Now that I think about it, one of the most important and fundamental aspects of our lives is the ability to communicate. Living in a foreign country has thrown this in my face every day and I am acutely aware of it.

Once there is a standardized library for the accurate understanding of spoken language, is there any job that a machine couldn't theoretically do?

Besides purely mental pursuits and jobs that require face to face human interaction for their success, *many* of the jobs our current economy is based on could easily be replaced by a machine that can accurately understand language.

For example, a cook… because they are hidden away in the kitchen usually, having a “cooking assembly line” would save huge percentages of money on wasted food, salaries and mistakes in the creation of food. I can see resteraunts being run solely on their waiting staff in the future.

Considering this point, I believe that our ramp into the first true “strong” AI systems will follow the process of human jobs being increasingly abstract and less “hands on”. As the years go by, jobs that initially required someone to actually use their hands to build or make something will become more abstract. For example, a cook would design the chemical structure/taste of the food instead of actually cook it. A car mechanic would create new processes for more efficient car repairs instead of actually fixing a car.

It will be a gradual slope… all of a sudden, we will realize that our machine counterparts will have reached our highest level of abstraction and then they will surpass us.

I think this gradual slope of the development of abstractive capability of machines will allow for a smooth transition into a singularity style event. To be honest, the world in the next thirty years is going to be like nothing ever before seen in the history of the universe (I am of the belief that at least in our multiverse, another race of beings near our technological level, if given a few thousands years more then us, would have covered the entire multiverse with knowledge and understanding already… thats the speed with which a future AI based society can change their physical reality).