> Like many creative types, Vinge lacked the business savvy to fully exploit the market potential of his ideas. Um, what? He is a successful CS professor, and

> Like many creative types, Vinge lacked the business savvy to fully exploit the market potential of his ideas. Um, what? He is a successful CS professor, and beloved hard SF author. Anyone should be happy to be as successful as he is. At any rate, the singularity is coming, wether we like it out not. My main argument is: look at Intel Corp. Intel is emblematic of the entire semiconductor industry. Like with how much they have struggled with the recent process nodes. And look at the industry roadmap, there are only a few nodes left for any kind of silicon lithography. What is the tech sector going to do when there are no gains to be had with making chips cheaper and higher performance? Do you think Intel's investors are going to be OK if they say they can't make chips and better than they currently are? The stock price will crash, board members and executives will be fired, to be replaced by people promising a return to growth. Is there a way forward for Intel? Yes, several, falling under the broad category called molecular nanotechnology, which is all about building machines with atomic scale precision. This will allow Intel to build faster chips, but will also be a revolution in other areas too. And then we can reasonable talk about things like biological immortality.