Singularity

I'm looking forward to reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology. I've been threatening for years now to write an essay (long and complex) on why we should run federal (and state) budget deficits, and the contents of this book (I believe) hold part of the key to that equation. Here's an excerpt defining what a "Singularity" is in this context from an interview of Kurzweil by InstaPundit:

The term “Singularity” in my book and by the Singularity aware community is comparable to the use of this term by the physics community. Just as we find it hard to see beyond the event horizon of a black hole, we also find it difficult to see beyond the event horizon of the historical Singularity. How can we, with our limited biological brains, imagine what our future civilization, with its intelligence multiplied billions and ultimately trillions of trillions fold, be capable of thinking and doing? Nevertheless, just as we can draw conclusions about the nature of black holes through our conceptual thinking, despite never having actually been inside one, our thinking today is powerful enough to have meaningful insights into the implications of the Singularity. That’s what I’ve tried to do in this book.

I consider myself part of the "Singularity aware community", though we'll see if I still feel that way after the book comes out this month.