The Singularity - Welcome to Life: the singularity, ruined by lawyers

@Vanitas

Optimally, yes, but major technical innovations – and the singularity would not be an exception – always favour those who have the most wealth. The initial research and startup for the singularity would need to be funded, and those funders will almost certainly manipulate the system to give themselves a competitive advantage in the new system. If we are very, very lucky, the singularity will prove self-correcting, and will remove these kinks itself once it gains autonomy. However, as the name "singularity" suggests, we have no idea what will happen once this kicks off, meaning that there is no guarantee that the well will not be poisoned before it even opens up. Also, at least in the early stages, everyone at least four fifths of the world is going to be screwed to begin with anyway as the technology will simply be too expensive for all by the richest people to afford, and there is also nothing that says that the rapid expansion of computing power will necessarily overrun the expansion in the quantity of resources used – meaning that, while we will certainly be able to implement more efficient manufacturing processes post-singularity, they might not be efficient enough to counter the explosion of growth that will likely follow it. We might end up suffocating ourselves before we can benefit from the advances. So, yah, the optimism is overblown. Sorry.