Word
Technological singularity
A hypothesized point where machines become better than people at improving machines, and progress runs away so fast that nothing beyond it can be predicted
Examples
Forecasters disagree wildly about whether a singularity is decades away or impossible.
The word borrows from physics, where a singularity is a point at which the known equations stop making sense.
Origin
The mathematical sense, a point where a function becomes undefined, is old. The technological sense was popularized by the mathematician and science-fiction writer Vernor Vinge in a 1993 essay, drawing on earlier ideas about self-improving machine intelligence.
How it connects
A word borrowed from physics for the place where the usual rules stop describing anything.
This word appeared in The point past which models fail, the Involves connection for August 26, 2026, which asked: Is there a horizon in the future we cannot see beyond?
Check yourself
What does the technological singularity describe?
A hypothesized point of runaway technological growth past which the future becomes unpredictable.. Right. It borrows the physics image of a point where equations break down. Here it means a growth curve so steep our predictions stop working.
What the sources establish
Vernor Vinge popularized the technological singularity as a point beyond which prediction fails, driven by the creation of greater-than-human intelligence.
Sources
The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era (Vernor Vinge, 1993), The definition of the singularity and the intelligence-explosion argument