The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

Further, the macrostructure of the universe arose from tiny local fluctuations in the density of the matter expanding outward from the big bang in the first instant after the event.[68] The density at any one point averaged a difference from the mean of about 1 part in 100,000.[69] If this amplitude (often compared to ripples in a pond) had differed by more than one order of magnitude, life wouldn’t be possible. According to cosmologist Martin Rees, if the ripples had been too small, “gas would never condense into gravitationally bound structures at all, and such a universe would remain forever dark and featureless.”[70] By contrast, if the ripples had been too large, the universe would have been a “turbulent and violent place,” with most matter collapsing into enormous black holes and no chance for stars to “retain stable planetary systems.”[71] For the universe to produce orderly matter instead of chaotic soup, it would have also needed to have very low entropy immediately after the big bang. According to physicist Roger Penrose, based on what we know about entropy and randomness, only approximately one in 1010123 possible universes would have had low enough initial entropy at the beginning to take a form similar to our own.[72] That’s 10 followed by vastly more zeroes than there are atoms in the known universe. (Estimates generally place the number of atoms between 1078 and 1082. Assuming 1080, the number of digits in 1010123 is then forty-three orders of magnitude larg...