schedule

This article in Business Insider caught my eye:

We will reach the singularity in the timeframe most experts predict. From that point on you’re going to see that the top species will no longer be humans, but machines.”

These are the words of Louis Del Monte, physicist, entrepreneur, and author of “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution.” Del Monte spoke to us over the phone about his thoughts surrounding artificial intelligence and the singularity, an indeterminate point in the future when machine intelligence will outmatch not only your own intelligence, but the world’s combined human intelligence too.

The average estimate for when this will happen is 2040, though Del Monte says it might be as late as 2045. …

“By the end of this century,” he continued, “most of the human race will have become cyborgs [part human, part tech or machine]. The allure will be immortality. Machines will make breakthroughs in medical technology, most of the human race will have more leisure time, and we’ll think we’ve never had it better. The concern I’m raising is that the machines will view us as an unpredictable and dangerous species.”

Del Monte believes machines will become self-conscious and have the capabilities to protect themselves. They “might view us the same way we view harmful insects.” Humans are a species that “is unstable, creates wars, has weapons to wipe out the world twice over, and makes computer viruses.” Hardly an appealing roommate.

Singularity can be defined as “ a point where a measured variable reaches unmeasurable or infinite value.”  The technological singularity has been discussed as the point at which technological (artificial) intelligence exceeds human intelligence.  

This concept is nothing new – it has its roots in science fiction of the 1950s such as Isaac Asimov’s I Robot series.  In 2011 Time Magazine published an article “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal.”

I have written on this topic and the idea of “transhumanism” many times in the past – here’s a link to those articles.  The interesting thing about the year 2045 is that this is the year that Pluto will have completed its journey through Aquarius, the sign of technology (actually that occurs in 2043, but let’s not quibble over a few years.

Pluto last traveled through Aquarius from 1777-1796, a period which witnessed the American revolution, the French revolution, the Industrial revolution in England.  We can expect to see further breakdowns of things like artificial borders between countries, such as the ones which created Israel and Iraq in the middle east, as well as an increase in technological advancement.

Of course all of this is taking place now in the transition to the Aquarian Age where the emphasis on technology is much more powerful than it was in the 18th century.  Hold on to your hats, folks!