A point at which a function takes an infinite value, especially in space-time when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole.
Most of the time when we hear the word singularity, we are referring to artificial intelligence. The technological singularity is when AI becomes smarter than humans, allowing it to upgrade itself at near infinite speeds. The implications of such an event imply that humans would either become irrelevant or be forced to transition to a cyborg, cybernetic, or energy (light?) based existence. Probably in that order.
Is such an event even possible? It may turn out that the technological singularity is a grand impossible fantasy. In fifty years we may come to realize that an adult believing in the singularity is like a child believing they can create a perpetual motion machine. There will always be some amount of friction that takes energy out of the system.
However, many people more educated than myself firmly believe in the Singularity, so dismissing it as an outright fantasy with little evidence to back up that claim is foolish. 100 years ago Albert Einstein got laughed at for making the claim that gravity bends light and time. It was even more laughable that matter could exist with infinite density at a point in space with zero dimension. Today these "facts" are widely accepted.
On the flip side, it's incredibly arrogant to assume that stupid greedy humans would be the first ones in the Universe to bring an AI singularity in existence. This raises the obvious question: what are all those infinitely intelligent AIs out there doing with their power? Perhaps the very paradox of infinity forces singularities to exit our dimension. That certainly seems to be the case of black holes.
In the process of writing my last post and responding to the comments I came to the epiphany that perhaps blockchain is the beginning of its own singularity.
Imagine being able to buy a computer that develops itself. It makes it's own CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage space better while just sitting on your desk. That is what Bitcoin is: Money that will develop itself for free while you hold it.
This is why I think it's possible that crypto can continue to grow exponentially indefinitely. Centralization creates top-heavy cannibalistic power structures that are bound to topple over given enough time. Truly decentralized power structures can scale to infinity. Thus, perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of another type of singularity.
We are slowly gaining gravity. The cryptosphere hasn't even become a star yet. We are still struggling to reach the tipping point of critical mass that will trigger cold fusion and power our economy free of corruption. What happens when that gravity becomes so great that we go supernova? Will we exit this plain of existence along with the other singularities? Leaving behind only the energy of our departure?
Crypto is already developing itself. Smart-money is already funding its own development. However, instead of being powered by AI its being powered by humans. Its entire purpose is to service us and allow our power structures to scale fairly and more robustly than any other setup we've ever seen.
