John von Neumann foresaw the Singularity long before it had a name. Check out how his vision continues to shape AI and our technology.
Category: singularity
Elon Musk: Digital Superintelligence, Multiplanetary Life, How to Be Useful
A fireside with Elon Musk at AI Startup School in San Francisco.
Before rockets and robots, Elon Musk was drilling holes through his office floor to borrow internet. In this candid talk, he walks through the early days of Zip2, the Falcon 1 launches that nearly ended SpaceX, and the “miracle” of Tesla surviving 2008.
He shares the thinking that guided him—building from first principles, doing useful things, and the belief that we’re in the middle of an intelligence big bang.
Chapters:
00:00 — Intro.
01:25 — His origin story.
02:00 — Dream to help build the internet.
04:40 — Zip2 and lessons learned.
08:00 — PayPal.
14:30 — Origin of SpaceX
18:30 — Building rockets from first principles.
23:50 — Lessons in leadership.
27:10 — Building up xAI
39:00 — Super intelligence and synthetic data.
39:30 — Multi-planetary future.
43:00 — Nueralink, AI safety and the singularity.
Singularity Podcast
Welcome to — the world’s first singularity podcast dedicated to exploring AI and the technological singularity.
A Transhumanist Manifesto
Check out this modest proposal for a transhumanist manifesto from www.SingularityWeblog.com and let me know if you like it or not.
Is Our Universe Inside a Supermassive Black Hole?
Join Territory: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8SGU9hQEaJpsLuggAhS90Q/join.
Research paper: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/538/1/76/8019798?login=false.
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed ancient galaxies that appear far too massive and mature for their age, challenging our current understanding of cosmic evolution. These galaxies, observed just 330 million years after the Big Bang, should be small and irregular. Instead, they are well-formed and massive, suggesting that something fundamental about our models of the early universe may be incomplete.
One radical theory proposes that our universe could be the interior of a black hole in a larger parent universe. In this model, the Big Bang was not an explosion in empty space but the moment matter collapsed into a black hole, creating a new cosmos inside. The event horizon of this black hole would act as a boundary, beyond which everything—including time—behaves differently from an outside perspective.
Recent observations also suggest that the universe might have a preferred axis, contradicting the assumption that the cosmos is isotropic. The surprising alignment of galaxies on a large scale hints at unknown forces or structures shaping the universe. If true, this could support the idea that our universe is not an isolated system but is influenced by a larger framework, possibly the structure of a black hole’s interior.
Some theories also suggest that black holes could generate new universes through a process called a “big bounce,” where extreme torsion at high densities prevents a singularity from forming. Instead of collapsing to an infinitely small point, matter could rebound, triggering expansion. If our universe formed in such a way, it could explain why physical constants seem fine-tuned for life—because only stable, self-sustaining black hole universes would persist.
Iceland approved the 4-day workweek in 2019, nearly 6 years later, all the predictions made by Generation Z have come true
Fewer hours. Same pay. Possible approach to the Economic Singularity?
In 2019, Iceland made headlines by becoming one of the first countries in the world to adopt the four-day working week, not through a general law, but through agreements allowing workers to negotiate shorter weeks or reduced hours. Five years on, the results are indisputable.
The Icelandic experiment began in 2015 with a pilot phase involving around 2,500 employees, or just over 1% of the country’s working population. Following the resounding success of this initiative, with 86% of the employees involved expressing their support, the project was formalised in 2019. Today, almost 90% of Icelandic workers benefit from a reduced working week of 36 hours, compared with 40 hours previously, with no loss of pay.
Initial concerns about the four-day week were widespread, both in Iceland and elsewhere in the world. There were fears of a drop in productivity, increased costs for businesses and difficulties in adapting to maintain service levels. However, the Icelandic experience has swept these fears under the carpet.