The Conversation Stopper
Michael Roy Ames - 2003/04/12

"I can't imagine trying to explain the Singularity to my parents." Have you ever heard a comment like this? Perhaps running through your own mind? The word 'parents' could be replaced with a variety of subjects: spouse, minister, friends at work. What is it about the Singularity that causes discomfort in so many people? Why is the Singularity such a conversation stopper?

Within this idea of the Singularity, many critical human issues are conjoined. To talk about them violates the taboos of polite conversation. Do people really care about politeness any more? To a surprising degree, they do. To explore this point, let us look at some common taboo subjects and how the Singularity touches on them.

Politics... will be completely transformed by the Singularity. Traditional alliances may no longer hold. Entrenched opponents may resolve their differences. The idea of the political landscape changing so drastically may not sit well. While many would applaud the abolishment of dictators and despots, few would cheer the demise of democracy - and such an outcome is not implausible. Democracy may survive in a different form, perhaps without representation but with every voting member participating directly in decision making. Even without these changes, many aspects of the democratic process will need to be addressed. The idea of one-person, one-vote may have to be reworked. Who will count as a person? Will identical copies of people have one vote each, or one for the group? Unlike today when the difference in intelligence within most voting adults is small, future differences will be much larger. Would it be reasonable to apportion identical amounts of decision-making power to beings of widely differing intelligence? These and many other issues will need to be dealt with. Talking about such things makes many people uncomfortable.

Religion... will be utterly changed. It may happen that the major religions continue in a modified form. But how different will they be when heaven and hell can be literally created, and occupied if desired? What will become of miracles when equivalent events can be brought about with a small expenditure of resources? What will become of an answered prayer when results of specific actions can be traced back in physical reality to such a fine degree that supernatural explanations are eliminated? Religion has been described as a mass delusion, willingly adopted by billions, to help them emotionally deal with a cruel and uncaring universe. Delusion or not, these beliefs are going to be measured against a reality of indefinite life spans, tunable emotions, god-like intellects... and that's just for starters. The Singularity threatens strongly held beliefs, and that makes people more than uncomfortable. It makes them frightened and angry.

Sex... will become an optional extra. One's physical gender and appearance will become changeable, like clothing is today. This 'gender-bending' has been going on for a long time in human societies, starting with things as simple as make-up, and progressing to today's sex-change industry which includes genital surgery and hormone treatments. A person's sexuality will increasingly become a matter of choice and degree. And not only physically, mentally too. When the psychological differences between male and female minds have been thoroughly mapped, it may become possible to adjust one's own mentality to take on chosen personality traits. "Honey? Want to dial-up the libido tonight and have some fun?" In future times of crisis when primitive drives derived from our biological history might interfere with critical decision-making, we might dial-down libido, quash fear and anger, and face our problems with a mind temporarily cleared of these distractions. The Singularity promises to make sex less of a driving force and more of an optional extra. Despite the growing acceptance of gays and lesbians in all walks of life, many people are still uncomfortable with gender roles which conflict with chromosomes.

Money... will change in form and use. We may no longer need it to live well, and we certainly won't need to work forty hours per week just to survive. Whereas our current economic environment was founded on scarcity, it seems likely that future economies will be based on abundance. In an society of abundance everything needed to live can be provided with virtually no work required by humans to manufacture it. Perhaps bartering will make a comeback. Perhaps floating point operations, will replace money. Or ideas. Or kilograms of raw material. Nobody really knows for sure exactly how money will change, but change it will. There won't be any paper bills or coins and we won't need it to buy a house or food. What will become of a person's family home, or to their life savings? When the value of hard-earned possessions is threatened, people feel very upset.

These are only the top four taboos, there are dozens more. Think of your own favourites, and imagine how discussion of the Singularity might break them. (Click to email your ideas) There is no way around this violation, one cannot avoid stepping on forbidden areas when talking honestly about what is coming. The best option is to gain trust sufficiently so you can overcome taboos and talk through them. This may involve a lot of time and energy, talking about other unrelated subjects. But it is worth the effort. When you can build the kind of relationship needed to present new information to someone in an acceptable way, it is a very rewarding experience. It is also a profoundly altruistic action. Educating someone about the Singularity will help reduce their feeling of future shock, and increase their level of understanding about technological change. They may even begin contributing to a positive Singularity outcome for everyone, so communicating these ideas is not a trivial endeavor.

Helpful Hints...

When you are past the barriers of conversational taboos, this complex topic may still cause a marked drop in conversation for other reasons. One is because you, the speaker, probably know more about the Singularity than your audience. When a perceived 'expert' is in the room, non-experts tend to shut up, lest they appear foolish. Also there is a language barrier to overcome. Several new words and phrases are used in the Singulatarian community, and old words have been overloaded with new meanings. (Glossary) Terms familiar to you may be completely new to your audience.

One way to get around these problems is to translate the subject matter into ideas that your listeners can identify with. For example: rather than waxing poetic about smarter-than-human AI's taking over the world, you could describe how an AI might drastically reduce human loneliness. Each person might have their own personal AI assistant, who's job would be to help with daily tasks, protect from harm, and help to learn and grow. The assistant could be very smart indeed, reliable, steadfast, even lovable. Who wouldn't want a friend like that?

As a conversation starter, the "Singularity" boldly stated, may be a non-starter because the subject is too general. You wouldn't expect to get very far, conversationally speaking, bringing up such a general topic in other areas. The question, "Hey James, what is your opinion about physics?" is not likely to generate immediately interesting conversation. Narrower topics more readily produce discussion. Instead of asking about the Singularity per se, one might raise the topic of, Moore's law, or putting automobiles online, or what might be the characteristics of minds-in-general as opposed to human minds?

When talking with Singulatarians, or people who are already interested in the idea, raising the topic of the Singularity will invite discussion, not derail it - and this is all to the good. However, if you are talking with open minded newbies, then the conversation may turn into a question and answer session. Be prepared for this, don't let it catch you by surprise. Interested newcomers are often hungry for details. You might prepare yourself with answers to one or two common questions, and directions about where to gain more answers. Passing on a URL (www.singinst.org) and an appropriate book title ("A Fire Upon The Deep" by Vernor Vinge) can be enough to get someone's Singularity education off to a good start. People will remember who first introduced them to the world changing ideas of the Singularity. You may receive many belated thank yous for helping turn this conversation stopper into a positive life changing experience.