2045: "Echo Sapiens"

Suppose humanity cannot resist the urge to use AI to improve AI exponentially — despite the risks. How could we, then, ever resist using AI to improve ourselves?

Exponential technological growth tickles my imagination.

Moore's law states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles every two years. Moore’s law isn’t a “law” per se but rather an “observation”—it’s the measured rate at which these technologies develop.¹

The acclaimed futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has studied human technology's exponential progress for more than 30 years, suggests a model in which he predicts “the singularity” around 2045.²

Here we are, in 2024, witnessing the awe-inspiring evolution of artificial intelligence. It's not a distant future but a present reality, rapidly making its mark in various fields.

Perhaps Kurzweil’s reasoning fell a couple of decades short. After all, futurism isn’t an exact science. Another perspective could be to argue that AI, despite its immense potential, hasn’t yet transformed society at its core. “The singularity,” whatever such an event might entail conceptually, might still await us. Perhaps in 2045?

Sometimes, when I can’t fall asleep late at night, I often allow Kurzweil’s premise to enter my mind’s rebellious shenanigans. What if current AI developments should be considered tremors—foreboding a massive paradigm shift to come?