Saturday, January 24, 2015

When Prophecy Fails: Maximum Acceleration edition

In 1952 there only existed a single chart showing PROGRESS as an exponential curve, thereby proving that estimates of future progress based on linear extrapolation of past or present trends would be wild underestimates. Decades passed before the second chart came along... then a third... and then appeals to the Argumentum ad Exponentio came faster and faster. Even the rate of increase increased after the invention of the Singularity.*


Extrapolating the exponential growth shows that by 2020 the Argumentum ad Exponentio will be so common as to displace all other communication and the entirety of human culture will take the form of hand-drawn diagrams of exponential growth.

Knowing that one person has turned into a penguin, an exponential curve leads directly to the prediction that the same fate will soon happen to everyone.
The term for this rapidly-impending moment is of course "the Pingularity".

9 comments:

H. Rumbold, Master Barber said...

Where's the part where decreasing tax rates leads to increased revenue?

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Can't you see it, H. Rumbold?

Maybe you forgot to put on your FREEDOM™ Goggles.
~

Trevor said...

That's Ultravox again, not BÖC

Smut Clyde said...

Three words from "Agents of Fortune" is good enough for government work.

rhwombat said...

I thought that there was something fishy about all those penguins massing on Antarctic ice shelves. When they finally learn t jump at exactly the right time, we are in big trouble.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Fear not, rhwombat, the southern fur seals will protect us from the penguin menace by any means necessary.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

GOOD MORNING UPSIDE-DOWNIES.
~

rhwombat said...

B4:
So a seal and a penguin are driving from Oodnadatta to Marree, and their car starts belching smoke. Limping into the nearest town, they pull up at the servo, ask the mechanic to have a look at the car, and go into the shop to cool down. Thirsts slaked and bodies cooled by an ice cream, they wander back to the servo to see what the damage is. The mechanic says: "Well, looks like you've blown a seal". Says the penguin: " Nah, it's just ice cream, honest.".

ittdgy:
Don't be fooled: that's actually a redback spider (Latrodectus hasseltiiin disguise.

Smut Clyde said...

the southern fur seals will protect us from the penguin menace by any means necessary.

Including patrolling the Dunedin public swimming pools.

GOOD MORNING UPSIDE-DOWNIES.

That is not a monkey butler. You were ripped off.