National Magazine Award Finalist for Single Topic Issue
From the Magazine:
Waiting for the Rapture
One day a machine will blink into consciousness, but it’s just wishful thinking to believe that people could escape death by uploading their minds.
By Glenn Zorpette
Web Exclusives:
INTERACTIVE Mapping the Body Electric
Human senses and body parts are increasingly augmented by a stunning array of high-tech devices. View our three-dimensional model to gauge progress toward the age of cyborgs.
Signs of the Singularity
The writer who first postulated the singularity answers skeptics and tells us what to look for as the world slips closer to the edge.
By Vernor Vinge
VIDEO How to Prepare for the Singularity
Vernor Vinge on the run-up to the singularity and what technologists can do to engineer the best outcome for humans.
The Singularity: Who’s Who
A guide the singularity true believers, atheists, and agnostics.
By Paul Wallich
Two Paths to the Singularity
MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld and technology futurist Ray Kurzweil both believe that we are on the event horizon of a technological singularity.
By Tekla S. Perry
The Consciousness Conundrum
How can we hope to create consciousness if we don't know anything about it?
By John Horgan
Tech Luminaries Address the Singularity
Candid assessments from leading voices such as Steven Pinker, Gordon Moore, Esther Dyson, and more
Can Machines Be Conscious?
Yes, someday—and here’s one way to determine if they are.
By Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi
VIDEO Teaching Machines to Watch Blade Runner
Christof Koch explains how we can use visual illusions and scenes to explore the difference between our conscious and unconscious perception.
Plus: Do You Need a Quantum Computer to Achieve Machine Consciousness?
And: A Bit of Theory: Consciousness as Integrated Information
I, Rodney Brooks, Am a Robot
As our machines become more like us, we will become more like them.
By Rodney Brooks
VIDEO The Singularity: Neither Heaven nor Hell
Rodney Brooks on why the evolution of superhuman intelligence will be a slow process.
Rupturing the Nanotech Rapture
Tiny robots that can fix all our bodily flaws sound lovely, but they violate the laws of physics.
By Richard A.L. Jones
SLIDE SHOW Born Bionic
These robots are pushing the envelope of humanoid design—they can play the violin, unload a dishwasher, and climb stairs.
Reverse Engineering the Brain
To David Adler, the human brain is just really advanced nanotechnology.
By Sally Adee
VIDEO Tapping the Computing Power of the Unconscious Brain
Neuroscientist Paul Sajda, of Columbia University, uses the human vision system for computerized image sorting.
Economics of the Singularity
Machines of merely human intellect could put humans out of work if they were cheap enough.
By Robin Hanson
Teaching AI to Be Sociable
Humans can already form social bonds with robots, but the real trick may be getting AI equally interested in us.
By Jeremy Hsu
Singular Simplicity
The argument for technological fabulism rests on baseless extrapolations.
By Alfred Nordmann
PODCAST Talking to Vernor Vinge
More from the author of "Rainbow's End"
Singularity Index
A graphical guide to intelligent machines in pop culture.
Spectral Lines: Un-assuming The Singularity
Back Story: Of Two Minds
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