Scott Alexander revives '1960: The Year the Singularity Was Cancelled'
slatestarcodex · x · 2026-11-14
slatestarcodex (Scott Alexander) marks Heinz von Foerster Day and links his classic essay "1960: The Year The Singularity Was Cancelled."
The piece unpacks von Foerster's famous 1960 extrapolation jokingly predicting a singularity on Nov 5, 2026, and explores how exponential projections spawned singularity-style prophecy — and why that singularity got "cancelled." A rationalist classic frequently cited in modern AGI debates.
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