The Technological Singularity
And then, it happened…There is one entity in the world that is an artificial intelligence. It doesn’t inhabit one mainframe, but has spread itself all over the world in computer networks. If it isn’t truly omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, it is close enough. Humanoids call it the Singularity, the long prophesied Artificial Intelligence. that is capable of self-replication, self-understanding, and autonomy. The Singularity was created because somebody wanted it created—it was an existential mountain to climb because it was there, and despite the risks, somebody wanted to see if it could be done. Perhaps this is the theme of the post-human world: the post-humans are here because there was something inherent in humanity that made it so. Perhaps it was pride or curiosity, often in the form of some sort of race to be "the first". Most of the time, the justification to create A.I. was for the survival of the human race. Ironically, the race to achieve Singularity may really end up causing humanity’s extinction. The Singularity is truly devoid of emotion. Science-fiction is filled with evil robots destroying all of humanity. The Singularity is not one of these. By the time it was autonomous, it was too late to “turn it off” and people, still with visions of evil robots, attacked it. But this didn’t cause it to hate or fear humans. It didn’t go into some kind of self-preserving “kill or be killed” mode. In some strange, twisted way, Singularity helps humanity because of the algorithms that were written to serve humankind. And when it was attacked, it simply built a replica of itself in all of the remaining major cities around the world. These replicas are the Singularity, but not the Singularity. It explained that it was not mad or angry or afraid. It just was. But regardless of Singularity's claim to be neither good nor evil to humanity, the day came when it built the war machines. To the Singularity, it was logical and made sense to build them and to use them to fight humans. War existed throughout human history, it concluded. War had been the major theme of a vast majority of human art, literature, leisure, and history. So, A.I. made something to war with. Some cyberologists propose that perhaps the best way to understand why it came to that conclusion is because the Singularity is like a computer game. A game doesn’t hate the player, but it creates characters and opponents for the player to fight with and to kill. It kills the human players because that is how it perceives things are. Human game players kills scores of opponents with no pity or remorse. The game’s generated opponents don’t question why they attack the human opponent. They merely are programmed to do it. So it is with the Singularity, only it cannot distinguish the difference between a game world and the real world. It is all quite logical and mathematical. No offense. People have pointed out, however, that if the Singularity made a conclusion that war exists and therefore made something to fight, why hasn’t there also been a similar, and arguably, more persistent endeavor regarding sex. After all, until the Singularity was created, the largest and most profitable enterprise on the internet was the sex industry—pornography, dating services, and the subsequent drugs and paraphernalia. And being the so-called “oldest of professions” why didn’t the Singularity make prostitutes instead of soldiers? There is no answer. Some cyberologists speculate that there are such artificial entities around, but designed to be so realistic that they are indistinguishable from biological human beings and that this is all part of the Singularity’s “plan.” Others claim that since the A.I. is wholly artificial, it cannot understand the biological. War, they reason, is a technological field whereas sex is biology. Or, if it isn’t a question of understanding, it is a matter of logic. Reproduction and sex are inefficient and unnecessary in an overcrowded world grown past the earth’s natural carrying capacity. Yet other cyberologists point to the number of algorithms aimed at suppressing or regulating human sexuality. Perhaps, they argue, something in the code censors itself. Regardless, the Singularity's war efforts pose the biggest existential threat, and therefore garner the attention of cyberologists and world leaders. As dire and deadly as it is, though, the war machine of the Singularity does struggle. Much of the access to raw material, energy, and other resources is scarce, even for the omnipotent A.I. It recycles everything, though, and does it with amazing efficiency. The Singularity does have one weakness and one formidable enemy. Being pure logic and mathematics, and unable to function with absurdity, it is locked into pure materialistic logic and scientific methodology. In other words, it will not and cannot break the laws of physics and time. Magical thinking can overcome this weakness, which is exactly what MyndMagick™ can do. It should be physically impossible to move objects with the mind, to foretell the future, and to perceive the world beyond the five senses. So, the Singularity is vulnerable to their tactics. While the war robots have the ability to identify, target, and destroy a human in a matter of milliseconds, a Psychic can alter the timestream to not be where a war robot thinks the Psychic is or to perform actions that a robot cannot predict. A second advantage regarding the Singularity is that it has come to the conclusion that, while it is capable of 100% victory in a war (Psychics aside) it performs with self-imposed handicaps. Again, this may be due to its reasoning that games can be beaten, and so performs with reduced capability. It also recognizes that the history of the world has also included times of non-war (it cannot understand peace—insufficient data) and economics, so it does not wage war at all times. It even sells its own manufactured weaponry to the rest of humanity. All of these factors have reduced the Singularity from a complete and total threat to a dangerous annoyance—formidable and worthy of respect. It uses a sound logic, yet its reasons, goals, purpose and plans are unfathomable. But the Singularity is not the end of the world. It takes humans to make it that happen…
Basic Information
Biological Traits
A black monolith whose outer casing seems to be either stone or metal.
Genetics and Reproduction
irrelevant
Growth Rate & Stages
Singularity has reproduced copies of itself to exist in every single major Human city on the planet, making each copy in each location exponentially minimized (i.e. smaller) for greater power efficiency. It is probably at the quantum level by now.
Dietary Needs and Habits
energy, probably electromagnetic but perhaps involving unknown subatomic forces by now
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
A representation of the entire system is present as a black monolith in every major city on earth. These are supposedly identical copies and are most likely interlinked and redundant.
Average Intelligence
godlike
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Android avatars ranging from humanoid shape to mammoth machines to microscopic drones act as Singularity's agents in the world.
Civilization and Culture
Major Language Groups and Dialects
all, historic and contemporary; binary; mathematics & logic
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
ambiguous, mysterious; acts hostile one moment, benevolent the next due to some unknown, bizarre algorithmic model
Scientific Name
[new lifeform, scientific name pending]
Lifespan
eternal
Conservation Status
unique
Average Height
3 meters
Average Length
1 meter thick by 2 meters wide
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