The Singularity Project

If the EPC world thinks the robots will soon take over, think again. And again – but with the help of AI

The people and concepts most commonly associated with Singularity University are (or are from) smart, aspiring minds in biotechnology, computer science, robotics, genetics, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence – all converging and elevating civilization toward trans-humanism.

However, when the notion of exponential technology arises in conversation about the EPC world, it is concentric about the invasion of robots in the construction field. This fantastic interpretation is borne of decades-old Popular Mechanics sensationalism, and is not how the engineering, procurement (and manufacturing) and construction industry will transform. The end-game is very different.

In April 2019, Singularity University will hold its annual conference in Edmonton, Alberta – in the very heart of Canada’s industrial construction and supply chain enterprise. The conference speakers are notable thinkers from the transformational disciplines of GNR – genetics, nanotechnology and robotics. These technologies are the central pillars of what Ray Kurzweil had presented in his 2004 book ‘The Singularity is Near’. Kurzweil’s spectacularly optimistic bias for the rate of progress toward trans-humanism is relentless, attracting exceptional minds everywhere to embrace our pivotal era of human and technological evolution.

Fifteen years later, the selection of Edmonton to host the Singularity University Summit 2019 is perfect – if only for its slight paradox. Alberta – particularly northern Alberta – is reputed for dirty oil, harmful chemical emissions, low-tech employment and the image of all things that Singularity University is not.

We need to...soften the landing of the AI apocalypse

How does and will the Singularity manifest itself in structural and civil engineering – in the manufacture of valves and pipelines – in the construction of pipe-racks, power stations and transmission lines across the prairies?

Capital project engineering, procurement and construction are considered ‘adjacent’ industries; in that they are not driving GNR-based discovery and production. Neither does EPC live in a 1980’s Popular Science magazine, with visions of spacesuits on the resource site, where reservoir scientists effortlessly think via an extra-skeletal neural-suit to effect immediate change in resource production. Reality is infinitely more complex – and expensive – than that.

Essentially, the Singularity is the next milestone in exponential technology – the faculty to increase our world at an exponential rate, breaking through the current thresholds of efficiency, production, information and human lifespan. And, it is well underway in California, Germany, Washington, China – and Edmonton, apparently.

The heavy and high-value industries of EPC are only just beginning to understand the imperative and imminent changes, as we lay out the bridging technology to potentiate great theories. The practical applications remain distant, but the days of reckoning will probably be witnessed by today’s graduating engineers and apprentices. Along the arc covering the next 15 – 20 years are small but critically important advances. Presently, and almost imperceptibly, our industries progress along several facets, including:

1.      Information and intelligence (data, measurement, neural networking, know-how and intellect)

2.      Comfort, flexibility and mobility for tradespersons

3.      Strength, dexterity and power in smart electromechanical tools and equipment (including yellow iron)

4.      Access and mobility, with scaffold materials and types, artificial lift and constructability in design

Anticipating that some may criticize this list for the absence of modularization and pre-assembly, please note that while such execution strategies can reduce field cost and schedule, they do not change productivity or fundamentals of practice.

These four areas are opportunities of immediate innovation, and there are smart people working on them - experimenting with the next logical step. But exponential transformation is not the same as incremental change – to transform is to take the cosmic quantum leap into a new orbit of productivity baseline.

A broad field of scientific studies in GNR, combined with complexity theory, mathematics, materials engineering and other abstruse pursuits will be the fulcrum for truly ‘leveling-up’ in the EPC methods and practices. The next and currently exponential technologies in EPC are:

• Application of GNR across EPC spectrum
• Materials engineering to enable radical new designs in industrial process and facilities
• Artificial intelligence, system integration and business information
• EPC contract remodeling, based on separating resource provision / administration from management
• In-situ manufacturing

Each of these co-related and compounding applications of Singularity concepts are wanting for clarity, ambition and entrepreneurial trial. We need to do our best to help it along – to make Canadian EPC the best it can be, and to soften the landing of the AI apocalypse.

Now for the hopeful paradox:

As the costs and material requirements are reduced for developing energy, metals, minerals, infrastructure and the grand design of the world (and beyond), the opportunity and ambitions (and needs) of consumers, companies and all of civilization increase in inverse proportion. Our problems and challenges get exponentially bigger – our population gets bigger – the deification of our dreams – gets much, much bigger.

Kurzweil’s imaginative prophecy, as detailed in ‘The Singularity is Near’ is compelling and provocative – and apparently quite scary for some folks. It is an entry point for anyone interested in the Singularity movement and the implications of its founding tenets. For those of us in adjacent industries of manufacturing, engineering and construction – it is required reading to prepare for the robots.

R W Harms

President, EPC Lens, Inc.

? 2019 EPC Lens, Inc.