I highly support changing your name—there’s all sorts of bad juju associated with the term “singularity”. My advice, keep the new name as bland as possible, avoiding anything with even a remote chance of entering the popular lexicon. The term “singularity” has suffered the same fate as “cybernetics”.
In terms of minimizing the status loss for academics affiliating with SIAI, a banal minimally-descriptive name may be superior. People often overestimate the value of the piquant. Beige may not excite, but it doesn’t offend. Any term which has the potential to become a buzzword, or acquire alternative definitions, should be avoided. The more exciting the term, the higher the chance of appropriation.
This was the point I was trying to make; on rereading it after posting, I realized it was remarkably poorly written and wasn’t even clearly conveying what I was thinking when I wrote it. I didn’t have time to edit it then, so I retracted.
I highly support changing your name—there’s all sorts of bad juju associated with the term “singularity”. My advice, keep the new name as bland as possible, avoiding anything with even a remote chance of entering the popular lexicon. The term “singularity” has suffered the same fate as “cybernetics”.
I note that you’ve retracted you post, but I still feel the need to ask: shouldn’t the name reflect what they do?
In terms of minimizing the status loss for academics affiliating with SIAI, a banal minimally-descriptive name may be superior. People often overestimate the value of the piquant. Beige may not excite, but it doesn’t offend. Any term which has the potential to become a buzzword, or acquire alternative definitions, should be avoided. The more exciting the term, the higher the chance of appropriation.
This was the point I was trying to make; on rereading it after posting, I realized it was remarkably poorly written and wasn’t even clearly conveying what I was thinking when I wrote it. I didn’t have time to edit it then, so I retracted.
BTW, here’s an interesting blog post about considerations relevant to naming stuff.
Thank you for clarifying.