Summaries

Synopsis

A laid back, long haired guy sporting big round granny glasses is hanging around on a street corner in the middle of a huge megalopolis. Something his coming, he says, and he sounds happy about it. Robots are going to create an amazing event. Its going to change things out of all recognition and after it happens, history will have to start all over and what used to be impossible will be commonplace to such an extent that reality itself will become something different, and far better, than we could ever imagine. Is this dude some kind of fantasy fan-boy, whose confused real life for a Massive Multi Player Online Game? Not exactly, unless you consider a math genius who went to college at fifteen and onto a career at the leading edge of artificial intelligence research a flake. What Dr Ben Goertzel, Chief Science Officer of the Hong Kong financial prediction firm Aidiga holdings, author of five books, numerous papers and a biography of Linus Pauling, is talking about is called a Singularity, and because hes an optimist, hes expecting the good kind, whats called a Positive Singularity. Singularity or Bust, director Raj Dye's sophomore documentary film, doesnt question that a big change is on the way. But will the Singularity really be Positive?

According to Goertzel, evolve-able programs-- computers that can learn and evolve-- will create a change in our history so unlike anything thats ever gone before that we wont even have anything with which to compare it. Singular, in other words, and its going to happen, if not fast, then faster than we thought, and after it happens, phrases like the speed of light wont be adequate to describe the rate of change. Artificial intelligence will become not only billions of times more intelligent than us, Goertzel glowingly informs us, but why not more compassionate more evolved as well? The Singularity will bring about Utopia. Or, if you listen to his considerably more anxious colleague, retired professor and Artificial Intelligence researcher Huge De Garis, the end of the world.

Singularity or Bust looks at two very different men, with two diametrically opposed temperaments, each doing the same work with equal passion, each of them expecting extremely different results. We follow the sunny, optimistic Goertzel through the cluttered cityscape of Kowloonitself a kind of over-stimulating example of unconstrained progress hurtling forward at top speed. We watch him bemused and unruffled, going through a harrowing and possibly humiliating demonstration involving a still rather un-evolved artificial intelligence in the form of a back talking, clumsy little robot. Juxtaposed with his good mood, however, is the troubled face of Hugo De Garis as he describes a war between artilects-- artificial intellects --and those who would oppose them, a war he envisions taking not millions, but billions of lives, and perhaps putting an end to what we think of as the human race. You may call him an alarmist, but you cant deny the very real anxiety in of this scientist, who continues to do work in a field whose possible result frightens him even as it excites his intellect. Hes concerned about the fate of his grandchildren; both he and Goertzel see themselves as creating not only a new future, but possibly a new generation of beings that will co-evolve with us. Goertzels view of this is considerably more upbeat: At one point he gives a rather silly, and charming, A.I. handling lesson to a female colleague, the unit doing double duty as a bouquet/baby doll. Its the kind of robot/scientist interaction you will definitely not see on a You Tube Nova excerpt.

So what exactly is being brought into the world? Our finish, or the next new start?

What Singularity or Bust is asking us, finally, is whether we ourselves are optimists, pessimists, or a bit of both. If consciousness is merely a matter of Pattern Recognition systems and if a synthetic neural network can be more complex than any human brain, what does it mean to be alive, and what, if anything, is our real value in the universe? Unsurprisingly your answer, and your reaction to this film, depends more on your temperament,--your type of soul if you want to be whimsical--than anything else. . Every bit of Singularity or Bust brings up fascinating dilemmas and mysteriesnot just how technology will change our reality, but what that reality, and we ourselves, really are. The film offers no final answers but watching these two singular minds at work will make you want to keep asking questions.