5 ms·

Serious question--how does the struggling global economy factor into all of this? I'd think it would, at the very least, postpone a technological singularity.

• ivankirigin 18y ago
  Cycles of peaks and troughs in growth rates are normal.
  • time_management 18y ago
    Right, but let's consider the difference between a recession and a depression. A recession is a contraction in a healthy economy. It's normal, and probably necessary. A depression is something worse. We don't know yet if this is a recession or a depression.
    • ivankirigin 18y ago
      The D word is mainly used to fill the time in between commercials with talking heads debating irrelevant semantics. I also doubt a long recession or depression would significantly impact a decades long trend by much.
    • whughes 18y ago
      At worst, we're talking about a stagnation, a flatlining in the exponential curve for a few years. I doubt that we'll get to that point. To see growth completely stop we'd need a nuclear war or something to that end. Life was still better during the Great Depression than it was only a few decades earlier. Progress will continue even if the political and economic landscape is unfavorable.