Singularity Countdown

Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner predicts at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco that the Singularity will arrive by 2048. During his keynote address, he claims that Intel will be at the forefront, and the silicon in CMOS, aided by gallium, indium, and arsenide, will continue to carry us in that direction.

He further hinted at possible future directions of Intel into the programmable matter of claytronics atoms, or catoms, allowing for shape-shifting products such as cell phones that transform into a smaller size for easy storage. He claims that such a technology, like a reconfigurable model of a car, is visible on the horizon, only "a couple of years" away.

It appears as though the countdown to grey goo has begun...

RepRap just announced that they have achieved replication.

And just what does that mean?

Some watchdogs of the singularity are concerned about the prospect of nanomachinery turning the earth's biosphere into a bunch of grey goo through a process of runaway replication. Of course, as you can see from the image, this machine is a far cry from nano.

The RepRap is an amazing machine, a bootstrap for the singularity. It is a 3d printer, capable of creating objects based on a schematic designed on a computer. Including, yes, itself. It is able to create all the parts necessary to clone itself, in a timespan measured in minutes.

And the really amazing thing (to me) is that the materials cost to get the thing started is less than $400. And the software is, of course, completely open source.

So what's the point?