logoalt Hacker News

The Singularity will occur on a Tuesday

767 pointsby ectoyesterday at 5:04 PM430 commentsview on HN

Comments

lencastreyesterday at 7:24 PM

I hope in the afternoon, the plumber is coming in the morning between 7 and 12, and it’s really difficult to pin those guys to a date

dirkcyesterday at 6:31 PM

The thing that stands out on that animated graph is that the generated code far outpaces the other metrics. In the current agent driven development hypepocalypse that seems about right - but I would expect it to lag rather than lead.

*edit* - seems inline with what the author is saying :)

> The data says: machines are improving at a constant rate. Humans are freaking out about it at an accelerating rate that accelerates its own acceleration.

arscanyesterday at 6:28 PM

  Don't worry about the future
  Or worry, but know that worrying
  Is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing Bubble gum
  The real troubles in your life
  Are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind
  The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday

    - Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)
         Baz Luhrmann
         (or maybe Mary Schmich)
avazhiyesterday at 11:45 PM

Most obviously AI-written post I think I’ve seen.

Have some personal pride, dude. This is literally a post written by AI hyping up AI and posted to a personal blog as if it were somebody’s personal musings. More slop is just what we need.

sixtyjyesterday at 9:14 PM

The Roman Empire took 400 years to collapse, but in San Francisco they know the singularity will occur on (next) Tuesday.

The answer to the meaning of life is 42, by the way :)

show 1 reply
jmuganyesterday at 5:50 PM

Love the title. Yeah, agents need to experiment in the real world to build knowledge beyond what humans have acquired. That will slow the bastards down.

show 2 replies
miguel_martinyesterday at 6:27 PM

"Everyone in San Francisco is talking about the singularity" - I'm in SF and not talking about it ;)

show 4 replies
athrowaway3zyesterday at 6:34 PM

> Tuesday, July 18, 2034

4 years early for the Y2K38 bug.

Is it coincidence or Roko's Basilisk who has intervened to start the curve early?

jrmgyesterday at 6:05 PM

This is gold.

Meta-spoiler (you may not want to read this before the article): You really need to read beyond the first third or so to get what it’s really ‘about’. It’s not about an AI singularity, not really. And it’s both serious and satirical at the same time - like all the best satire is.

show 1 reply
svilen_dobrevyesterday at 7:05 PM

> already exerting gravitational force on everything it touches.

So, "Falling of the night" ?

hinkleyyesterday at 6:01 PM

Once MRR becomes a priority over investment rounds that tokens/$ will notch down and flatten substantially.

sempron64yesterday at 6:33 PM

A hyperbolic curve doesn't have an underlying meaning modeling a process beyond being a curve which goes vertical at a chosen point. It's a bad curve to fit to a process. Exponentials make sense to model a compounding or self-improving process.

show 2 replies
Bratmonyesterday at 8:18 PM

I've never been Poe's lawed harder in my life.

regnullyesterday at 6:54 PM

Guys, yesterday I spent some time convincing an LLM model from a leading provider that 2 cards plus 2 cards is 4 cards which is one short of a flush. I think we are not too close to a singularity, as it stands.

show 2 replies
buildbotyesterday at 9:16 PM

What about the rate of articles about the singularity as a metric of the singularity?

ddtayloryesterday at 7:54 PM

Just in time for Bitcoin halving to go below 1 BTC

kuahyeowyesterday at 8:27 PM

This is a delightful reverse turkey graph (each day before Thanksgiving, the turkey has increasing confidence).

blurbleblurbleyesterday at 11:14 PM

Today is tuesday

skrebbelyesterday at 6:27 PM

Wait is that photo of earth the legendary Globus Polski? (https://www.ceneo.pl/59475374)

loumfyesterday at 9:36 PM

This is great. Now we won’t have to fix y2K36 bugs.

witnessmeyesterday at 8:20 PM

That would be 8 years after math + humor peaked in an article about singularity

braden-lkyesterday at 6:19 PM

lols and unhinged predictions aside, why are there communities excited about a singularity? Doesn't it imply the extinction of humanity?

show 4 replies
moffkalastyesterday at 6:24 PM

> I am aware this is unhinged. We're doing it anyway.

If one is looking for a quote that describes today's tech industry perfectly, that would be it.

Also using the MMLU as a metric in 2026 is truly unhinged.

wilgyesterday at 11:11 PM

> The labor market isn't adjusting. It's snapping. In 2025, 1.1 million layoffs were announced. Only the sixth time that threshold has been breached since 1993.

Bad analysis! Layoffs are flat as a board.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSLDL

bwhiting2356yesterday at 8:30 PM

We need contingency plans. Most waves of automation have come in S-curves, where they eventually hit diminishing returns. This time might be different, and we should be prepared for it to happen. But we should also be prepared for it not to happen.

No one has figured out a way to run a society where able bodied adults don't have to work, whether capitalist, socialist, or any variation. I look around and there seems to still be plenty of work to do that we either cannot or should not automate, in education, healthcare, arts (should not) or trades, R&D for the remaining unsolved problems (cannot yet). Many people seem to want to live as though we already live in a post scarcity world when we don't yet.

Johnny_Bonkyesterday at 10:28 PM

Wow what a fun read

jonplackettyesterday at 6:43 PM

This assumes humanity can make it to 2034 without destroying itself some other way…

banannaiseyesterday at 6:13 PM

Yes, the mathematical assumptions are a bit suspect. Keep reading. It will make sense later.

cesarvarelayesterday at 6:41 PM

Thanks, added to calendar.

skulkyesterday at 6:01 PM

> Hyperbolic growth is what happens when the thing that's growing accelerates its own growth.

Eh? No, that's literally the definition of exponential growth. d/dx e^x = e^x

show 1 reply
dustedyesterday at 9:01 PM

Will.. will it be televised ?

wbshawyesterday at 7:36 PM

I got a strong ChatGPT vibe from that article.

show 1 reply
markgallyesterday at 5:50 PM

> Polynomial growth (t^n) never reaches infinity at finite time. You could wait until heat death and t^47 would still be finite. Polynomials are for people who think AGI is "decades away."

> Exponential growth reaches infinity at t=∞. Technically a singularity, but an infinitely patient one. Moore's Law was exponential. We are no longer on Moore's Law.

Huh? I don't get it. e^t would also still be finite at heat death.

show 1 reply
aenisyesterday at 6:24 PM

Damn. I had plans.

darepublicyesterday at 6:25 PM

> Real data. Real model. Real date!

Arrested Development?

rapharyesterday at 9:21 PM

Why the plutocrats believe that the entity emerging from the singularity will side with them? Really curious

PantaloonFlamesyesterday at 6:30 PM

This is what I come here for. Terrific.

qwertyuiop_yesterday at 9:53 PM

Who will purchase the goods and services if most people loose jobs ? Also who will pay for ad dollars what are supposed to sustain these AI business models if there no human consumers ?

neilellisyesterday at 6:31 PM

End of the World? Must be Tuesday.

MarkusQyesterday at 6:41 PM

Prior work with the same vibe: https://xkcd.com/1007/

daveguyyesterday at 9:31 PM

What I want to know is how bitcoin going full tulip and Open AI going bankrupt will affect the projection. Can they extrapolate that? Extrapolation of those two event dates would be sufficient, regardless of effect on a potential singularity.

bpodgurskyyesterday at 6:40 PM

2034? That's the longest timeline prediction I've seen for a while. I guess I should file my taxes this year after all.

OutOfHereyesterday at 6:18 PM

I am not convinced that memoryless large models are sufficient for AGI. I think some intrinsic neural memory allowing effective lifelong learning is required. This requires a lot more hardware and energy than for throwaway predictions.

singularfuturyesterday at 9:33 PM

The singularity is always scheduled for right after the current funding round closes but before the VCs need liquidity. Funny how that works.

bradgessleryesterday at 9:13 PM

What time?

show 1 reply
hipster_robotyesterday at 6:22 PM

why is everything broken?

> the top post on hn right now: The Singularity will occur on a Tuesday

oh

vagrantstreetyesterday at 6:35 PM

Was expecting some mention of Universal Approximation Theorem

I really don't care much if this is semi-satire as someone else pointed out, the idea that AI will ever get "sentient" or explode into a singularity has to die out pretty please. Just make some nice Titanfall style robots or something, a pure tool with one purpose. No more parasocial sycophantic nonsense please

🔗 View 19 more comments