Suburban Atrophy

The Growth of Knowledge

// May 1st, 2009 // Technology

Some months ago I was having lunch with a friend and he started talking about the “Technological Singularity”, which was an entirely new concept to me. He was explaining a situation in which humans, through the use of bioengineering or extremely intelligent computers, would reach a state where they could improve themselves at such a rate that we become “superintelligent” beings. This seems like a bad case of pseudo-scientific fiction to me, but it is certainly true that human knowledge is growing at an alarming pace.

Last week I was given an assignment in my digital design class to create an information graphic that would explain the interaction between multiple sets of data. So, I racked my brain for an idea and I finally settled on charting the growth of human knowledge and its relationship with the internet. While I was looking for inspiration I came across this video:

I found a lot of it really fascinating, it makes you wonder what the future holds, and whether or not the Technological Singularity is so far fetched.

What do you think?