<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/singularitynov16.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-4094 alignright" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/singularitynov16.jpg" alt="singularitynov16" width="230" height="219" /></a>There's been a lot of discussion about Brexit and the election of Donald Trump but both of these events are transitory in the sense that whatever happens the changes will be normalised so the overall effect will be, in the long-term, negligible.

One thing that isn't transitory is the development of technology and the impact it has on our everyday life. A point of significant discussion is what has been called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity" target="_blank">technological singularity</a>. This is  some point in the future when artificial intelligence surpasses our own and machines become more intelligent than humans. At this point some people believe we will face an important ethical issue. Will the machines look to help us or will they help the planet? Is the planet more important than humanity? The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis" target="_blank">Gaia Hypothesis</a> is an idea that the planet heals itself however some believe that this principle cannot apply when humans are destroying the planet at an accelerating rate.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/humansnov16.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-4095 alignleft" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/humansnov16.jpg" alt="humansnov16" width="198" height="255" /></a>If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about then you should watch Humans on channel 4, Sunday evenings, 9pm - 10pm.

Of course the super intelligence is unlikely to be an android but will probably be a supercomputer. As computers control most of our lives without us even knowing it then singularity might be just around the corner - next 50 years.

Another good film is Transcendence - no spoilers here but if you're interested in the idea of technological singularity then the film illustrates the ethical issues very well.