A speculative project made in response to the ongoing discussions raised by numerous futurists and technologists on the hypothetical point called the technological singularity. Often, technologists and futurists talk about how this technological growth can become uncontrollable and irreversible. Either this hypothetical point is consequential or beneficial, there is a lack of conversations touching upon how the relationship between human and technology should be.

The narratives are established within the perspective of one of the people who decided to escape the city tending towards the technological singularity. The vision is to resettle a new community with a vision that speaks against technological centralisation.

As mining was one of the early operations that sparked the industrial revolution, the new community is built on top of an abandoned mine settlement to invert the conventional notion of a technological revolution. "The Mine of Humanism" focuses on what is humanistic by liberating ourselves from technological centralisation. We call the people who inhabit this community, the miners. These miners do not mine coal or lead, but data and blocks for security configuration.

The project sits in 2050 and speculates on an alternative reaction to the city tending towards the technological singularity by decentralising themselves to an extreme. The concept is inspired by the theory of relativity, and how blockchain technology operates on its own internal time system.

The project was developed at the Architectural Association School Of Architecture.

KOOZ What prompted the project?

RSM In theoretical Physics, the term singularity refers to the point where gravitational forces become infinite, leading to the collapse in space and time. Such a term is also utilised in naming a hypothetical future point in time when Artificial Intelligence surpasses human intelligence- the technological singularity. As hypothetical as it is in theoretical Physics, the technological singularity is the point of an event that many futurists speculate on. Instead of speculating on the prevailing views that share either a utopian or a dystopian view based on how technology advances, the project asks the way of living on the basis of alternate human conduct.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

RSM AI and technologies have already advanced so immensely ever since the term, technological singularity, was first used. Yet the crossover across different points made on technological singularity reflects mostly the shift in the power of decision-making from human to machine- a slow transition into technological centralisation. The discussions are concentrated on feasible consequences primarily based on the technological trend. There is a lack of conversations and questions raised on the alternate and the possible form of relationship between humans and technology can take. Instead of making technological growth being the dominant changing variables in perceiving the future point in time, the project engages in the landscape illustrated by the popular singularity view with the different ideal. The project starts questioning if complete resistance over technological centralisation exists. If they do exist, to what extent can we say that humanistic centralisation overturned technological control?

KOOZ What informed 2050 as the site for the project?

RSM The contextual layout of the project is based on the most agreeable descriptions of the technological singularity made today by futurists. The predictions on the technological landscape sparked way before the term ‘technological singularity’ was coined. An American engineer, Gordon Moore made a prediction called Moore’s Law where the capability of computers grows exponentially every two years based on the changes in the integrated semiconductor circuits. Technological singularity marks the end of Moore’s law where the machine’s intelligence becomes out of human’s control and will be able to reproduce another machine’s intelligence on their own. Many predict that the singularity is expected to occur by 2050 or earlier.

Artificial Intelligence takes the position of the central discussion in the topic of technological singularity. Hence, the project designs and evolves to create friction against data-driven, and data-based technologies and machines.
As mining was one of the early operations that sparked the industrial revolution, the speculative project embeds the new system that inverts the conventional notion of a technological revolution in an abandoned minefield located in England, called Dylife. The project sits in 2050 and speculates on an alternative reaction to the city tending towards the technological singularity by decentralising themselves to an extreme.
The designing of the system as shown the film is developed by bringing the concept of decentralisation to an extreme by even converting the notion of time and energy to incentivise humanistic conduct.

KOOZ How does the project approach and redefine the notion of humanism?

RSM The community as depicted in the film project focuses on what is humanistic by liberating the people from technological centralisation. The community slogan, ’decentralised, distributed and humanistic ’, is also reflected in the designing of the compartments and the architecture. The Central Processing Tower acts as the main indicator of how fast the time flows for each compartment. In "The Mine of Humanism", the flow of time is replaced by the rate of energy consumption used for supplying to the community and ensuring data securities. Every tower will position the best data miner at the top levels and the rest will rotate on their ‘clock’ based on how much energy they have used relative to the top compartment. This is to incentivise everyone to ensure responsibilities is in their own hands for creating an ever-growing efficient and human-governing community.

KOOZ How do you imagine the repercussions of the technological singularity shaping and affecting the way we design and inhabit the built environment?

RSM There have been drastic changes in the way of living merely from the introduction of smartphones. The consequences of the technological singularity on the way humans ‘inhabit’ the ‘built environment’ is the questions of what is beyond the information age. We moved from televisions to desktop, to mobile phones, and now we have watches and miscellaneous smart appliances. New platforms emerged out of new technological interfaces. A new mode of behaviours are formulated as the digital realm converges towards the physical one. The way people inhabit and the elements of the built environment may no longer be solely determined by the physical elements. The boundary between the two dimensions may be consolidated- which means more and more physical spaces will be designed to cater for the digital realm.

KOOZ How would this shape and affect the role of the architect within society?

RSM We already have and use technologies as a tool to accelerate the design process by accessing another dimension offered by computer software and various programs to interface with drawings, visualisations and 3d Modelling. The advent of AI in architecture and design has already begun. There are many experiments being done by setting up different parameters to set up an AI that generates floor plans, building facades and more architectural solutions. In my perspective, AI can optimise the design process but the ultimate process of designing is not easy to take over. Having to worry about the role of the architect in society is instead more depended on the societal demands rather than the AI capability itself.