Ray Kurzweil

Singularity University Day 1: Meeting Ray and Peter

by Socrates
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My very first day at Singularity University was as intense as it was amazing. I got to personally meet and shake hands with both Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis. Our very full schedule started at 7:30 am with breakfast and went through program overviews and introductions, eventually culminating with a mind-blowing spirit-pumping opening ceremony at the San Francisco Computer History Museum. At the consequent wine-and-cheese cocktail party we got to mingle with other SingularityU alumni and dozens of Silicon Valley VIP’s. For those for whom that was not enough there was a Greek-turned-Brazilian dance party in the main student hall on campus which went on until the early hours of the morning. *** A former student who took the program last year told me that after the end he went home and slept 14 hours per day for 2 weeks. [...]

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The Technological Singularity Goes Mainstream (Again)

by Socrates
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The technological singularity goes mainstream again (and again). The last 12 months or so we have witnessed an unparalleled growth of mainstream coverage of transhumanism, the singularity, artificial intelligence and Ray Kurzweil. Some of the more notable mentions include: PBS on Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity; the NY Times’ Humans are so Yesterday; Ray Kurzweil on the Daily Show with John Stewart and New Zeland TV features Singularity University. (Yeah, it does seem that Michael Anissimov is right to say that Transhumanism Has Already Won.) Yesterday, Time Magazine’s cover story was about Ray Kurzweil and Barry Ptolemy‘s long anticipated feature documentary Transcendent Man. It is hard to get any more mainstream than that. I hope that people will go to watch the film en masse, listen to what Ray has to say and start thinking about the vital issues stemming [...]

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New Zealand TV Features Singularity University

by Socrates
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The concept of the technological singularity is becoming more and more mainstream and is exhibiting what seems to be an exponential growth in media coverage. Just some of the more recent examples include feature articles on the NY Times and coverage on PBS TV network together with the widely anticipated big screen movie premieres of both Transcendent Man and The Singularity Is Near. Now even New Zealand’s 60 minutes TV show run a short but very interesting documentary news report featuring Singularity University. Check out the video below which touches on a number of topics related to the singularity such as Ray Kurzweil‘s predictions, immortality, nanotechnology, exponential growth, brain uploading, synthetic biology, space exploration and others. Related articles Ray Kurzweil at the Daily Show with John Stewart (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) PBS Reports On Ray Kurzweil and The Singularity (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: Barry [...]

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PBS Reports On Ray Kurzweil and The Singularity

by Socrates
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The technological singularity is indeed going mainstream. A few weeks ago it was the New York Times publishing an article called Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday. Today it is PBS. The first video is the full PBS report on some of the issues surrounding the singularity. The second video is part of Ray Kurweil‘s interview where he talks about God, the Universe and the evolution of intelligence. Enjoy! Related articles by Zemanta Ray Kurzweil at the Daily Show with John Stewart (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Justin Rattner on the Singularity (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Goes Mainstream: NY Times Says Humans Are “So Yesterday” (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Aubrey de Grey’s Singularity Podcast: Longevity Escape Velocity Maybe Closer Than We Think (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com)

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Ray Kurzweil at the Daily Show with John Stewart

by Socrates
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This is a funny video of Ray Kurzweil on the Daily Show with John Stewart. While the video is anything but serious, some of the points it makes are. Warning: Rated at least PG 13. Viewer Discretion is Advised.

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Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man

by Socrates
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In this edition of Singularity Podcast I was privileged to do a phone interview with Barry Ptolemy, the director and producer of Transcendent Man. Barry was very generous to make time in his busy schedule and share his thoughts on the making of the movie, the technological singularity in general and Ray Kurzweil in particular. Listen to the podcast and watch the trailer but be forewarned — if you do so then you may feel compelled to go and watch the movie   Transcendent Man is a new documentary film about the life and ideas of inventor, futurist, singularitarian and transhumanist Ray Kurzweil.  About Barry Ptolemy At age 12, Barry Ptolemy was first inspired to create films on the set of E.T. where he worked closely alongside Steven Spielberg for the duration of the production. After attending USC Film School, [...]

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Ray Kurzweil’s Review of Avatar

by Socrates
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Some time ago I posted a few trailers, interviews and short docs together with a brief review of AVATAR. Today I happened to fall onto a very detailed and highly critical review written by Ray Kurzweil. I thought that it is worthwhile to republish Ray’s review in its totality for it does raise many good points that may be worth considering. The review was copied from KurweilAI.net and its orginal URL page is: http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html?id%3D11907 Reflections on Avatar by Ray Kurzweil from KurzweilAI.net, Mar. 8, 2010 I recently watched James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D. It was an enjoyable experience in some ways, but overall I left dismayed on a number of levels. It was enjoyable to watch the lush three-dimensional animation and motion capture controlled graphics. I’m not sure that 3D will take over — as many now expect — until [...]

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Can you TRANSCEND biology and live long enough to live forever?

by Socrates
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In 2004, Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, MD, published Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Their groundbreaking book marshaled thousands of scientific studies to make the case that new developments in medicine and technology will allow us to radically extend our life expectancies and slow down the aging process. In 2009, Ray and Terry published Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever where they present what they believe to be a practical and enjoyable program which readers can follow in order to live long enough (and remain healthy long enough) to take full advantage of the biotech and nanotech advances that have already begun and will be occurring at an accelerating pace during the years ahead. The program aims to help us TRANSCEND biology and live long enough to live forever. In 2010, Ray and Terry give us [...]

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