Welcome to Singularity Discussions!

[LeFreq]

👋 Welcome!

We’re using Discussions as a place to connect with other people interested in the Singularity project, to make an epic, unified arena for data, code, and users. We hope that you:

• Ask questions you’re wondering about.
• Share ideas.
• Engage with other community members.
• Welcome others and are open-minded. Remember that this is a community we
  build together 💪.

To get started, comment below with an introduction of yourself and tell us about what you do with this community.

[nepomnyi]

Hello, Mark. I found this page following the reference you posted on AcademiaSE. How does this decentralized Internet idea of yours work on practice? For instance, with regular Internet, I start my computer, open FireFox and search for whatever I need, then close FireFox. What is the analog of FireFox in Singularity? And don't get me wrong, your ideas seem thoroughly thought through and, definitely, interesting. Because of that, they are complex. And I am just trying to understand them starting with very simple things.

[LeFreq]

Hello, Mark. I found this page following the reference you posted on AcademiaSE. How does this decentralized Internet idea of yours work on practice? For instance, with regular Internet, I start my computer, open FireFox and search for whatever I need, then close FireFox. What is the analog of FireFox in Singularity? And don't get me wrong, your ideas seem thoroughly thought through and, definitely, interesting. Because of that, they are complex. And I am just trying to understand them starting with very simple things.

Hi Ivan. Thanks for asking. The environment and paradigm in Singularity is completely different than the standard desktop OS. Everyone is an equal peer on the network. There is no desktop. There are, instead, 3 equal modes. 1-dimensional screen is the standard command-line environment where users send and receive messages (the console, like the old DOS or Unix command line). 2-dimensional mode is where you run apps, which may be multiple, but only one on the screen at a time. 3-dimensional mode allows you to see the visualization of the network and the data and visualize the immensity of the network. There is no privileged interface. Each interface is optimized for its purpose and has unique value. There probably won't be any apps like email or a web browser as all the data is made to conform to the standard. That standard is using the built-in message command to send free-form (1d) messages. Tables (2d, like a database uses) for most data, and (3d?) objects which all conform to a standard API and are inter-operable. A monolithic app like a web browser would be very rare. Such an app would be composed of thousands of sub-objects, all used elsewhere, and would be too bulky to be that useful. Instead, the OS encourages standardization of data, so since the goal of the www was distributed knowledge sharing, the OS would gravitate such goals towards presenting the data in a uniform 3d space,illustrating the connections between pages of knowledge (like a wiki), which the user "enters" to view the content. It may be hard to imagine such a concept. The key idea is that everything is standardized so that no one has to learn individual interfaces or how users present their data and that everyone is equal in the network. It's still mostly a concept, but it's rooted in solid computer and data science. Hope that helps.... Marcos

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Message ID: <LeFreq/Singularity/repo-discussions/2/comments/12506946@ github.com>

[nepomnyi]

I see, it's definitely interesting, thank you for clarification. So, based on what you are saying I can infer that there are no servers in Singularity like in the regular Internet, right? If so, how would things like forums or Wikipedia exist? Or you don't envision likes of them existing at all? Or some user should use his computer as a server (like, for instance, PeerTube does)? And also you call it OS. So, if one wants to try it, he has to install it like a real OS? Or does it get installed more like an app on the existing OS? And how many users are there right now, if it's not a secret?

[LeFreq]

I see, it's definitely interesting, thank you for clarification. So, based on what you are saying I can infer that there are no servers in Singularity like in the regular Internet, right?

Right. Or, you could say everyone is a server: everyone is expected to be a publisher of data. Other uses are considered "frivolous", but the environment should be alluring enough to attract people to explore and want to contribute. It's a data ecosystem, and should be interesting enough to make people want to learn its "language".

If so, how would things like forums or Wikipedia exist? Or you don't envision likes of them existing at all?

Things like wikipedia would exist, but the data is part of the ecosystem. As you connect to different data and download it, you become a server and now serve it to others who ask for the same data. Forums would exist as independent nodes in the"cloud" and you would subscribe to them and receive messages at your console from them.

And also you call it OS. So, if one wants to try it, he has to install it

like a real OS? Yes, but this OS is designed and optimized to the max. Through superior architecture, the OS is expected to be less than 100K. The rest of the heavy lifting is done by the GPU (2d/3d modes), superior hardware architecture (informed by the CS theory of the project), and simplification of the OS. There's no multi-user or multi-processing environment, for example. Apps get suspended until the user goes back to them.

And how many users are there right now, if it's not a secret?

There are no users right now. It's a concept and I don't have the resources or backing to make it happen yet. It's going to be awesome though.... :) Mark

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Message ID: <LeFreq/Singularity/repo-discussions/2/comments/12512666@ github.com>

[nepomnyi]

I see, thank you. Portland seems to be the capital of the software freedom! Well, I don't have time to help you with this project. But it sounds interesting. I'll be waiting for updates.

[LeFreq]

Cheers! Mark