Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« The Falling Man | Main | President Obama, Inspired to Lead by 9/11 »
September 11, 2011

The 9/11 Singularity [ArthurK]

There's a recent concept called a Technological Singularity. To oversimplify it, that's the idea that exponentially accelerating progress in Artificial Intelligence will lead a new world that we can't even begin to comprehend before it happens. The point I want to get across is that when we cross a singularity the stuff on the other side seems weird and incomprehensible based on what we knew before.

On Sept 11, 2001 we passed a cultural singularity. Imagine that you fell asleep on Sept 10 and woke up on Oct 10, 2001 and saw this newspaper front page.

Mirror Oct 10 2001.jpg

In October 2001, I thought about that as I was looking at the front page of the LA Times (I couldn't find a good LA Times front page so the Mirror will have to do.) A man from Sept 10 would have no concept of the world shown on the Mirror's front page! Anthrax? Guys in bio-hazard suits? It's deliberate? The RAF is at war? Wait a minute - backing up US strikes?! Then the US is as war too! A terror war? Fourteen Pages of war coverage!?

This Mirror front page just has 2 stories. The LA Times front page I recall was mostly text and had story after story - None of which made sense to a Sept 10 person.

If you had looked at a paper from Jan 1942 (after skipping a month of existence) you'd see all sorts of stuff about the US involved in WW2 - but WW2 was already running hot a month earlier. The only real surprise would be that US was in it up to its neck.

I was born in 1956. The 9/11 attacks were the most shocking, impactful, non-personal* events of my life. Not the most important event (the end of the cold war, for example, was bigger) but the biggest change.

*I had a massive heart attack a month earlier. That was a personal singularity!

The famous Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times.". Here we are.

(published out of draft by Andy)


digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 12:00 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Nova Local: "69 "Local news here quietly discussed that most/al ..."

redridinghood: "Wishing all a blessed Good Friday. ..."

LinusVanPelt : "No. Burr was a POS, certainly. But it was a duel, ..."

Rufus T. Firefly: ">>>Local news here quietly discussed that most/all ..."

Village Idiot's Apprentice: ""Local news here quietly discussed that most/all w ..."

Ben Had: "..., boggles the mind, it does. May Spring bring ..."

Nova Local: " And the names of the two deceased workers who's ..."

... : "We MUST defend Ukraine. And we MUST stop Israel ..."

Dem Propagandists: "Republicans made Obamacare expensive and unafforda ..."

Ben Had: "JT, Good morning. Hope all is well with you ..."

JT: "Hiya BenHad ! ..."

m: "Where's our SFGoth? ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64