Scholars at a Ludhiana Book Club meeting ponder over the popular book “The Singularity Is Nearer- when we merge with AI” by Ray Kurzweil. Prof Gurcharan Singh Khara, A physicist reflects.
Press Note:04-01-2025
Ludhiana, though a city in the mad race of materialism does have intelligentsia and book lovers who read, ponder, discuss and share books which are impacting thought process of thinkers and technocrats both. In a series of such efforts on Friday at a Book Club here, the popular book “The Singularity Is Nearer -when we merge with AI” ” Ray Kurzweil which is one of the most read books globally on Artificial Intelligence, Prof Gurcharan Singh Khara, A physicist and An EX. Director Govt Science College Jagraon (Punjab) shared his views about the book and author’s futuristic predictions. Members of the book club which include Scientists, Economists and Bankers dwelled with interest in an interactive session. Prof Gurcharan Singh Khara who earlier also taught physics at SCD Govt College, Ludhiana for more than 30 years says that “The Singularity Is Nearer” a book by Ray Kurzweil predicts that exponential growth of technology will result in a singularity, where humans merge with machines to become super intelligent beings in 2030s. It raises ethical and social implications, notwithstanding. The Singularity is a hypothetical future event in which machines rapidly become significantly smarter than humans said Khara. The idea is that we might invent an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can improve itself.
A number of participants gave their views on review of the book read by Prof Khara. Dr Puran Singh of Economics observed that Inorganic Algorithm (AI) may completely bypass the Organic Algorithm (Human Algorithm) and may take the position of super-intelligence. But, it would never be possible for both Organic Algorithm and Inorganic Algorithm to bypass the Cosmic Algorithm (God’s Algorithm), even jointly also. Scientists like Dr Milkha Singh Aulakh and Dr M S Toor echoed their cautionary concurrence on the views of Dr Khara about the book Bankers like K B Singh, Brij Bhushan Goyal, Gurvinder Panesar said that skilling and reskilling will allay fears of job losses. Observing Dr Khara’s review, Goyal also said that human spirit fires artificial intelligence which in fact should help find peace and equanimity in life. Others who participated were Bahadur Singh, Harcharanjit Singh, S S Aulakh and Jagmohan Singh.
The meeting was held at Baba Bhan Singh Library at Village Sunet in Ludhiana.