Robohub.org
 

The Singularity: Sci-fi’s faith-based initiative | Popular Science


by
29 May 2014



share this:

“From the human point of view this change will be a throwing away of all the previous rules, perhaps in the blink of an eye, an exponential runaway beyond any hope of control. Developments that before were thought might only happen in ‘a million years’ (if ever) will likely happen in the next century.” – Vernor Vinge

John Payne‘s insight:

This is ‘the second in a series of posts about the major myths of robotics’ in Erik Sofge’s Zero Moment blog on the Popular Science website.

 

My view is that there is a much stronger candidate for a robotic ‘singularity’ than AI, and that is the development of self-replicating robotic factories: robots building factories to build more robots. This development will make robots ubiquitous to an extent we can barely imagine today, constrained only by unavoidable resource limitations. Whoever (whichever companies and/or investors) gets in on the ground floor of this development will become the tycoons of the coming age.

See on www.popsci.com




John Payne

            AUAI is supported by:



Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack



Related posts :

Simulated zebrafish and a vision-equipped robotic fish reveal how the body shapes brain circuits

Researchers look to the fish brain to create a robotic zebrafish that can autonomously swim upstream.

Researchers develop modular nanorobot

  31 Jul 2026
A team at the University of Basel has developed a versatile nanorobot with propulsion and payload modules.

Surviving the paper deluge: a one-year study in learning from demonstration

With the explosion of robotics research, staying current in fields like Learning from Demonstration is a monumental challenge.

Soft robotic heart offers new way to study disease and test life-saving devices

Researchers have developed a soft robotic model of the human heart that can mimic disease and provide a realistic environment for testing the next generation of cardiac devices.

A mini robot to simplify dental treatment

  24 Jul 2026
Researchers have developed a miniature dental robot that could one day automatically prepare teeth for crowns.

Pressure-free growing robots for soft medical robotics

A Q&A with the best paper award winner at RoboSoft.

Interactive world simulator for robot policy training and evaluation

  20 Jul 2026
Yixuan Wang discusses his faithful world simulator that allows robots to learn how to push, pick up, and grasp objects.

Undergrads’ weed-killing robot wins top prize

  17 Jul 2026
Their robot can travel through a vineyard or orchard without a human operator, zapping weeds with a small amount of electricity.



AUAI is supported by:







Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack




 















©2026.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence