Microsoft Word Kurzweil, Ray The Singularity Is Near doc

 
Fractal Designs.
A key question concerning the information content of biological systems is how it is possible for the 
genome, which contains comparatively little information, to produce a system such as a human, which is vastly more 
complex than the genetic information that describes it. One way of understanding this is to view the designs of biology 
as "probabilistic fractals." A deterministic fractal is a design in which a single design element (called the "initiator") is 
replaced with multiple elements (together called the "generator"). In a second iteration of fractal expansion, each 
element in the generator itself becomes an initiator and is replaced with the elements of the generator (scaled to the 
smaller size of the second-generation initiators). This process is repeated many times, with each newly created element 
of a generator becoming an initiator and being replaced with a new scaled generator. Each new generation of fractal 
expansion adds apparent complexity but requires no additional design information. A probabilistic fractal adds the 
element of uncertainty. Whereas a deterministic fractal will look the same every time it is rendered, a probabilistic 
fractal will look different each time, although with similar characteristics. In a probabilistic fractal, the probability of 

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each generator element being applied is less than 1. In this way, the resulting designs have a more organic appearance. 
Probabilistic fractals are used in graphics programs to generate realistic-looking images of mountains, clouds, 
seashores, foliage, and other organic scenes. A key aspect of a probabilistic fractal is that it enables the generation of a 
great deal of apparent complexity, including extensive varying detail, from a relatively small amount of design 
information. Biology uses this same principle. Genes supply the design information, but the detail in an organism is 
vastly greater than the genetic design information. 
Some observers misconstrue the amount of detail in biological systems such as the brain by arguing, for example, 
that the exact configuration of every microstructure (such as each tubule) in each neuron is precisely designed and 
must be exactly the way it is for the system to function. In order to understand how a biological system such as the 
brain works, however, we need to understand its design principles, which are far simpler (that is, contain far less 
information) than the extremely detailed structures that the genetic information generates through these iterative, 
fractal-like processes. There are only eight hundred million bytes of information in the entire human genome, and only 
about thirty to one hundred million bytes after data compression is applied. This is about one hundred million times 
less information than is represented by all of the interneuronal connections and neurotransmitter concentration patterns 
in a fully formed human brain. 
Consider how the principles of the law of accelerating returns apply to the epochs we discussed in the first 
chapter. The combination of amino acids into proteins and of nucleic acids into strings of RNA established the basic 
paradigm of biology. Strings of RNA (and later DNA) that self-replicated (Epoch Two) provided a digital method to 
record the results of evolutionary experiments. Later on, the evolution of a species that combined rational thought 
(Epoch Three) with an opposable appendage (the thumb) caused a fundamental paradigm shift from biology to 
technology (Epoch Four). The upcoming primary paradigm shift will be from biological thinking to a hybrid 
combining biological and nonbiological thinking (Epoch Five), which will include "biologically inspired" processes 
resulting from the reverse engineering of biological brains. 
If we examine the timing of these epochs, we see that they have been part of a continuously accelerating process. 
The evolution of life-forms required billions of years for its first steps (primitive cells, DNA), and then progress 
accelerated. During the Cambrian explosion, major paradigm shifts took only tens of millions of years. Later, 
humanoids developed over a period of millions of years, and 
Homo sapiens
over a period of only hundreds of 
thousands of years. With the advent of a technology-creating species the exponential pace became too fast for 
evolution through DNA-guided protein synthesis, and evolution moved on to human-created technology. This does not 
imply that biological (genetic) evolution is not continuing, just that it is no longer leading the pace in terms of 
improving order (or of the effectiveness and efficiency of computation).
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