What Does A.I Have To Do With Black Holes??

Black Holes are where God divided by zero.

During our school days, most of the people who take up mathematics for their career are definitely taught the fundamentals of Mathematics like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. But when we learned division we had to face an enigmatic dilemma of a problem- dividing 1 by 0. Unfortunately, we are all taught blindly to remember that the answer to this problem is undefined.

The Simple Concept of The Singularity

Consider a function where y=1/x, where the value of x is given by the user. We know by division that if x is 1 , y is 1 and when x is 0.1 it will be 10. Simple maths right? Now let's get crazy and take x as 0.00000000000000000001 which is very near to zero or to be precise, tending towards zero. However it always has a finite and a defined value. The plotted graph for this theoretical experiment will be the given below.

This graph shows that the value of y tends towards infinite if the value of x tends towards zero. But the nature of x having zero is such that mathematicians just cannot explain the phenomena, they can only give an undefined explanation which varies from mathematician to mathematician. This is how the answer to this question came to be known as undefined and also the point at which we cannot explain how the laws of mathematics work or in short-The Singularity.

So What is It's Relevance In A.I and Black Holes?

The above explanation answers the question of the definition of a singularity but it dosen't answer the initial question. As we already know that Black Holes are celestial objects in Space whose gravitational pull is so strong not even light can escape. At the centre of the Black Hole there is a Gravitational Point Of Singularity. Basically when we can't understand the laws of a subject at a particular point, we just coin the term as the Point of Singularity.

If we now compare the amount breakthroughs we have had in humanity we can see that the time interval between a breakthrough is decreasing as time goes by. The invention of the Steam Engine is considered as the triggering point of all future breakthroughs as more sophisticated engines are based on the Steam Engine. The ever accelerating progress of Technology gives an appearance to a point in our timeline where machines will get smarter than us, where after that point we cannot predict or control our progress in technology. This point in the progress of technology is known as the Techonological Point of Singularity.

Bottom Line

Innovators and scientists like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking fear Artificial Intelligence as it is considered to be a subject which can potentially cause us to reach faster to the point of the Technological Singularity where no human will be able to control or predict the progress of Technology after that point just like in Black Holes.