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 :

#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league knockout stages

  06 Jul 2026
Find out who won the small, middle and large divisions in Incheon.

#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league day 2

  03 Jul 2026
Find out the latest from day two of the competition.

Reflections from ICRA 2026

  02 Jul 2026
From dancing robots to moral machines: our Assistant Editor reflects on ICRA 2026.

#RoboCup2026 – humanoid league day 1

  02 Jul 2026
In the first of our round-ups from the humanoid league we introduce the competition, and report some preliminary results.

What’s coming up at #RoboCup2026?

  29 Jun 2026
Find out what's in store at this year's international competition.

Robot Talk Episode 162 – The robot doctor will see you now

  26 Jun 2026
In this special live recording at the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London, Claire chatted to George Mylonas (Imperial College London), Antonia Tzemanaki (University of Bristol) and Tom Vercauteren (King’s College London) about robotics and AI in medicine and healthcare.

AI brings object-level vision prosthetics closer to reality

  23 Jun 2026
Researchers are developing AI models that could one day enable vision prosthetics able to restore meaningful, object-level sight for the blind.

AURA Foresight Reaches Global XPRIZE Wildfire Finals in Alaska

  19 Jun 2026
One of only four teams remaining from more than 130 competitors worldwide, our team AURA Foresight is developing autonomous technology to stop wildfires before they grow out of control. AURA Foresi...



AUAI is supported by:







Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack




 















©2026.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence