One of my favorite blogs, io9, has been running a series of posts on “posthumanity” from both fiction and real-life. Today R.U. Sirius of h+ Magazine has a great post up about his “best-case scenario for posthumanity.” In it, he describes what his ideal vision of the future might look like, which includes open-source style [...]
Posts under ‘Singularity’
Top 5 TED talks on transhumanism
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) brings together some of the world’s top thinkers at conferences around the world to deliver short presentations on “ideas worth spreading.” Not surprisingly, several speakers have delivered talks on topics of interest to transhumanists, such as life extension, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and more. One of the great things about TED is [...]
Rutgers to offer course on “Singularity Studies”
This summer, Rutgers University-Camden is offering what sounds like an incredible course in “Singularity Studies,” described as “The Future of Humanity in the Age of Superhuman Artificial Intelligence.” The instructors are Ben Goertzel, Ph.D, known for his leadership positions at many transhumanist organizations (including the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Humanity+) and Ted Goertzel, [...]
GeekDad asks: “When do the machines take over?”
Curtis Silver, better known as Wired’s “GeekDad,” looks at our current level of technological progress, where we’re set to go in the near future, and can’t help but ask when humanity is going to face Judgment Day (well, almost). While that computer was built for a particular function and with the best intentions in mind, [...]
Humanpl.us Linkstravaganza – 12/22/09
Lots of good stuff appearing over the last couple of days: Singularity Hub has a roundup of the “best robots of 2009” which includes a ton of video. You’ll see robots that build, robots that run, and even a robot that looks like a real, live human woman that got lost wandering the uncanny valley. [...]
New GOOD miniseries is “human’s guide” to the singularity
Over at GOOD.is, Michael Anissimov and Roko Mijic will be posting every Monday, until January 23, about the singularity. The first post, appropriately titled “Singularity 101: What is the singularity?” is a good place to start, giving readers background on what the “technological singularity” may mean for humanity, and what fantastical technologies may become reality [...]
Ray Kurzweil keynote from Singularity U
I’ve been writing a little bit about the Singularity University Executive Program that started last week, and we’ve seen some excellent reports coming in from Ted Greenwald at Wired. Here’s video of Ray Kurzweil’s keynote that opened the program. Always inspiring and interesting to hear from one of the leading thinkers and evangelists for transhuman [...]
“Gray goo” and hostile AI low on potential threat scale
If you’re like me, you are looking forward to the predicted singularity and the inevitable major advances in technology that will occur this century. However, there’s always the thought that things could go horribly wrong – self-replicating nanomachines could create “gray goo,” AI could turn against its creators, and so on. According to Mike Treder [...]
Inside Singularity University
For those of us who would love to attend Singularity University but are unable, Ted Greenwald at Wired is reporting on presentations taking place at the Singularity University Executive program, and it sounds like there has been some fascinating discussion. On the first day, attendees were treated to a presentation on the singularity by none [...]
Psychology Today skeptic takes on the singularity
Massimo Pigliucci of Psychology Today’s Rationally Speaking blog is “In Pursuit of Positive Skepticism” – and after sitting in on a presentation by philosopher David Chalmers regarding the singularity, he came away especially skeptical of the concept. In his blog post, “David Chalmers and the Singularity that will probably not come,” Pigliucci not only takes [...]