Questions:

1.What is the [technological] singularity hypothesis? What exactly is being claimed?

2.What is the empirical content of this conjecture? Can the it be refuted or corroborated, and if so, how?

3.What exactly is the nature of a singularity: Is it a discontinuity on a par with phase transition or a process on a par with Toffler’s ‘wave’? Is the term singularity appropriate?

4.What evidence, taken for example from the history of technology and economic theories, suggest the advent of some form of singularity by 2050?

5.What, if anything, can be said to be accelerating? Which evidence can reliably be said to support its existence? Which metrics support the idea that ‘progress’ is indeed accelerating?