Nine years to the Singularity

[avram]

Someone at The Economist with a bit of extra time on his hands was looking at the recent proliferation of many-bladed razors, and noticed that the time gap between blade increments seems to be shrinking: 70 years before someone added the second blade, a couple of decades to the third, only two or three years between the four-bladed Schick Quattro and the five-bladed Gillette Fusion. Might there be a Moore’s Law for razors blades? Hence the chart over there.

Now, that power-law curve predicts 14-bladed razors by the year 2100, but that’s not the interesting curve. The interesting curve is the hyperbolic one, for two reasons: One, it matches the real-world data. And two, it goes to infinity in 2015. And how are you going to get an asymptotically-accelerating number of blades onto a razor? Why, you’d need godlike super-technology to do that.

Right. There it is, proof of the approaching Vingean Singularity, sooner than anyone expected it, clear as the chin on your face.

(Update!)

Comments

The Quintippio Megashave

[(Anonymous)]

Philips' Cool Skin line had a similar parody with the Quintippio Megashave which can be seen at http://www.coolskin.philips.com

Re: The Quintippio Megashave

[kazvorpal.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, but that one only has 15 blades...it's puny.

The Infini-T has infinite blades, or your money back.

You'll note the year of its release at the bottom.

By that time, of course, all appliances are wireless.

Re: The Quintippio Megashave

[kazvorpal.livejournal.com]

Here's the current location of that image...