law of accelerating returns
E577762
concept in technological singularity studies
concept in transhumanism
futurist theory
theory of technological change
The law of accelerating returns is Ray Kurzweil’s theory that technological progress, especially in information technologies, grows at an exponential and compounding rate, leading to increasingly rapid and transformative change.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| law of accelerating returns canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6222727 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: law of accelerating returns Context triple: [The Age of Spiritual Machines, basedOnTheory, law of accelerating returns]
-
A.
Wirth’s law
Wirth’s law is the observation that software tends to become slower more quickly than hardware becomes faster, often negating the benefits of improved computing performance.
-
B.
Koomey's law
Koomey's law is an empirical observation that the energy efficiency of computing—measured as computations per unit of energy—has historically doubled roughly every 1.5 years.
-
C.
The Singularity Is Near
The Singularity Is Near is a futurist book by Ray Kurzweil that predicts the imminent rise of superintelligent machines and explores the profound technological, social, and philosophical implications of this transformation.
-
D.
Great Acceleration
The Great Acceleration is the post–World War II surge in human population, economic activity, and resource use that has dramatically intensified human impacts on Earth’s environment and climate.
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E.
The Age of Spiritual Machines
The Age of Spiritual Machines is a futurist book by Ray Kurzweil that predicts the evolution of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on human society and consciousness.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: law of accelerating returns Target entity description: The law of accelerating returns is Ray Kurzweil’s theory that technological progress, especially in information technologies, grows at an exponential and compounding rate, leading to increasingly rapid and transformative change.
-
A.
Wirth’s law
Wirth’s law is the observation that software tends to become slower more quickly than hardware becomes faster, often negating the benefits of improved computing performance.
-
B.
Koomey's law
Koomey's law is an empirical observation that the energy efficiency of computing—measured as computations per unit of energy—has historically doubled roughly every 1.5 years.
-
C.
The Singularity Is Near
The Singularity Is Near is a futurist book by Ray Kurzweil that predicts the imminent rise of superintelligent machines and explores the profound technological, social, and philosophical implications of this transformation.
-
D.
Great Acceleration
The Great Acceleration is the post–World War II surge in human population, economic activity, and resource use that has dramatically intensified human impacts on Earth’s environment and climate.
-
E.
The Age of Spiritual Machines
The Age of Spiritual Machines is a futurist book by Ray Kurzweil that predicts the evolution of artificial intelligence and its profound impact on human society and consciousness.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
concept in technological singularity studies
ⓘ
concept in transhumanism ⓘ futurist theory ⓘ theory of technological change ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
artificial intelligence capabilities
ⓘ
biotechnology ⓘ communication technologies ⓘ computing power ⓘ information technology ⓘ nanotechnology ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | linear models of technological progress ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
each new technological generation builds on the previous at a faster pace
ⓘ
information-based technologies double in capability on predictable timescales ⓘ multiple overlapping technological paradigms sustain long-term exponential growth ⓘ rate of technological progress itself increases over time ⓘ technological progress is often underestimated because it is exponential rather than linear ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
insufficient attention to physical and social constraints
ⓘ
optimistic bias about technology ⓘ reliance on selective historical data ⓘ |
| describes |
accelerating rate of innovation
ⓘ
compounding technological change ⓘ exponential technological progress ⓘ nonlinear growth of information technologies ⓘ |
| field |
artificial intelligence
ⓘ
computing ⓘ futurology ⓘ innovation studies ⓘ technology studies ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Moore's law
ⓘ
observed exponential trends in computing ⓘ |
| influences |
discourse on AI timelines
ⓘ
public debates about the future of work ⓘ speculative scenarios about post-human futures ⓘ |
| predicts |
eventual emergence of superhuman artificial intelligence
ⓘ
future convergence of technologies such as AI, nano, and bio ⓘ increasingly rapid and transformative technological change ⓘ radical impacts on society and the economy ⓘ shortening intervals between major technological breakthroughs ⓘ |
| proposedBy | Ray Kurzweil ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Kurzweil's singularity hypothesis
ⓘ
linked to:
The Age of Spiritual Machines
Moore's law ⓘ exponential growth ⓘ paradigm shifts ⓘ technological singularity ⓘ transhumanism ⓘ |
| timeScale | long-term historical analysis of technology ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Kurzweil's book "The Age of Spiritual Machines"
ⓘ
linked to:
The Age of Spiritual Machines
Kurzweil's book "The Singularity Is Near" ⓘ
linked to:
The Singularity Is Near
arguments for the technological singularity ⓘ long-term forecasts of AI progress ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: law of accelerating returns Description of subject: The law of accelerating returns is Ray Kurzweil’s theory that technological progress, especially in information technologies, grows at an exponential and compounding rate, leading to increasingly rapid and transformative change.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.