Benjamin Roosien

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Wiki Entry #1: Vacuum Tubes

A vacuum tube is a device that controls an electrical current by placing one electrode - a negatively-charged, electron-emitting heated tungsten filament - opposite another electrode - with a positively-charged power source - within a vacuum-sealed, glass-covered cylinder, creating a one-way power current inside (Calvert, 2003). The tungsten filament, also called a cathode, is usually covered by another metal and emits negatively-charged electrons when properly heated. Its electron-emitting negative charge attracts more electrons, which are supplied by a power source. The positive charge of the power source connects to the other electrode, the anode, which collects the electrons emitted by the cathode, establishing the power current (Calvert, 2003). The power current’s voltage can be amplified by inserting a small grid in between the anode and the cathode, creating what is referred to as a “triode (Blacharski, 2010).”

Invention and history of the vacuum tube

Thomas Edison created the first diode, a device containing two electrodes that cause electrons to flow in one direction, in 1883 by placing a metal plate between two heated filaments while tweaking his lightbulb project (Hesselgrave, 2004). This electron current is referred to as the Edison effect (Hesselgrave, 2004). In 1904, Sir John Fleming used the Edison effect to modify diodes to detect signals in a radio receiver (Hesselgrave, 2004). By introducing an electrode between the cathode and anode in a tube in 1907, Lee DeForest created a vacuum tube which functioned as a valve to control energy flow (Hesselgrave, 2004). 1912 found vacuum tubes first being used to amplify telephone signals by the Western Electric Company, which soon began producing tubes for the United States Army (Hesselgrave, 2004). Vacuum tubes were developed and tweaked to taste throughout the 1920’s: some tubes demanded high power, and some demanded low power; some were created to have less of a “hum” noise than others, etc. Vacuum tube technology was continually tweaked and improved upon until 1929, after which the differences became more subtle: changes in power load, size, and packaging made for the most significant vacuum tube developments during that time (Hesselgrave, 2004). The final technological impact in tube manufacturing occurred in 1958, when tubes became smaller than the top segment of a human’s little finger. Tubes were soon replaced by transistors (Hesselgrave, 2004).

Vacuum tube use in computers

Vacuum tubes were used extensively to control power distribution in early electronic computers. These vacuum tubes were oftentimes used instead of mechanical switches. An example of a machine that used vacuum tubes in this way was the ENIAC Mark 1 (Hames, 2009). In addition to being used as a switch, vacuum tubes also amplified, or strengthened, weak electrical signals going to the computer (Hames, 2009). This automatic power regulation helped make the transition from mechanical computers and calculators to electronic, and eventually digital, computers and calculators. Many of the technological advancements in the world of computing would not have been made without the use of vacuum tubes.

Drawbacks of vacuum tubes

Even though vacuum tubes were essential to building electrical, as opposed to mechanical, computers, there remained many downsides to their use. Not the least of these is the space that tube-operated devices require in their housing room. Many early tube-operated electronic computers required thousands of vacuum tubes. These devices not only took up large amounts of space, they also generated large amounts of heat (Blacharski, 2010). In fact, Eckert and Mauchly’s UNIVAC building in Philadelphia, PA got so hot from their 5,000 tube machine, which created 120 kilowatts of heat, work during the summer of 1950 had to be performed in shorts and undershirts (Martin & Aspray, 1996). The tubes themselves were also fragile, needing constant supervision and replacement whenever oxygen entered the vacuum chamber, interfering and damaging the hot filaments (Blacharski, 2010).

Vacuum tube use today

Although tubes were eventually replaced by transistors in the 1960’s, they are still used today for many audio devices such as high-end guitar amplifiers, as they are thought to produce a higher-quality sound than transistors. They are also currently used in certain cases by the military, because they are unaffected by radio waves produced by atomic explosions (Blacharski, 2010).

Works Cited

Blacharski, Dan (2003-2010). What is a Vacuum Tube? Retrieved from [1]

Calvert, J.B. (2003). Vacuum Tubes. Retrieved from [2]

Campbell-Kelly Martin, ., & Aspray, W. (1996). InComputer: A History of the Information Machine (p. 107). New York: Harper Collins.

Hames, Roderick (2009). News Flash! A New Generations of Computers is about to be Announced. Retrieved from [3]

Hesselgrave, Dor (2004). A Short Technical Early History of Vacuum Tubes (Electron Valves). Retrieved from [4]

Wiki Entry #2: LucasArts

LucasArts is a video game developing company founded and named after chairman and filmmaker George Lucas in 1982 (Healy, 2009). Originally purposed to be a companion organization for Lucas’ Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic production companies, Lucas Arts became known for its exploration of the Adventure video game genre, alongside rival company Sierra Online (Nagata, 2009). Early on in the company’s existence, LucasArts, then called Lucasfilm Games, released esteemed 1980’s Atari titles such as Labyrinth, which was considered the first adventure game and was named after one of Lucas’ film productions, and The Curse of Monkey Island (Healy, 2009). Since 1990, Lucasfilm Games has been known as LucasArts, and has developed popular games both publicly and critically.

SCUMM

One of LucasArts’ breakthroughs was the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) scripting language. Considered very advanced for its mid-1980’s time period, SCUMM provided the backbone for each of the company’s subsequent games. SCUMM was introduced in 1987 as the engine for Lucasfilm Games’ Maniac Mansion (Rodman, 2010). It allowed for multiple scripts to be run within the coding language without causing gameplay interference. This scripting freedom allowed for a more enriching game environment by adding elements such as random sounds and background information (Rodman, 2010). This advancement helped create 12 classic Lucasfilm Games that inspired other developers to create similar gaming experiences (Rodman, 2010). Although games are no longer created to use SCUMM, its name lives on in freeware game engine interpreter ScummVM, which allows for continued play and reproduction of older games (Lord, 2003).

Platforms

Although many of Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts most influential titles were developed for the Atari platform, the company has created games across technologies and may be best known for its PC adventure games, which it continued to make throughout the 1990’s, despite slower sales due to the public’s interest in console-based, story-less action games from 1998 to 2005 (Healy, 2009). Since 2005, however, LucasArts has started to gain prominence once more, with acclaimed releases such as the Lego Star Wars series and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (French, 2010).

Star Wars

While the Star Wars series has been LucasArts’ most profitable enterprise of late, it was not featured immediately by the company - despite its potential for capital and the fact that they gave licensing rights to other developers to develop Star Wars games (Edge Staff, 2009). In fact, games based on other Lucasfilm productions, such as Indiana Jones and Labyrinth, were released far earlier than the first Star Wars game, which came in 1993. This game, called X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, was a success, based on military flight simulators developed by LucasArts in the past (Edge Staff, 2009). Since then, LucasArts has released so many Star Wars-related games that it has received criticism, as many of these games, such as Dark Forces, have strayed from the company’s adventure game precedent (French, 2010). Despite this criticism, LucasArts has remained committed to the Star Wars franchise, producing little else over the past decade (Lucas Arts, 2010). Future Star Wars releases are planned, as well, such as continuations of the Lego Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic, and Force Unleashed series (Lucas Arts, 2010).

Works Cited

Edge Staff (December 12, 2009). A Short History of LucasArts. Retrieved from [5]

French, Michael (April 28, 2010). Interview: LucasArts. Retrieved from [6]

Healy, Brian (January 23, 2009). LucasArts Retro Part 1 - A Primer. Retrieved from [7]

Lord, Timothy (August 2, 2003). Scumm 0.5.0 Out With Some Official Game Support. Retrieved from [8]

Lucas Arts (2010). Game History. Retrieved from [9]

Nagata, Tyler (May 26, 2009). LucasArts vs Sierra Part Two: The Remembering. Retrieved from [10]

Rodman, Adam (2010). SCUMM: Adventure - LucasArts Style. Retrieved from [11]

Wiki Entry #3: The Internet Archive

Started in 1996 by Brewster Kahle when he founded the Alexa Internet company, the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization attempting to catalogue digital media for preservation (Green, 2002). The vision of the San Francisco-based establishment is to serve the function of a library for text, audio, moving images, software, and web pages (“About the Internet Archive,” 2001). The stored information in the Archive was measured at over three petabytes in 2008 (“Internet Archive, Sun Create,” 2009).

The Wayback Machine

One the major projects started by the Internet Archive is the Wayback Machine. First available to the public in 2001, the Alexa Internet company-developed web application adds a copy of the Internet to its database every two months. Each copy is said to be equivalent in size to 15,000 Encyclopedia Britannica copies (Green, 2002). In 2007, the Wayback Machine completed its largest Web crawl, archiving two million pages (“The Wayback Machine,” 2004). A web crawl is an organized search of the Web. The Wayback Machine, named after a fictional invention from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, is considered by many people to be an extremely important artifact of the Web (Green, 2002). When the Machine is used as an archival tool, pages can be dated and tracked to provide content research and page validity (Murphy & O’Connor, 2007). This can help in retrieving historical records, and aids in preserving open-source Web code for developers. The Wayback Machine has provided snapshots of over 55 billion Web pages and adds 20 terabytes of data a month to its archive (Murphy & O’Connor, 2007).

The Audio Archive

The Internet Archive collects more data than just copies of Web sites. Its media library, including text, audio, moving images, and software, collects works belonging to the Public Domain (“Welcome to Audio Archive,” 2001). Public Domain work either has an expired copyright or has been released to the public via the Creative Commons. Including among this collection of music have been live recordings of Grateful Dead performances, which the band allowed concertgoers to reproduce (Barton, 2005). Although these were among the most popular inclusions of the Internet Archive audio catalogue, a cease and desist letter was sent to the organization, which complied by taking the band’s recordings down (Barton, 2005). Since then, the recordings have been re-posted.

Copyright Concerns

The Internet Archive has struggled with other copyright concerns. One of the goals of the organization was to publish 10,027 books from 1930 that were in the public domain. However, because 174 of these books were still in print, the Archive had to wait seven years before they could do anything with them (Green, 2002). Copyright expert Lawrence Lessig is a proponent of the Internet Archive, specifically of Brewster Kahle, but he has expressed doubts that the Archive will accomplish all it wants to under current copyright law (Green, 2002).

The Prelinger Archives

Another well-known collection within the Internet Archive is the Prelinger Archives. Started in 1983 by Rick Prelinger, the Prelinger Archives is a collection of over 60,000 advertising, educational, amateur, and industrial films (“Welcome to Prelinger Archives,” 2001). 2,000 of these films are accessible from the Internet Archives, and the entire collection was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002 (“Welcome to Prelinger Archives,” 2001). The Internet Archive will continue to receive more titles from the Prelinger Archives, and 500 additional films are expected to arrive shortly (8).

Works Cited

About The Internet Archive (2001). Retrieved June 24, 2010, from [12]

Barton, Matt (2005). The Grateful Dead and the Internet Archive debacle. Retrieved from [13]

Green, Heather (2002). A Library as Big as the World. Retrieved from [14]

Internet Archive, Sun create 'living history' of Web (2009). Retrieved June 24, 2010 from [15]

Murphy, Jamie, & O'Connor, Peter (2007). Take me back: Validating the Wayback Machine. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 4. Retrieved from [16]

The Wayback Machine (2001). Retrieved June 24, 2010, from [17]

Welcome to Audio Archive (2001). Retrieved June 24, 2010, from [18]

Welcome to Prelinger Archives (2001). Retrieved June 24, 2010, from [19]

Wiki Article: The Technological Singularity

Abstract

Singularity writers like Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge have built on the concepts created by IJ Good to form strong theories behind the idea of super artificial intelligence. These theories have developed over time by incorporating other scientific concepts, and have even provided answers to criticism. This development has turned the Singularity theory into a popular technological movement.

Introduction/Thesis

The technological Singularity is defined by many to be the point at which artificial intelligence becomes equal to human intelligence. There have been an abundance of theories about the Singularity for the better part of the century, which has led to varying theories about what is to come, and whether or not it is a good thing. The major theorists behind the idea of the Singularity have developed each others’ ideas, strengthened them over time, and have provided answers for criticisms of the event.

Singularity theorists

When discussing the varying theories on the Singularity, it is important to focus on the major people and institutions behind them, as their own individual agenda can oftentimes color their perception of what the Singularity can or should be.

IJ Good

Although he did not use the term, “Singularity,” IJ Good had a similar idea with his concept of ultraintelligence, and is considered be the first to discuss its probability. To define his term, he said, “Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever” (Good, 1963). Good also described this ultraintelligent machine as the “Last invention that man need make,” because its creation would inevitably lead to the “intelligence explosion,” in which the ultraintelligent inventions would begin to create their own inventions and ideas - potentially including creative ends such as prose and poetry (Good, 1963). Although humans would have to use positive and negative reinforcement to educate the original ultraintelligent machine, which would probably be a robot, its subsequent creations would not need human interaction to work (Good, 1963). this “intelligence explosion” would result in literally unimaginable ends. Good predicted this would happen by the end of the 20th century, and that “The survival on man depends on” its arrival, as they could use these machines as tools for the continuation of survival (Good, 1963).

IJ Good was a mathematician born in London, England in 1916. He is considered a brilliant mathematician with a knack for probability, which he used to predict ultraintelligence. In 1944, to help England fight in World War II, he created ‘Colossus Machines,’ which are considered by many to be the first electronic computers. In 1974, after working with Alan Turing, known for his test for measuring computer intelligence, Good worked on the Manchester Mark 1, which was the first computer to be controlled by an internal program (Lee, 1994). It is this background in probability and computer design that helped Good become a technological expert and formulate his theory on ultraintelligence.

Vernor Vinge

Picking up where Good left off, Vernor Vinge does use the term “Singularity.” He emphasized his belief in 1993 that super-human intelligence would arrive by 2030, which, to him, would be the precise definition of Singularity (Vinge, 1993). What Vinge had in mind when he wrote about super-human intelligence was the human use of smarter-than-human machines to think beyond their limited capabilities and, thus, becoming super-humanly intelligent themselves. Vinge has also said that humans may be also made more intelligent through biology (Vinge, 1993). Although technology would help humans become more intelligent, Vinge does not agree with Good’s idea of using super-intelligent machines as tools, arguing that chimpanzees are not in the habit of using humans as tools (Vinge, 1993). Instead, these super-intelligent machines would be entities of their own. This development, Vinge said, would bring about the end of the age of humans (Vinge, 1993).

Vinge also laid out what he called “Symptoms” for the coming Singularity. These included technological advancements in processor speed, higher-level jobs being taken over by machines, and accelerated flow of ideas (Vinge, 1993). He said this process would be rapid; faster than any technological advancements so far, and would essentially create a “runway” for the Singularity to take off from. Indeed, Vinge has said that this process will most likely be so quick that the technology will seem to “wake up” (Vinge, 1993). Unlike Good and many other Singularity thinkers, Vinge has expressed a degree of concern about this, openly wishing for more time to prepare.

Also in sharp contrast to other Singularity philosophers is Vinge’s admission that the event simply might not happen. For this to be the case, modern technology would have to be significantly further from human intelligence than noted, possibly 10 orders of magnitude shorter, in which case development would “level off” in the 2010’s (Vinge, 1993). If this were the case, any possibility of a Singularity-type occurrence would be possibly over hundreds of year away, if not totally impossible. But, he has said, if there is any possibility of the Singularity, it will eventually happen (Vinge, 1993).

While popularly known for his theories on the Singularity, Vinge is equally regarded as a science fiction writer. The Okemos, Michigan native and Michigan State University album Vinge has also been a math and computer science professor at San Diego State University (Vernor Vinge, 2010). Although he’s serious about his predictions of the Singularity, Vinge has written science fiction regarding the matter, and is well-known for his 1992 novel, A Fire in the Deep, which was centered around the event. Well-known for the detailed research and thinking devoted to his novels, Vinge has been able to use that outlet as a way to theorize what the Singularity may look like (Vernor Vinge, 2010).

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil, perhaps the most well-known Singularity expert, took Vinge’s concept of the Singularity and helped popularize it with books, essays, and lectures. Sticking close to Vinge’s timetable, Kurzweil has provided outlines of what the post-Singularity future would look like - progressing from artificially intelligent helpers to nanotechnology-based medical enhancements to implanted devices that can put the mind in multiple places at once (Kurzweil, 2006). While all of these theories provide simple speculation, Kurzweil is most focused and optimistic on the medically-related aspects of a post-Singularity world. He has written that by the 2030, most people will have replaced their internal organs with robots (Wolf, 2008). This would allow for longer life, while the world of technology works on a way to upload human minds into computers (Kurzweil, 2000). Kurzweil has said this technology should arrive by 2040, and will create exact copies of human minds, planting them into machines as “backups” in case of accidental damage to one’s physical body (Kurzweil, 2000). Kurzweil’s focus on artificial intelligence combining with human intelligence stands in stark contrast to Vinge’s focus on new super-intelligent entities, and Good’s focus on ultraintelligent human-helping machines.

A true jack-of-all-trades, Kurzweil has been an inventor, a mathematician, and a writer. He has made his own line of synthetic musical instruments and character-recognition algorithms (Wolf, 2008). Two of his books, The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near, have proved to be very popular. Part of Kurzweil’s optimism about the Singularity stems from his intense desire to see it. This desire has driven him to take up to 210 vitamins a day to insure he makes it to the event (Wolf, 2008). His unique background and strong desire to see the future have motivated Kurzweil to help others imagine the technological future.

The Singularity University and The Singularity Institute

Co-founded in 2007 by Ray Kurzweil, Singularity University seeks to educate future leaders on the post-Singularity world. Basing the subject matter on Kurzweil’s theories, and receiving help from the International Space University and the NASA Ames Research Center in California, the University was created in the hopes that alumni would educate and guide the public toward the Singularity, helping to ease the future transition (FAQ, 2010).

The Singularity Institute’s focus on the event differs from that of the University, although Ray Kurzweil is involved in this institution, as well. Where Singularity University’s goal is to prepare people for the Singularity, Singularity Institute’s goal is to help bring the Singularity about carefully and thoughtfully (Why Work Toward the Singularity, 2010). Because their view of the Singularity takes into account the medical aspects, as well as the mechanical ones, the Institute seeks to educate the people who could potentially bring about the Singularity in “safeguarding” the future (What is the Singularity, 2010). To accomplish this goal, the Institute focuses on in-house artificial intelligence research and development, with safety as the primary goal, instead of an afterthought.

Important concepts

There have certainly been more Singularity theorists than just Good, Vinge, and Kurzweil, however they are the ones who are most often referenced. They all have their own unique ideas of what the Singularity is, and many of these ideas rely on other concepts to make sense. These concepts deal with probability, robotics, and how super-intelligence should be handled.

Moore’s Law

Though each of these Singularity experts have their own technological focus, each of their timetables are relatively similar. This has to do with Moore’s Law, which says that technology advances tend to double each year (Mendelson, 1979). The initial observation was made in 1965 by Gordon Moore, who noticed during a study that the number of components on a chip doubled each year, causing an exponentially fast technological rise over several years (Mendelson, 1979). By and large, Moore’s Law has been accurate since his first observations, and has been the basis of the timetables referenced by Kurzweil and Vinge (Mendelson, 1979).

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics

One of the major concerns of Singularity theorists has been whether or not these super intelligent, or ultraintelligent, machines would live in harmony with humans. Some of the main theorists only advocate using artificial super intelligence as a means to improve the human mind. Others discuss using such technology as medical supplements to the human body. However, still others discuss creating sentient artificial beings. This is where the theory that this would be the last machine humanity ever need create comes into play, as these machines could produce their own machines from there. Because of the free-thinking nature of these new creations, many people discuss the need to create guidelines for their development to insure that they offer no danger to the human species.

In 1984, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov offered a set of guidelines for such inventions. The “Three Laws of Robotics” have been referred to by many Singularity theorists as necessary limitations for any artificially intelligent being. The laws are as follows:

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law (Anderson, 2006).

Of course, humans can program laws into these inventions, but there is a potential for problems following the Singularity if machines start building new machines of their own without human input.

“Creating Friendly AI”

To alleviate concerns about destructive robots, as seen in Hollywood films and science fiction novels, the Singularity Institute has focused on the idea of “creating friendly AI.” While the idea of simply programming artificially intelligent machines with Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” may seem sufficient to the uninitiated, the Singularity Institute has created several materials describing AI as thinking entirely different than humans, and thus, not behaving in ways humanity might. The groups main explanation of this phenomena was developed in 2001 and is titled “Creating Friendly AI.”

“Creating Friendly AI” provides detailed explanations about the Singularity Institute’s ideas of artificial intelligence.  It first asks about the definition of perfection, specifically in the real of artificial intelligence (Creating Friendly AI, 2001).  This immediately describes AI as being an inherently different type of thinking than the human mind allows, thus creating a different meaning of the word, “perfection.”  This inherent difference extends to the relationship of actions, discussed in a section discussing why artificially intelligent machines would most likely not retaliate to a violent action with another violent action (Creating Friendly AI, 2001).  Because of this inherent difference between human and artificial intelligence, the Singularity Institute has been developing much time and many resources to insuring all the steps are thought out.  They attempt to understand the artificially intelligent way of thinking, while figuring out how to program certain human ways of thinking, ignoring those that may cause the machines to be destructive in the future.  

The Institute believes that this may not be as difficult as is sounds. “Creating Friendly AI” explains that emotions like resentment and anger are strictly human emotions (Creating Friendly AI, 2001). Logically, it explains, artificially intelligent machines will not simply acquire these emotions, as they do in Hollywood movies. They will, instead, follow their programming, as opposed to human emotions that have evolved from millions of years of necessity for survival (Creating Friendly AI, 2001). The Institute has emphasized that if these fundamental differences are adequately explained, people will realize that there is nothing to fear about the Singularity.

Criticisms

One of the main criticisms of the Singularity is that it might not happen. While many Singularity experts attribute that kind of thinking to ignorance, one expert, Vernor Vinge, has addressed the possibility in depth. As mentioned earlier, Vinge has said that it is possible that there is an insurmountably high order of intelligence separating the human mind from the computer (Vinge, 1993).

Vinge has also criticized the Singularity itself, saying that its effective end of the human era could cause the extinction of the human race, or its servitude to artificially intelligent machines (Vinge, 1993). Although not attempting to criticize the Singularity, Ray Kurzweil has written of the potential for violent human actions related to the event. This would manifest itself in the form of anti-technology or religious extremists causing terrorist violence in attempts to prevent artificially intelligent machines from being created (Kurzweil, 2006). He has also mentioned that there could be accidents in the development of technology, which, given its intimate nature in regards to humanity, could cause mass illness or death. This scenario specifically relates to nanotechnology (Kurzweil, 2006).

Despite admissions of Singularity-related problems, Good, Vinge, and Kurzweil agree that such artificial intelligence is in the best interest of humanity. Vinge has been especially vocal about the proposition, saying that the future of humanity’s long-term survival depends on the eventual ability to travel in space to find a new habitat (Brand, 2007). Such a feat would have the best chance of happening if it were facilitated by artificial intelligence. If this space travel or superintelligence were not achieved, Vinge says there are a couple possible scenarios: nuclear human extinction or catastrophes resulting in a descent from technological society. One positive scenario would be a “golden age” where human population would stabilize around 3 billion, and an emphasis on education would help society thrive for “a good long time” (Brand, 2007). However, Vinge has said the most likely of these situations would be the one involving descent from technological civilization (Brand, 2007).

What it all means

Whether or not the Singularity happens, it is clear that Ray Kurzweil has taken Vernor Vinge’s theories, which were taken from IJ Good’s observations, and fleshed them out into perfectly plausible scenarios. Each theorist has provided their own approach, many of which are represented in projects like the Singularity Institute and Singularity University. These concepts are being heavily emphasized, and major corporations like Google have even provided money to their research. The Singularity has become a viable movement, mixing technology and society. The evolution of the idea, from Good to Kurzweil, is clear, and the fundamentals of the possibility of super intelligence retain the same focus on computer technology. If it’s going to happen, we will bring it about.

Works cited

Anderson, Susan Leigh (2006). Asimov’s ‘Three Law of Robotics’ and Machine Metaethics. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [20]

Brand, Stewart (2007). Non-Singularity Scenarios. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [21]

Creating Friendly AI (2001). Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [22]

FAQ (2010). Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [23]

Good, John Irving (1963). Speculations Concerning the first Ultraintelligent Machine. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from [24]

Kurzweil, Ray (2000). Live Forever - Uploading the Human Brain... Closer Than You Think. Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [25]

Kurzweil, Ray (2006). The Impact... In “The Singularity in Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (pp.299-342) New York: Penguin

Lee, J.A.N. (1994). John Irving Good. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from [26]

Mendelson, Haim (1979). Moore’s Law. Retrieve July 1, 2010, from [27]

Vinge, Vernor (1993). The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from [28]

Vinge, Vernor (2010). Retrieved June 30, 2010, from [29]

What is the Singularity. (2010). Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [30]

Why Work Toward the Singularity. (2010). Retrieved July 1, 2010, from [31]

Wolf, G. (2008, March 4). Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity. ‘‘Wired’’. Retrieved June 30, 2010, from [32]