Over 800 technology obsessed “futurists” — some with bleached ’80s rocker hair, long ponytails, and rainbow socks with cowboy boots — gathered this weekend at the 92nd Street Y to discuss the Singularity: a point in time in the future when technology progresses so rapidly that man and machine become one and machine intelligence (artificial intelligence or AI) may surpass human intelligence. Michael Vassar, the president of the Singularity Institute, says once the Singularity happens, nothing will be the same: “Humans living in the post-Singularity world will be as powerless as jellyfish are in today’s world.”
