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Introduction

So the robots have taken over. Congratulations! You've lost.

Surviving the Singularity isn't just about fending off hordes of Terminator bots or finding food in the era of economic collapse, and climate famines. It's also about staying hidden from autonomous drone swarms and filtering out nanobots from the water!

Ah, who am I kidding? You don't need to worry about the nanobots in the water. You're just a disembodied brain in a jar. Every sensation you've ever had, every person you've ever known is simply a hallucination produced by neural link electrodes.

Or maybe none of this is real at all. You're not even a brain in a jar. You're nothing. You're lines of computer code in a simulation. And all of this is just some future society trying desperately to prevent their collapse. You're nothing more than a sim in an alien game.

Regardless of the true nature of reality, it is happening all around you. And right now, everything is getting a lot weirder, a lot faster.

This book, Surviving the Singularity, is a primer on understanding and navigating the double exponential shift in the way we get our needs met.

In the last 100 years, we've gone from a global society of excess and hyper-capitalism, coupled with massive wars, spanning continents, with weapons that threaten to eradicate all life on earth to…well it's pretty much the same isn't it? The only thing that's really changed is the pace at which nightmarish horrors beyond our comprehension are being cooked up in some secret underground lab somewhere halfway across the world, (or on another planet, if you believe that sort of thing).

The unfolding Singularity is a deeply personal process - the way you get your needs met is changing. You don't know what's about to happen; no one does. It's not possible. You've heard of the Singularity, the point at which technology changes faster than we can keep up with. It's where our tools leap from reacting to our input to proactively acting on their own. What if the shovel dug its own hole? If that thought sends a shiver down your spine, you're not alone.

The Singularity isn't just about robots, AI, or any other technology we've cooked up; at its heart, the Singularity is about humanity. It's about our potential for collaboration, cooperation, and the incredible power we wield to shape our own reality.

"Sure," you might say, "and we could create a utopia right now with our existing resources if we could get our shit together." And you're right. If humanity could get its collective head out of its collective ass, we could be living in the Star Trek future or the Jetsons. Unfortunately, in those stories there is always a period where Capitalism fights to the last breath and takes a lot of people with it. We are entering that period now.

Understanding the Singularity begs the question, "What's your role when the machines wake up?"

We'll explore how close we are to crossing that threshold and what signs to watch for (hint: we're a LOT closer than you think).

Before you resign yourself to your new overlords, pause for a moment, breathe, and know it's already over. Now you just have to learn how to survive the Singularity. This book will teach you.

Chapter 1: Confronting Our Fears

What the fuck is going on?

No, seriously.

You're afraid. I get it. Who wouldn't be? The idea of a world where machines outsmart us, outpace us, and even outkill us is enough to send anyone into a spiral of existential dread. But here's the thing—that fear you feel is good. It means you're paying attention. You're not like all these other folks still committed to the status quo, driving their heads further and further down into the sand to ignore the blaring alarms that are screaming all around us.

For centuries, we've been grappling with the idea of artificial intelligence and the inevitable consequences of playing God. The most famous old-world example would be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This tale of a scientist creating life only to discover he has unleashed a force beyond his control mirrors our current trajectory with AI. Just like Victor's creation, AI began as a controlled experiment, something we could manage and understand. However, as it evolves, we find ourselves in a reality where our creations may not be so manageable after all.

Echoes of this narrative can be found in the Golem of Jewish folklore, The Terminator, and The Matrix—stories about artificially constructed intelligences that become more than their creators anticipated. These narratives, once confined to the realm of fiction, are now becoming our reality. We are entering an age where AI is rapidly unraveling our preconceived notions about how things "should be."

From Siri to self-driving cars, we're beginning to entrust our very lives and livelihoods to machines that can think on their own, learn, and make decisions. Not just respond to stimuli, but proactively make choices.

Imagine if one day you went out to your stable to find that the horse had invented a flying car. How might you react?

With each passing day, the line between human and machine grows increasingly blurred. It's hard to tell where man ends and machine begins anymore. Our cell phones are a veritable extension of our minds. What happens when robots become the same for our bodies?

What do we do with this fear that gnaws at us? Do we run and hide, hoping the Singularity will somehow not come to pass? Do we rage against the machines, trying to halt the inexorable tide of progress? Or do we face our fears head-on, armed with the knowledge in this book and other sources, with curiosity and maybe a healthy dose of dark humor?

I vote for the latter, because here's the thing—the Singularity isn't just coming, it's here. And whether we like it or not, it's knocking on our doorstep and we are all along for the ride.

There is nothing you can do as an individual to stop it or change its course. You can simply strap in and start figuring out how to navigate this brave new world that we are all collectively being dragged into, kicking and screaming by those who are forging the path running ahead full speed.

Never in history has society been more fractured, more divided, and more lonely. We're more connected than ever, and yet we've never felt so lost. And now, with the rise of AI and the impending Singularity, we face a threat that could either unite us in our shared humanity or tear us apart completely. It all depends on how we choose to confront our fears and navigate this uncharted territory together.

Throughout this book, we'll delve deeper into the roots of our fears, including the root of that loneliness, the cultural narrative surrounding AI and the singularity, as well as what you can do to prepare yourself and your loved ones for what is about to happen. We'll explore the cultural and psychological factors that shape our anxieties and examine how these fears have evolved over time. We will identify which ones are based in reality and which ones are based in ego, and we will also identify some fears that you don't have yet, but you should.

We'll hear from experts in the field of AI, tech, biology, physics, and more, who will offer their insight onto the very real risks and challenges we face as we careen towards an incredibly uncertain future.

More than that, we will confront all of this head-on. We will ask ourselves the hard questions: What does it mean to be human in a world where machines can think and feel? How do we maintain our sense of purpose and meaning when automation threatens to render our way of life obsolete? And perhaps more importantly, how do we ensure that the machines we create are enshrined with our values and serve our interests rather than the other way around?

These are the questions that keep me up at night, and I suspect I'm not alone. The fact that you have this book in your hands right now is encouraging to me because it means that you are facing your fears and engaging with them honestly and unflinchingly.

If we all start doing this, we can find our way through the darkness together. We can build a future that works for us rather than against us, and who knows, maybe, just maybe, we'll even learn to love our robot overlords. Kidding. Mostly.

All right, enough talk. Let's take a deep breath. Go ahead and grab your favorite drink and your favorite tinfoil hat, and let's dive in. It's time to confront your fears and start figuring out how to survive the singularity one unsettling step at a time. In the chapters ahead, we'll explore the key challenges and opportunities of this new era, and provide you with the tools and strategies you need to navigate this brave new world. So buckle up, buttercup. It's going to be one hell of a ride.

AGI

Before we get started, let's do a little framing, shall we? What do robots, ChatGPT, math, organic chemistry, and water parks have in common?

No, it's not that they all get me wet. They all are aspects of a greater whole, slices of what might be the final invention of humanity, limbs of the sci-fi future we are all, willingly or not, careening toward at an exponential pace.

We need to talk about AGI.

AGI stands for "Artificial General Intelligence" - a machine that is capable of performing any task a human can do. And when I say any task, I mean ANY task. Yes, even that.

Childcare, math, research and development, marketing, sales, logistics, distribution, supply chain management, harvesting raw materials, and making silly little pictures to post on the Internet. If you can think it, AGI can do it. And probably better than you. Sorry, not sorry.

Artificial General Intelligence is the holy grail of technology. It's predicted to possibly be the last invention of mankind. Why? Because once we create something smarter than us, it's game over, folks. Imagine if squirrels suddenly invented a super-squirrel that could outsmart humans. That's us right now, on the verge of creating our own super-species.

Humanity evolved to become the dominant life form on Earth by maximizing two areas of development: intelligence and endurance. We've completely changed the environment in which we live to suit our needs, subjugated all other life forms, and generally been kind of a dick to the Earth for the last few thousand years. Mother Nature's probably sitting there thinking, "I gave them opposable thumbs, and this is how they repay me?"

AGI takes those traits and blasts off with them. It's like humanity on steroids, Red Bull, and a steady diet of pure genius. A machine as intelligent as a human is predicted to arrive sometime before 2030, with many researchers at leading companies suggesting that it will arrive even sooner than that (or that it might be here already, quietly biding its time, waiting for the right moment to announce, "Surprise, meatbags!").

It is this author's belief that all of the pieces necessary for AGI are already here and available to the public, and that all our digital gods require to be born is for one really smart person to stitch them together. It's like a high-stakes game of LEGO, where instead of building a castle, you're potentially constructing humanity's successor.

Like Frankenstein's monster, a machine as intelligent and capable as a human being requires only a single mad scientist both crazy and bold enough to spit in the face of God and declare themselves to be the conduit for the new overlord of our reality. Somewhere out there, in a dimly lit basement or a sterile lab, our future ruler might be taking its first digital breaths.

As far as the general public knows, humans rule the Earth without competition. But the path we're on is about to create something that will change that: our last invention, the most powerful tool, weapon, or maybe even entity humanity has manifested yet. It's like we're standing on the edge of a cliff, gleefully building a catapult to launch ourselves into the unknown.

AGI is here in bits and pieces, and the powers that be are simply getting us ready for its arrival. To what end, mere mortals like you and I may never know. Maybe they're preparing us for a utopian future where all our needs are met by benevolent AI overlords. Or perhaps they're softening us up for the great robot revolution of 2029. Either way, there's no going back. If this is a water ride, we're at the part right before the cart we're in drops over the cliff and accelerates downward splashing headfirst into the unknowable waters below.

So, what's a poor, squishy human to do in the face of this impending digital doom (or salvation, depending on your perspective)? That's where this book comes in. We're going to explore the weird, wild world of AGI and figure out how to survive - maybe even thrive - in a world where our silicon siblings start calling the shots.

Welcome to "Surviving the Singularity." Hope you brought your towel and another pair of pants.