Social Singularity

Beside the massive acceleration in technological change that many believe will lead to changes in kind beyond imagining - TheNextSingularity - social/cultural/spiritual shifts (with or without radical technology acceleration) could lead to equally unimagineable-scale change. And in any technological singularity, certain kinds of social changes could dramatically influence the nature (some might say morality) of our post-singularity existence.

Some possibilities:

Collective intelligence/wisdom - see TheTaoOfDemocracy, CompoundBeings

NonViolence - the philosophical kind, not limited to/focused on mere physical violence - is one (less-than?) singularity shift i ponder. Many people stuck in domination belief systems simply do not comprehend what someone engaging with them nonviolently is doing. At first they laugh it off as weak. Then they get very frustrated and lash out (which if it's handled right strengthens the movement). Eventually (should the movement succeed) the dominators lose their power-over dynamic. They may never understand what happened, but if the movement is really successful, they will begin to grasp this other way of being in power relationships.

"Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the world, (hu)mankind will have discovered fire." --PierreTeilhardDeChardin

Radical increase in our awareness of assumptions and their changeability we live by could trigger a cascade of accelerating social change:

"This ability to recognize ourselves as observers of the behavior of ourselves and others was a critical step in the evolution of the human consciousness. We are now in the midst of taking what may prove to be another bold step in the evolution of consciousness of comparable significance: an awakening of cultural consciousness that allows us to see our cultural beliefs as social constructs that at best can never be more than mere approximations of a more complex reality." --DavidKorten, quoted: http://radio.weblogs.com/0100682/2004/01/30.html

Also see AssumptionsOfPowerWithCulture

Many believe that the next singularity will arrive shortly after we have developed ArtificialIntelligence. Any meeting of OtherSentients (and note that some such meetings do not require any new technology) could trigger a social singularity.

Note that the focus here is on human/social causes of TheNextSingularity, not consequences of a technological singularity. However, consideration of and responses to potential consequences might help trigger social changes which could affect our trajectory into (or out of?!) an approaching singularity.

"We must face the fact that we are on the brink of times when man may be able to magnify his intellectual and inventive capability, just as in the nineteenth century he used machines to magnify his physical capacity. Again, as then, our innocence is lost. And again, of course, the innocence, once lost, cannot be regained. The loss demands attention, not denial."

--ChristopherAlexander?, 1964

Some believe that ArtificialIntelligence can be designed to be "friendly" - http://singinst.org/CFAI/

Also see ConsciousnessIsOurOxygenChallenge (one of the PreviousSingularities?)