On Wednesday, author David Brin announced that Vernor Vinge, sci-fi author, former professor, and father of the technological singularity concept, died from Parkinson's disease at age 79 on March 20, 2024, in La Jolla, California. The announcement came in a Facebook tribute where Brin wrote about Vinge's deep love for science and writing. "A titan in the literary genre that explores a limitless range of potential destinies, Vernor enthralled millions with tales of plausible tomorrows, made all the more vivid by his polymath masteries of language, drama, characters, and the implications of science," wrote Brin in his post. As a sci-fi author, Vinge won Hugo Awards for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1993), A Deepness in the Sky (2000), and Rainbows End (2007). He also won Hugos for novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002) and The Cookie Monster (2004).

Today my guest on Singularity 1 on 1 is Vernor Vinge -- the very person who coined the technological singularity as a term. Currently Vernor Vinge is putting the final touches on the sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. The new book is titled The Children of the Sky and is already available for pre-order on Amazon, though it is not expected to ship until October 2011. Despite his busy schedule Prof. Vinge still managed to give us over an hour of his time and during our conversation I ask him to discuss issues such as: his childhood and early interest in science fiction; his desire to make sense of the universe; his definition of the technological singularity and the story behind the term; his now classic 1993 NASA paper; his favorite science fiction books and authors; major milestones on the way towards the singularity and our chances to survive such an unprecedented event. As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.

Our beginner's guide will fill you in on everything you need to know about the (possibly) forthcoming AI technological singularity. Have you heard people talking about the technological singularity, either positively or negatively, but didn't know enough to join in? Want to know if you should pack your bags and flee for the hills to escape the coming robot invasion? Or maybe join a church to welcome our new robot overlords? First, make sure to check out our beginner's guide to all your singularity queries.

While it may sound a bit too much like science fiction, Technological Singularity is a term used to describe the change that would occur when humans, technology, and artificial intelligence would intersect to such an extent that we are incapable of comprehending or predicting what the new race would be like, and humans after the change would no longer be able to fully relate to the previous race. Author Ray Kurzweil, a leading inventor and futurist who has made accurate predictions about technology in the past, describes The Singularity as "an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today – the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity." The future of technology and artificial intelligence is hard for anyone to predict, as technology is enhancing at such rapid rates today. Will we have the ability to create superhuman intelligence to the point that human era will end? Some mathematicians, technology experts, and computer science experts think it is a possibility.