We won't detain them if they're predicted to become an insurgent in the civil war in Afghanistan.

We'll kill them. By mistake.

Because, when you're doing foreign wars of adventure in countries that have no al-Qaeda, that's what you do.

If only they would run this sim on Saudi Arabia ...

It sounds like someone has been reading too much of the FOUNDATION series without paying attention to what Asimov was really saying.

Singularity can't be far off now. I hope it happens in time to save me from old age.

@3 there's a game for that. Comes out this month.

@slaggy--that's exactly what I was thinking when I read this!

@4 He is talking about the technological Singularity, not a gravitational singularity or a video game called "Singularity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technologic…

If you really read into the technological singularity there will be a short period of some pretty insane shit happening before the computers take over. Some of the more disturbing things I can think of are the fact that mind reading through nano-bot scanning is 100% certain to happen and mind control using similar nano-bots is ALMOST certain to happen before the eventual singularity.

Who needs computer models like in Minority Report to tell you that someone will become a criminal when you can simply detect at the exact moment when they make the decision?

Also FWIW if you are under the age of 40 you are almost certain to see it assuming nothing traumatic or acute kills you first.

Fwiw, we were talking about game sims - so the reference to "Singularity" by default would be to the game that comes out this month, not to something else.

Given the bandwidth constraints in this third world nation (USA), I'm not that worried about the computers taking over, especially if they're running Flash apps on Windows 7.

@6: She.

Put this post together with the Big Dog and Little Dog robot posts and Obama's preference for drone warfare, and we have a picture of what our future soldiers' working lives will be. Staying put here at home, well-trained and safe from politically risky physical harm, gently influencing impoverished villagers throughout the world via armed robot dog mouthpieces, posting comments on Slog during their breaks.

Pax Americana indeed.

How do we know the whole world isn't already just a vast computer model of village after village (and city after city) playing in some extra-dimensional being's laptop?

Also, where's my pot?

@10 - Because if it was, you'd be living in an urban city that has a giant needle sticking up in the air ...

Um ...