Singularity, of Sorts

In particular, the broad definition of Singularity where we as a society have progressed, technology wise, to a place where we were unable to even conceptualize what it would be like.

So I’m going to go back to 1997, I’m in a dorm lounge, and I’m playing the pinnacle of video games, GoldenEye on the N64, on a large projection TV, with four other friends, yelling, specifically not picking Odd Job, and thinking—

“It is never going to get any better than this.”

Twenty years later, I am at home, taking a lunch break. I turn on my console and invite one of those friends (one of the same ones I was playing GoldenEye with) to a party chat. The voice quality is very good, they sound like they are in the room. I’m playing on a flat screen LCD television, only 1080p, I’m thinking about upgrading to 4k maybe after our tax returns are processed. We’re playing Anthem, taking down scores of Dominion soldiers, and just chatting and catching up as we play video games.

In short, the every day experience of playing video games has changed past the point I could even conceive of in 1997, but I’m also playing video games with the same people I played with over 20 years ago, which is also amazing.

I don’t know how they’re going to change from this point on. We have VR, we have the infrastructure, but honestly if we (as human beings) can make it another 25 years I’m pretty certain that the video games that my nieces and nephews will be playing will be nearly indistinguishable from the games we’re playing now.

But I’ll hopefully be playing them with the same good people.