kurzweil

Singularity University seasons executives for the future

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--While I'm sure that many of the people in the room were familiar with prediction markets, I wonder how many of them had ever seen an active one up close and personal before.

Providing that sense of deep immersion, of course, was exactly the point of an exercise run Monday during a session of Singularity University's executive program by Melanie Swan, a Silicon Valley hedge fund manager. Swan, the principal of MS Futures Group, had tasked small groups of students with coming up with world-changing product ideas and then simultaneously had the students vote in … Read more

Microsoft boffin puts brain into e-coffin

Gordon Bell may well be a slightly peculiar man.

On the other hand, he may simply be the world's first e-philanthropist.

Bell, a researcher at Microsoft, has decided that it is, indeed, in the interests of science for him to commit every single nano-second of his brain's functions to a digital resting place, so that those in future times might see just what human life was like in our woeful, wobbling era.

According to CNN, Bell is just a little enthusiastic about this project. (Click here for a Q & A with Bell from February conducted by ZD … Read more

BOL 1069: 80 percent of life is exhaust

We're not real sure about the iRex reader, Microsoft's Courier is a lot of smoke, Palm gets told to sit down and be quiet about iTunes syncing, and a PlayStation 2 for you car. And finally, Brian imparts a valuable life lesson for everyone listening.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1069

New iRex reader http://www.gearlog.com/2009/09/new_ebook_reader_getting_push.php

Verizon and Best Buy both make moves into e-readers http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/technology/internet/23ebooks.html

Microsoft Courier “booklet” computer … Read more

We'll be immortal in 20 years, says Kurzweil

I want to live forever. I want to learn how to fly. High. I feel it coming together.

And, thankfully, so does celebrated large brain and, who knows, maybe "Kids from Fame" aficionado Ray Kurzweil.

In an article reported by the Telegraph, Kurzweil says that our technological and genetic know-how is marching at such a furious pace that in 20 years' time we should be holding in our sweaty, excitable hands the nanotechnological secrets of our existence.

This charmingly optimistic view is but another string hanging from the nano-forecasting bow he's been wearing for years, along with … Read more

The 404 389: Where we elect Jeff Bakalar the new mayor of Hoboken

Today's show welcomes Eric Franklin, host of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, who comes on to talk about the new Watchmen Blu-ray/DVD. We also talk about Xbox Portable, Hoboken's newest mayor, Comic-Con, and, of course, Beck's Beer/Last.FM Audio Draft!

The first half of today's show features Eric Franklin, the better half of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, AKA The 404 West Coast Continent. Like me, Eric is a huge "Watchmen" fanboy, so he joins us to talk about the 3-hour long "Watchmen Director's Cut" Blu-Ray and DVD, which features deleted scenes from the original theatrical release. If you're obsessed with the graphic novel, we recommend waiting for the "Ultimate Cut" edition to be released this holiday season; that one is 3 hours and 25 minutes and intercuts back and forth between the movie and the comic within the graphic novel, "Tales of the Black Freighter." We also talk about the movie's reception, critical acclaim, and what you should know before checking it out. Read Eric's fanboy review on Crave.

We also talk with Eric about the "Alice in Wonderland" trailer that debuted at Comic-Con this year, along with a few more disappointing sequels that prove the well of original stories is long dry.

Today is Friday, which means it's time for yet another 404 semiweekly audio draft sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews 5000! My pick for today is Why?, an established group on SF's own avant label Anticon Records. The group dug its roots in what some people call "post hip-hop," but its first album "Oaklandazulasylum," can be more accurately described as spoken-word-style poetry with more poignant lyrics and instrumentation. Out of the three full-lengths released to date, today's highlight "Alopecia" stands proudly as Yoni Wolf, Josiah Wolf, and Doug McDiarmid's most harmonically "indie rock" record, but in my opinion, Why's best trait is the relationship between the three essential instruments: vocals, melody, and percussion. Yoni's vocals and lyrics explores rhythms with diction and imagery that might sound delineated, but, in fact, it layers seamlessly with the music behind it. "Fatalist Palmistry" is today's draft pick, so give it a listen and let us know what you think!

EPISODE 389 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Singularity University: Hope or hype?

The "Singularity" is that postulated point in time when technological progress, led by machine intelligences designing their own replacements at an ever-increasing rate, becomes so rapid that we mere humans can no longer comprehend or control it.

It's a popular concept in science fiction. Some people believe that this point will eventually be reached in the real world. I think that those people are drastically underestimating the other limits to progress, such as bandwidth limits for data gathering, the difficulty of comprehension, and the inverse relationship of speed to reliability in data analysis.

They're also confusing … Read more

Leading futurists, thinkers to launch Silicon Valley university

Starting this summer, some of the world's leading thinkers in exponentially growing technologies will be gathering annually at NASA Ames Research Center, in the heart of Silicon Valley, for 10 weeks of discussions on how to change the future. And you could join them.

The gatherings will be part of what is known as Singularity University, a brand-new academic institution co-founded by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, X Prize chairman and CEO Peter Diamandis, and former Yahoo Brickhouse head Salim Ismail, and anyone can apply.

Singularity University is less a traditional university and more an institution that will feature … Read more

Q&A: Kurzweil on tech as a double-edged sword

Ray Kurzweil has invented and commercialized a raft of innovative technologies--including a text-to-speech synthesizer, voice recognition software, and a print-to-speech reading machine for the blind--garnering a clutch of awards in the process. He has also written extensively on artificial intelligence and robotics.

In several of his published books, including The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near, he describes a vision of the future where machine and human intelligence are increasingly combined, augmenting each other and ultimately, in Kurzweil's view, enabling humans to become both smarter and better. "These technologies can enhance not just our intelligence … Read more

Is a 'global superorganism' in our future?

I'm catching up after a week's vacation to places which, I'm happy to report, still don't speak Internet. So pardon for being late to comment, but Kevin Kelly's latest piece, "Evidence of a Global SuperOrganism" is a must read.

Kelly's post is nuanced and complex and I hesitate to reduce his thesis to a simple (and simplistic) summary. Suffice it to say, though, he posits the ultimate emergence of a global digital superorganism. His point of departure is the uncontroversial assumption that the sum of the world's connected computational devices creates … Read more