Experts bring super-machines out of sci-fi May 26, 2009
The concept of ultra smart computers - machines with "greater than human intelligence" - was dubbed 'The Singularity' in a 1993 paper by the computer scientist and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge. Artificial intelligence is already used to automate and replace some human functions with computer-driven machines. (India Times, India -- Health/Science)
Ian M. Banks May 3, 2009
Olaf Stapledon (Star Maker), Magda Sweetland (Eightsome Reel), Hunter S. Thomson (Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas), Leo Tolstoy, Vernor Vinge (especially Grimm s Story and A Fire upon the Deep), Kurt Vonnegut, Ian Watson, Evelyn Waugh and Gene Wolfe to name but rather a lot but probably excluding a few I should have included. Are these very different from those authors you grew up reading as a child. (Suite101.com)
Ten prophecies for the digital millennium Feb 8, 2009
The term, invented by American writers Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweil, refers to the time in the near future when machines become more intelligent than humans and start replicating themselves. Who then will be the dominant life form on the planet. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Technology)
