William Hertling | |
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![]() William Hertling | |
Born | Brooklyn, NY | January 6, 1970
Occupation |
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Notable works | Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than it Appears A.I. Apocalypse The Last Firewall |
Website | |
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William Hertling is a science fiction writer and programmer. He was a co-founder and Director of Engineering at Tripwire, and a web strategist and software developer at Hewlett-Packard where he obtained numerous software engineering patents in the areas of networking protocols, printing, and web applications. [1] [2]
Hertling began publishing science fiction in 2011 with Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than it Appears. [3] Influenced by Ray Kurzweil and Charles Stross, his work examines the emergence of strong artificial intelligence and how humankind reacts to and coexists with AI. [4] The resulting Singularity series has received critical acclaim from Wired and KurzweilAI, as well as notable people in the technology industry, including Brad Feld, Harper Reed, Ben Huh, Amber Case, and John Walker. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Hertling said that a conversation with a friend in 2010 inspired him to write his debut techno-thriller, which marked his transition from a full-time software programmer to a successful sci-fi novelist. Hertling self-published his entire Singularity series via Amazon (Kindle, Createspace, and Audible). [12]
According to the author's Reddit account, Hertling's influences are Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, Neal Stephenson and the classic cyberpunk works of the 80s ( Neuromancer , Hardwired , and Snow Crash). [13] [14] He also reported that instead of sending his book to traditional sci-fi reviewers, he sent it outto those working in cutting-edge tech sectors, including programmers, CTOs, venture capitalists, tech startups, etc. [15]
The first novel, Avogadro Corp, a near-term technothriller, is about the modification of an email language optimization software program giving the software a survival instinct, accidentally creating a self-motivated artificial intelligence. [3] His second novel, A.I. Apocalypse, set ten years later, explores the creation of strong artificial intelligence through software evolution and the resulting organizational principles and values of an AI society. [16] The third book, The Last Firewall, again set ten years further into the future, is a cyberpunk novel examining post-humanism, the effects of social class on AI and humans, and technological unemployment. [17] The fourth novel, The Turing Exception, is set where humans and AI have co-existed peacefully until 2043, where a nanotech event seen as a terrorist act by AI results in the destruction of Miami and large controls placed on AI, and explores the unfolding events revolving around XOR – an AI splinter group with the goal of taking the reign of Earth from humans. Throughout all four novels, the reaction of humans to strong AI, and the coexistence of both groups are recurring themes.
He published his first children's novel in 2014, The Case of the Wilted Broccoli, a detective novel about three elementary school students who solve a food supply chain mystery. [18]
A self-published author, Hertling is a frequent presenter at technical, writing, and science fiction conventions, where he talks about the intersection of science fiction and technology, self-publishing, book marketing, technology, and innovation. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] He describes his success with self-publishing in Indie and Small Press Book Marketing, his non-fiction manual for marketing books. [26]
He was nominated for the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for A.I. Apocalypse, won Foreword Review's Science Fiction Book of the Year in 2011 for Avogadro Corp, and won Independent Publisher's IPPY Bronze medal for The Last Firewall. [27] [28] [29]
Kim Eric Drexler is an American engineer best known for introducing molecular nanotechnology (MNT), and his studies of its potential from the 1970s and 1980s. His 1991 doctoral thesis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was revised and published as the book Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992. He has been called the "godfather of nanotechnology".
Raymond Kurzweil is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health technology, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.
Singularity or singular point may refer to:
The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for Human civilization. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good's intelligence explosion model of 1965, an upgradable intelligent agent could eventually enter a positive feedback loop of self-improvement cycles, each successive; and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing a rapid increase ("explosion") in intelligence which would ultimately result in a powerful superintelligence, qualitatively far surpassing all human intelligence.
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, best known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence. He is the founder of and a research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a private research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. His work on the prospect of a runaway intelligence explosion influenced philosopher Nick Bostrom's 2014 book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.
Mind uploading is a speculative process of whole brain emulation in which a brain scan is used to completely emulate the mental state of the individual in a digital computer. The computer would then run a simulation of the brain's information processing, such that it would respond in essentially the same way as the original brain and experience having a sentient conscious mind.
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine Computer Shopper and was responsible for its monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet.
Singularitarianism is a movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that the singularity benefits humans.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that matches or surpasses human capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks. This is in contrast to narrow AI, which is designed for specific tasks. AGI is considered one of various definitions of strong AI.
Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (ICE) is a term used in cyberpunk literature to refer to security programs which protect computerized data from being accessed by hackers.
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology is a 2005 non-fiction book about artificial intelligence and the future of humanity by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. A sequel book, The Singularity Is Nearer, was released on June 25, 2024.
John Storrs "Josh" Hall is involved in the field of molecular nanotechnology. He founded the sci.nanotech Usenet newsgroup and moderated it for ten years, and served as the founding chief scientist of Nanorex Inc. for two years. He has written several papers on nanotechnology and developed several ideas such as the utility fog, the space pier, a weather control system called The Weather Machine and a novel flying car.
In futures studies and the history of technology, accelerating change is the observed exponential nature of the rate of technological change in recent history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change.
An artificial brain is software and hardware with cognitive abilities similar to those of the animal or human brain.
Transcendent Man is a 2009 documentary film by American filmmaker Barry Ptolemy about inventor, futurist and author Ray Kurzweil and his predictions about the future of technology in his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near. In the film, Ptolemy follows Kurzweil around his world as he discusses his thoughts on the technological singularity, a proposed advancement that will occur sometime in the 21st century when progress in artificial intelligence, genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics will result in the creation of a human-machine civilization.
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed is a non-fiction book about brains, both human and artificial, by the inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. First published in hardcover on November 13, 2012 by Viking Press it became a New York Times Best Seller. It has received attention from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The New Yorker.
The Transhumanist Wager is a 2013 science fiction novel by American author Zoltan Istvan. The novel follows the life of Jethro Knights, a philosopher whose efforts to promote transhumanism ultimately lead to a global revolution. It was a first-place winner in visionary fiction at the International Book Awards.
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era is a 2013 non-fiction book by the American author James Barrat. The book discusses the potential benefits and possible risks of human-level (AGI) or super-human (ASI) artificial intelligence. Those supposed risks include extermination of the human race.
S. B. Divya is the pen name of Divya Srinivasan Breed, who writes speculative fiction. She is also an engineer and was the co-editor for Escape Pod, along with Mur Lafferty, through April 8, 2022.
The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI is a 2024 non-fiction book by futurist Ray Kurzweil. It is the sequel to his 2005 bestseller book The Singularity Is Near. The book was released on June 25, 2024. He reiterates two key dates from his previous book, which predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) would reach human intelligence by 2029 and merge with humans by 2045, an event he calls "The Singularity."