Heard of singularity? In technology, it’s a hypothesis about the future. At some point, artificial intelligence will become so advanced that humans will lose control of their own destiny. In the darker visions, the machines we create will become more intelligent than us, and become our masters. They might even kill us.
I wonder if Californians have already achieved something like this when it comes to the budget.
The budget system has so many pieces and so many parts that it has become a machine, unaccountable to voters and unmanageable by elected officials. The machine is so complicated that it may be smarter than us. Admittedly, Californians know so little about how the budget works that surpassing us in budget intelligence isn’t that hard.
But seriously, who is managing that thing? The governor? No, he sounds exasperated that no one in the legislature will step forward to help him manage it. The Democrats? They can pass a budget on majority vote, but need some Republicans for taxes. Republicans? They complain that spending is beyond anyone’s control; a new program…er… spending limit is necessary.
Meanwhile, the budget machine with a mind of its own demands tribute – spending cuts, maybe new revenues – that hurt its citizens. If technological singularity is anything like California budget singularity, the Terminator movies may prove to be prophecy rather than art. Who knows if we can survive the machines?