[lojban] Re: PIXralonumipeseCUKtala'o.gy.The Singularity is Near.gy.ela'o.gy.The Complete Lojban Language.gy.

["Jorge Llambías" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On 11/15/06, komfo,amonan <komfoamonan@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think I agree with sen. The fact that "singularity" is a sensible term in
> English doesn't mean that translating "singularity" into Lojban is the best
> way to get a Lojban term for the same thing.

There are two issues involved here. How to translate "a singularity", and how
to translate the name of an event, "the Singularity". The second issue has
very little to do with what the Singularity is, just as translating the name
"The Three Cows" has very little to do with whether or not the restaurant
so called consists of three cows. In order to translate "a singularity" you
don't need to be concerned about the event called "the Singularity". Once
you have a good word to translate the general term "a singularity", that is
probably the best word to use to translate the name "the Singularity". If the
name was sensibly chosen in English or not to begin with is not very relevant,
just as it is of no concern for someone translating the name "The Three cows"
whether the name was a sensible choice for a restaurant or not.

> Indeed, I'm not an expert on
> the singularity, but the English word could well be a crappy coinage. If it
> is, no reason for Lojban to go along with it. -- Preliminary research
> indicates that the term derives from "mathematical singularity" (1885), a
> concept that goes well beyond my math education.

An example is the function 1/(1-x). This function is analytical all around
x=1, but at x=1 it is not defined. This point, x=1, is called a singularity
of the function. The idea with the Singularity I think is that at that point
the progression of artificial intelligence measured in whatever terms we
are capable of measuring artificial intelligence, will diverge, similarly to
what happens to the function 1/(1-x) as x approaches 1.

> So translating
> "singularity" would be right if the tech/consciousness singularity is a
> sound analogy to the mathematical singularity, & "singularity" is a good
> word for the math singularity & we are aiming for a brivla -- Or have I
> simply gone too far? mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan

I think "singularity" is a pretty good word for the math sense, and it also
matches the tech/consciousness singularity, but this last point should
not really be very relevant when translating a name as a name.

mu'o mi'e xorxes


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