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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
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![]() As far as I know, the first use of the word "singularity" in the sense of a natural phenomenon in science fiction is in this story by Arthur C. Clarke. I'll discuss the other use below.
Robert Silverberg uses a similar scenario in his 1966 short story Halfway House:
They had no dying stars in this laboratory. But for a price they could simulate one.
Fans of Larry Niven may recall this unusual use of the word in his classic 1970 novel Ringworld:
This usage was unusual, in that it didn't describe (as I recall) a black hole, just the gravitational field associated with a planet like Earth, and the sun.
The first known use of "singularity" in the social sense, dated about 1958 or a bit earlier, (a "technological singularity") is attributed to mathematician John von Neumann in this eulogy by Stanislaw Ulam:
(John von Neumann: 1903-1957 by Stanislaw Ulam)
Most people are more familiar with the formulation by sf writer and computer scientist Vernor Vinge, in this essay published by Omni magazine in 1983:
I can't seem to find the first use of singularity in the social sense in a science fiction story, although some near misses come to mind. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
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'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
China's Drone Mothership Can Carry 100 Drones
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
Drones Recharge In Mid-Air Like Jets Refuel!
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
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