A standard piece of the technological singularity is that a normal humans will not be able to predict the actions of a more intelligent entity (AI or augmented human). As a corollary, humans now cannot predict them either, for instance when writing science fiction. This is generally presented as unprecedented.
I wonder if we already have a few examples of much the same phenomenon, though.
Red Dwarf's Rimmer, for instance, is in some ways depicted this way: he aspires to be an officer, yet has no apparent understanding of what it is officers actually do. He tries to mimic those parts of their superficial behaviour that he can understand, apparently completely unaware that those aspects are, indeed, superficial and largely unimportant or that the important aspects are passing him by.
Cargo cults, in some ways, are similar.
I wonder, then, if ordinary humans' interactions with more intelligent entities of the singularity will look to them much like a cargo cult looks to us — going through the superficial motions but completely missing the parts that actually make the system go.
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5 November 2008, 3:16 UTCcomment by David Golding
A "cargo cult" is, properly, the belief that Richard Feynman is an accurate source of anthropological knowledge.
6 November 2008, 15:31 UTCcomment by sabik
Heh, true. Still, real cargo cults — lighter on the mimicry and heavier on the religious aspects — would fit in here just as well. Gaps in knowledge filled in with religion, superstition and magical thinking.
I think I was missing that in my post.
