The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

by David Deutsch

while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.

the universe not only will expand for ever but has been expanding at an accelerating rate. Something has been counteracting its gravity.

automation, allowing the existing kind of human thinking to be carried out faster, and with more working memory, and delegating ‘perspiration’ phases to (non-AI) automata.

there will be ever-more-efficient human–computer interfaces, no doubt culminating in add-ons for the brain.

if everyone were suddenly able to think a million times as fast, no one would feel hurried as a result. Hence I think that the concept of the Singularity as a sort of discontinuity is a mistake. Knowledge will continue to grow exponentially or even faster, and that is astounding enough.

Some explanations do have reach into the distant future, far beyond the horizons that make most other things unpredictable. One of them is that fact itself. Another is the infinite potential of explanatory knowledge – the subject of this book.