Tim SharrockFeb 6
Charlie Stross

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

The singularity has been cancelled.

What we're getting is wall to wall spam generators, optimized for passing the (modified) Turing test and convincing gullible humans that they are "intelligent".

Instead of the singularity, we are getting the spamularity.

Feb 6 at 8:43pmWeb
Show threadbakachuFeb 6
@cstross the ai bros have decided the torment nexus is the singularity
Show threadbakachuFeb 6
@cstross (as predicted)
Show threadHugo MillsFeb 6
@cstross TBH, at this point it's be happy with single parity. At least the error correction's better than what we're being offered.
Show threadDevlin Feb 6
@cstross slopularity, I'd say.
Show threadDavidFeb 6

@cstross

We're in the gray goo phase of the Internet

Show threadBill WoodcockFeb 8
@drdrowland @cstross

I keep reflecting on the fact that we've reached an odd point of symmetry: the first twenty-four years of the Internet used a communist economic model, the next nine years a capitalist economic model, and then we've had twenty-four years of surveillance economic model.

Unfortunately, the third era doesn't seem to be drawing to a close.
Show threadRatsnake Games 🔞Feb 6
@cstross i'll be honest: i still have no idea what the singularity is supposed to be
Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 6

@ratsnakegames

Start here: https://accelerating.org/articles/comingtechsingularity

Then continue (jumping forward 30 years): https://www.dair-institute.org/projects/tescreal/

The Coming Technological Singularity, Vernor Vinge, 1993

Show threadOldCoderFeb 6
Or perhaps the following may be relevant:
https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/accelerando.pdf
Show threadwiredogFeb 7

@ratsnakegames @cstross

It’s the Rapture, for geeks.

Show threadThePurpleOctopus 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇪🇺🐧Feb 6
@cstross I for one welcome our new wall to wall spam generator overlords. #waitwhat
Show threadacbFeb 6
@cstross always has been
Show threadGérard FadrelleFeb 6
@cstross the singularity ? a black hole of slope ? nobody can escape and go beyond the slope horizon
Show threadRootWyrm 🇺🇦Feb 6
@cstross instead of a brain-in-a-box which slowly goes insane as the illusion can't be kept up, we get slop-in-a-box which drives the user insane with intentional lies.
Show threadDeterioratedStuccoFeb 7

@rootwyrm

Is that not called "gaslighting"?

@cstross

Show threadJuan Per¢ent,🇲🇽 🍉,🇻🇪Feb 6
@cstross Maybe if we build enough data centers we can have the singularity, and just before the atmosphere and us burst into flames it will give an answer to life, the universe and everything. I can't wait.
Show threadKevin GranadeFeb 6
@cstross maybe we're on the white hole side.
Show threadPeter BrettFeb 6
@cstross A spamularity is implied to have happened at some point in the history of Neal Stephenson's book ‘Anathem’
Show threadThomas ThomassenFeb 6
@cstross Neil Stephenson's The Diamond Age comes to mind... 🙈
Show threadPhilip RowlandsFeb 6

@cstross I'm currently working on a game where the antagonists are a cult of spammers for whom clogging the Internet with spam is a sacred duty.

A dumb idea that I originally came up with a decade ago, but it doesn't seem all that implausible any more 😞

Show threadIrenes (many)Feb 6
@cstross we were all primed by a hundred years of fiction to expect one specific course of events... and now a lot of people are convinced it's happening even though reality doesn't match up :(
Show threadAngus McIntyreFeb 6

@cstross Slopocolypse now

(or Spamageddon, if you prefer)

Show threadChao-c'Feb 6
@cstross @angusm let's compromise on slopularity. This could be realy popular buzzword ;-)
Show threadmaybenotFeb 6

@xChaos @cstross @angusm

going further along this logic, if this is to be the *enshittified* singularity, it'd be obscured by all the slop and an observer would need to first cross the (wall-to-wall) excrement horizon to be able to see the slopularity itself:

the behind-the-scenes torment nexus of surveillance ad networks finally going mad from consuming its own shit

like an intelligence born from a soup consisting exclusively of misfolded proteins

(with non-euclidean click-trough metrics)

Show threadunkxFeb 6
@cstross This is the singularity we bought from Temu.
Show threadKarl SchroederFeb 6
@cstross
Which runs on the Antinet.
Show threadTony FiskFeb 6
@cstross we hear a chorus of "*I'm* singular!"
Show threadTwotiredFeb 6
@cstross Spamularity(tm)!
Show threadStevenSavage (he/him)Feb 6
@cstross taking from @pluralistic - it's the Enshitularity.
Show threadCurtis "Ovid" Poe (he/him)Feb 6
@cstross Look on the bright side ... and tell me what it is when you've found it.
Show threadGreg BrooksFeb 6
@cstross Project completion time stretches as you apprach the Slop Horizon entering the Spamularity.
Show threadDavid FyhrieFeb 6

@cstross

It's interesting to consider that the end of civilization may come from infinite artificial mediocrity instead of malevolent artificial super-intelligence.

Show threadGraydonFeb 6

@cstross This reminds me of the late Christina Schulman's contention that true AI would come about, if it came about, due to the arms race between spam bots and spam filters.

The personality and objectives of a Mind that arose from spam filters makes an interesting thought exercise.

Show threadCharlie StrossFeb 7
@graydon That was the premise of my novel "Rule 34" which came out in 2008. I don't claim to have invented it, though—Cory Doctorow was saying something similar around then.
Show threadhattifattenerFeb 6

@cstross I was reading about the mind boggling number of viruses in seawater and it reminded me of the mind boggling amount of malware traffic on the net (spam, vuln scans, slop...).

Shower thought of the day.

Show threadMonokerosFeb 7

@cstross How about "information shitpocalypse"?

E: And yes, agreed; I had a meltdown a few years ago when I realized the (current) internet was going to die
And it's dying

Show threadEdelruth, PBS Passport HolderFeb 7

@cstross

Remember when the cell phone seemed like a modern miracle.

Then you had to add a call blocker for all the spam and scams (a CBSS, I guess)
And a message filter (a CMBSS).

And a security system.
I I had to learn how to access those "advanced" folders to find the spot where I could remove non-requested add-ons to the system.

Nowadays, except for Mastodon, my phone is just work.

Show threadWendroid 🇺🇦Feb 7
@cstross The slopularity is still available…
Show threadrcolinkennedyFeb 7

@cstross but if they do it as lyrics to a song….

does it become the singularity again?

Show threadmarkFeb 7

@cstross I had always wondered how information could keep doubling and we wouldn't run out.

Turns out if we don't require information to be true, it can keep doubling forever

Show threadAmorpheusFeb 7
@ATLeagle @cstross That aligns very well with forced monetary growth, which requires endless resources.
Show threadJackMexFeb 7

@cstross

That’s the #chingalarity

Show thread🔏 Matthias WiesmannFeb 7
@cstross Maybe AIs are like the elves, they will go to the other side, taking the internet with them…
Show threadAmorpheusFeb 7
@cstross Somewhere in this world, in some hidden facility, there still might be ongoing research toward a generalizing entity, which is measured against the most intelligent philosophers the world has brought to light... so I "hope"... and that humanity is ready for the proposals that will arise from its conclusions.
Show threadPete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Feb 7

@Amorpheus @cstross

It's vanishingly unlikely that such an entity would come up with proposals better than the ones capitalism has already rejected, or even if it did, that capitalism wouldn't still reject them.

There's an impedance mismatch between super-intelligent advice and stupid incentives. There's nowhere for the gears to grip to turn the wheel.

Show threadWilhelm GereFeb 8

@cstross

Not to mention plagiarism and theft of wages from the artists that created the works to begin with.

There is never enough money for them. They could never spend it in thousands of years. It's just killing capitalism, not to mention people, and taking money out of circulation and then just sitting on it, like Smaug the Dragon and his gold pile.