Comments on: Singularity University plans massive upgrade

By: Michael Roy Ames

Michael Roy Ames — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 02:33:39 +0000

Having participated in Udacity’s courses, and loved them, I would welcome that rich, flexible, and highly learner-centric delivery method from Singularity University. I hope you can team up with such an organization and teach rationality to the world, thousands of students at a time.

By: Bri

Bri — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:45:32 +0000

What are you suggesting? Stick our heads in the sand? If anything, the Singularity university will stimulate changes to affect those who are affected by climate change. One of my favorite ideas is to deploy space mirrors. In theory you could cool the waters of the ocean directly in front of a hurricane. Without warm water it would quickly lose it’s power source. The light could be diverted to another area, keeping the balance of energy the same. Right now that’s too costly and we don’t understand the weather enough. In the future we might easily control the surface temps, so reseated wouldn’t be so hot and northern latitudes might be more hospitable!

By: Peter Simmons

Peter Simmons — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:56:51 +0000

All very well but what about climate change and the increasingly violent ‘weather events’ that are flooding large areas of food production? I think you’ll find the changes brought about by climate are going to make all of this a bit too theoretical and irrelevent. When people are starving, they usually don’t spend time thinking about ‘the singularity’ or anything else other than food.

By: Peter Simmons

Peter Simmons — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:52:16 +0000

52 postage prepaid envelopes to send in the $6.00 a week! Snailmail’s a bit passe surely. Haven’t you heard of DDs?

By: Focus

Focus — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 08:52:43 +0000

I should hope it all has something to do with actually taking steps toward the Singularity and not just whatever else humans are so good at doing/dabbling with.

I would be worried about the wasted time and resources that the growth of any organization almost inevitably entails.

Keep your eye on the ball.

By: SpottedMarley

SpottedMarley — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:08:51 +0000

Fear of Death 101 is completely full

By: GreenSamurai

GreenSamurai — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:08:22 +0000

I just wanted to say that you got one thing wrong.

The question in Transcendent man was “Do you believe there is a god?” but the response is the same. “Not yet”

I also think we shouldn’t make it in to a religious movement.

First, because you don’t have to believe in the singularity to observe and try to cope with the implications that have already impacted the world.

Second you can be skeptical about the claims that have yet come true. In dogmatic institutions they look down on skeptical inquiry. Dogmatic thinking infests all religions for a reason. Religions gain momentum by claiming they are true and that they shouldn’t be questioned on the subject. There would be nothing worse than the singularity movement to be infested with dogmatic thinking.

By: Bri

Bri — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:08:05 +0000

I thought the god of science was Scientology! They have similar ways of tithing.

By: Marcos Marin

Marcos Marin — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:40:01 +0000

Bring it on!

12+ concomitant courses year round from the likes of Coursera, Udacity et al are not enough for me. To quote Agent Smith: “MORE!”

By: RFW

RFW — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:58:17 +0000

This is a fabulous development that could set the pace for the foreseeable future in the most positive of contexts. I would LOVE to see this type of expansion of Singularity and see many more people be able to attend any or all of the events planned, myself included!

By: Scott V. Brown

Scott V. Brown — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 19:18:48 +0000

If I could just fill out the application without being kicked out, I would apply.

By: boy86

boy86 — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:41:40 +0000

I am not sure, that so much is going on so much new, i read sinulgary for some time and i read for tech staff for long time, but, people think noting than mobile phones, has changed. Thay do boring staff al day long, The same for 30 or more years. We need robots, Ok computer are geting faster, but so what. thay can look hd muvies, and this is all play games, what about, this is al virutalty in reality we dont have smart home robots. … where people moustly work dont see robots to, thay write in office, …

By: M. Bates

M. Bates — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:22:38 +0000

Well hot damn, an exponential upgrade, I sure like the sound of that, Bill. Maybe in two more years it’ll double itself again and turn into a freaking robot.

By: Renzo Canepari

Renzo Canepari — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:15:14 +0000

I believe that the time has come for Kurzweil to turn the Singularity movement into a religion.
At the end of Transcendent Man, Ray is asked if he believes in God. His answer is, ” not yet.”
Pascal thought that we should all go to church and have faith in the God of liturature because the cost was so little and the consequence of eternal damnation so great.
I would like to see the Singularity movement employing a similar sentiment. I would like to Ray et. al., ask the religious and the rest of us to hedge the other bet with a contribution of $6.00 per week to create the God of science.
I would like to see the solicitation of the money by advertisements in the various science magazines.
The first contribution would be of $50.00 for which the payer would receive Ray’s DVD ‘s and 52 postage prepaid envelopes to send in the $6.00 a week. There would also be something to forward to a friend. Of course, those “techies” who would want to pay online could do so.
I am assuming that one dollar of the six would be for overhead, so ponder what Ray et. al, could do with the five dollars a week that 10 million contributors worldwide would send
If memory serves me correctly:

1) Ben Goertzel is looking for three million dollars a year to produce some type of result by 2020.
2) Henry Markram is looking for a billion Euros to produce some kind of result by 2020.
3) Douglas Lenat has a profitable business using genetic algorithms and is only awaiting more powerful hardware.
49) The Japanese funded $ 80 million dollars during the 1980′s to de Garis to do what he did over 9 years. As Moravec said in the December 1999 Scientific American, the big bottleneck during the 1980′s was slow computer speed.
It seems to me that all of this research could be funded with 2 years of the forementioned contributions. Also, the Singularity movement could branch out into other areas, like renewable energy , and the work that Craig Venter is doing . Churches invest surplus monies, so the Singularity movement could certainly do so also

By: Bri

Bri — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:59:02 +0000

The vast majority of people have no idea of the issues we discuss. When I try and engage people on these topics, they think that they are far in the future, and not pertinent yet. This university can position itself to bring greater awareness to these important issues. Particularly in the political sphere. I think they should also follow the example of Scientology. That name is an oxymoron, but they have a relatively high rate of success, mainly because they converted influential people. Find good cultural communicators that are curious about future trends and network them together. The changes to society are going to be rapid. Part of being a singularitarian or transhumanist should be a desire to spread the good news. Peter Diamandis’s book abundance is a good example of trying to popularize the good aspects of these upheavals. Helping to coordinate the philanthropic efforts to areas that will lessen the severity of job transformations. It’s really time to realize that we are in this together and that together we can affect change for the better, for all of us.