There is no singularity, no frumious asymptote a-waiting around the corner to gobble us all up, natural, boosted and artificial intelligence alike.

If the rate of progress (whatever that nebulous concept really means) was an exponential curve then it would grow ever steeper without ever encountering a singularity. Those lower on the slope would proclaim that the curve could rise no faster without something breaking: to a Homo erectus, Homo sapiens would look like the harbinger of the singularity; to a 10th century monk, the printing press would signal the end of all things; a 20th century millenarian offered a glimpse of today would be sure that he was witnessing the Last Days (as, indeed, some of them still are). But… the Rapture will not come.

Of course there is no magical path into the future, no golden road soaring into the clouds. The path is rough, built on shifting sands and over uneven ground, with many a blind alley or sudden drop hidden by the undergrowth of time. If progress is any more a real entity than, say, intelligence, then it is apparent that it does not rise steadily. Like a curve plotting the stock market it can smoothly increase, then gently dip, rise precipitously the day after, only to crash the next, each climb-and-crash an oft-repeated singularity.

And perhaps even this is not a realistic view. If the curve of progress resembles anything, it is not a road or a path of any kind: it is the plot of a drunkard playing blind-man's bluff alone in freefall, staggering across the room, banging into walls, stumbling into furniture, groping for a light-switch which would be no help even if it could be found.

For the singularity is where it has always been: not a millenium, nor a century, nor a year, nor a week away. Not even tomorrow, but always one single clock-tick away. For any of us, the next moment has always carried the threat and promise of unpredictability. No matter how exhaustive our calculations, how beautiful our plots, the future will introduce its own discontinuities. The singularity is now.

Three Views of the Singularity, translated and condensed from the original by Mary Shelley Pi (Copyright © 2100, Osutoraria Shinbun/DreamTime Instant Classics)