The Singularity Is Near movie to be available this Summer
June 18, 2012
The Singularity Is Near: a True Story About the Future movie will be available to the public this Summer, KurzweilAI announced today (June 16, 2012).
The movie will be available for downloading and via DVD.
A new website, singularity.com/themovie, launched today, includes a movie teaser and links to Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to be notified when the movie is available.
The Singularity is Near is based on Ray Kurzweil’s New York Times bestseller book of the same title, intertwines a fast-paced documentary and drama.
The documentary features Ray Kurzweil interacting with a panoply of thinkers on the impact of exponentially expanding technologies on the nature of human life in the next half century, illustrated with cutting-edge graphics and special effects.
The intertwined drama is a Pinocchio story about Ramona (played by Pauley Perrette), a superhero avatar created by Ray. Ramona becomes more and more independent, hires Alan Dershowitz (who plays himself) to press for her legal rights, and is coached by Tony Robbins (who also plays himself) to discover what it means to be human.
Comments (58)
by Cybernettr
I’m surprised Alvin Toeffler is featured in this movie, since so many of his predictions 40 years ago were so off-base. Does giving him credence in this movie not detract from Kurzweil’s credence?
by Mark Plus
Toffler’s “future shock” notion sounded more plausible right after the first moon landing and the social chaos of the late 1960′s than it does now. Since 1970 we’ve gone from Future Shock to the Great Stagnation, and we can see geeks’ desperation to attain high status again, like their rocket engineer heroes in the 1960′s, by latching onto fantasies like “nanotechnology,” “mind uploading” and the “singularity,” only this time around they can’t deliver on their promises.
by jack
Mr. Peter Kinnon,
Just been half way thru your book , its amazing, Kindly provide me your email i have some issues to consult on.
by Editor
askray@kurzweilai.net
by jack
Message has been sent.
by rob falgiano
I consider the Singularity an inevitability, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the future will be ‘better’ or ‘worse,’ but certainly different. That is simply the nature of time and evolution. Simple life begins from microscopic cells and works its way up to forms of intelligence that may have come from biological organism but have now evolved into nonbiological immortal beings. And perhaps once those immortal beings have learned everything there is possible to learn about existence then terminate themselves or seed a new process of life beginning back at the first cells again. So that all of creation is a process from the smallest, least associated bits of life to the most complex, and then the system breaks down and starts all over again eternally.
by Phil Day
I went to a viewing last night. My cousin was dead for his soul had gone into eternity. There was nothing left on this earth. A few memories grabbed by a machine is not living eternally. Individuality is not recognized by some singularity that takes memories and shifts them into some internet server for machine eternity (until someone drops a bomb or pulls a plug or drops an EMP). Individuality and our souls are a gift that will last forever, but they are from the Great God Almighty. Eternity is our destiny, but we must choose to worship Him or we choose not to. This then determines how our eternity will be spent. Some server or some avatar isn’t going to save you from the Hands of the Eternal God. Choose Him and place your eternity in His Hands willingly now for His word says that ultimately every knee will bow before Him, some willingly serve Him, most will mock now and sadly choose to enter eternal condemnation for not serving Him. Place your trust in Him through his Messiah, Jesus, now. Yeah, I know just how corny is that. Unfortunately for many it is in fact true, people are just trained by Hollywood and their evil masters to mock the Living God and his plan for eternity. This sends people off on a wild goose chase trying to live forever as an avatar or some such nonsense. Are you going to be the blue, cartoon guy? That might have been a cool movie, but it was just a cartoon.
by Jonathan Crumpler
lol
Idiot
by dt
You are kidding yourselves, all for naught. You cannot escape death. You will one day bow before the Creator.
by Bri
Om Nama Shivia.
by Sean
Your certainty is astounding. The ‘creator’ you allude to is a mythological coward. Choose real life.
by Jack
thanks. Mr. Kinnon, I will download and absorb all the wisdom you have provided in your books.
by A
It is rather unfortunate to say, but the production quality of this trailer is rather abysmal, Transcendent Man had a lot more finesse. The gimicky nature of the trailer does little to boost the reputation and value of the ideologies put forth.
by Opspersec
It’s the good-old “going for the mainstream” effect. You have to adapt to the audience to get your message across. It’s perfect for non-experts with an average to below average intelligence with the attention span of a 10 year old in a toy store – Gee golly gosh! I want them all!
Apparently, I am a bit ashamed to admit, I’m one of those because I’m still picking my jaw off the floor – this literally blew my mind. It was way beyond my expectations. I watched it three times and only then the reality of what they were saying was beginning to sink in. And then all I was thinking: where can I throw my money at to get there faster?!
If you don’t like the portrayed hectic pace of the future, rest assured that digital processing will always be quiet, thank the great Bit in the sky.
I for one welcome our digital overlords, whatever language they’re coded in.
by Chrispium
Microsoft Basic…
by Petri J
I’m afraid I have to agree. This trailer is a mess. It’s unfortunate that there clearly wasn’t enough budget to make this movie even close to the quality of transcendent man, but I’m positive that there will be a lot of movies in the future that touch this very subject.
by Opspersec
Microsoft BASIC? Now there’s an idea not many AGI guys have entertained. I wonder if it could be done…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness
It’s not the language but how you use it… nah – using BASIC would be just wrong. Wrong as in morally and ethically corrupt, stupid, evil, and proud of it – as wrong as you can imagine and then some. Wrong as in not right at all.
It’s most likely going to be a mix of low and high level languages and perhaps some new above high level meta languages, and then some languages the AGIs invent themselves.
by Opspersec
Imagine – The first self-improving AGI that takes over the world. Written in BASIC. Using GOTOs all over the place. The ultimate slap in the face for all AGI wannabes.
by Editor
BASIC … showing that it actually IS elementary, my dear Watson? :)
by Jack
Yes I fully agree with you Mr. Peter kinnon on internet being the next life form and I will surely read your book. This new life form as you mentioned, still has physical roots, that is, it dwells inside our servers. Once the critical mass is reached, it will become conscious of itself (more and more humans nourishing the internet with their data, that is why the population increase) it will have all the intelligence required to survive without humans and maybe it wil find a way to break free from human clutches, like how a spore breaks free from the pod. But how? Will it find a way to survive through the atmosphere and in space, how will it make the next journey through space. What medium will it use? Will it create something like a Nasa voyager. Or could it be that it will not require any physical hardware at all? It maybe just as well be an intelligent cloud (concepts first introduced by Mr. Teilhard de chardin , noosphere?). and here we have to break free of robot and aliens having human like appearance. Our human appearance and the robots lookalikes are all required for earths atmosphere, to process the different elements. The next life form wont need to breath or see. It may just process data.
by Peter Kinnon
Questions of the kind you have posed, Jack, are addressed more specifically in chapters 12-15 & 17 of my first book “Unusual Perspectives: An Escape From Tunnel Vision” . This is also a free download..
by Peter Kinnon
As I have pointed out elsewhere, those of the transhumanist cult seem unable to break away from the tired old SF paradigm of “robot revolutions”, while overlooking the emergence of a new life-form that is occurring right under our noses. Very real evidence indicates the rather imminent implementation of the next, (non-biological) phase of the on-going evolutionary “life” process from what we at present call the Internet.
It can already be observed as a a work-in-progress. And effectively evolving by a process of self-assembly. You may have noticed that we are increasingly, in a sense, “enslaved” by our PCs, mobile phones, their apps and many other trappings of the net. We are already largely dependent upon it for our commerce and industry and there is no turning back. What we perceive as a tool is well on its way to becoming an agent.
Consider this:
There are at present an estimated 2 Billion internet users. There are an estimated 13 Billion neurons in the human brain. On this basis for approximation the internet is even now only one order of magnitude below the human brain and its growth is exponential.
That is a simplification, of course. For example: Not all users have their own computer. So perhaps we could reduce that, say, tenfold. The number of switching units, transistors, if you wish, contained by all the computers connecting to the internet and which are more analogous to individual neurons is many orders of magnitude greater than 2 Billion. Then again, this is compensated for to some extent by the fact that neurons do not appear to be binary switching devices but can adopt multiple states.
Without even crunching the numbers, we see that we must take seriously the possibility that even the present internet may well be comparable to a human brain in processing power. And, of course, the degree of interconnection and cross-linking of networks within networks is also growing rapidly.
The culmination of this exponential growth corresponds to the event that transhumanists inappropriately call “The Singularity” but is more properly regarded as a phase transition of the “life” process.
The broad evolutionary model that supports this contention is outlined very informally in “The Goldilocks Effect: What Has Serendipity Ever Done For Us?” , a free download in e-book formats from the “Unusual Perspectives” website
by Jack
Mr. Ray Kurzweil is one of the few people on this planet who is involved in ‘what creation wants’ that is future accelerated evolution, which is a bigger cause. Which is why we are all here in the first place, and not for our egoistic selfish needs. I more and more people even lay person should suport Ray Kurzeils cause. Keep up the good work Mr. Ray.
to put in a phrase ‘Ask not what creation can do for you, ask what you can do for creation, and Mr. Ray Kurzweils work is a fine example of this.
by Peter Kinnon
I think you are on the right track in considering the development of technology within the collective imagination of our species to be but part of a wider evolutionary process.
However, I find your use of the word “creation” a little disturbing as this often has superstitious connotations to which I certainly do not subscribe.
You may be interested in checking out my latest book “The Goldilocks Effect: What Has Serendipity Ever Done For Us?”, a free download.
by John Thompson
Wish the haters had a life…. Oh yeah…. That’s why they’re haters…. 8-)
Can’t wait to see it!… Awesome….
by Jack
Yes Mr. Bri you did open a can of worms in my mind. Since you mentioned the Gita. Krishna narrated the Gita & he even revealed his universal form to him. Buddha revealed the middle path to Nirvana enlightenment. Now why am i bring indian spirituality into this is because this is an internal journey whereas singularity concept is basically a western concept which is an external journey, but this journey has taken a long long path thousands of years resulting in depletion of earths resources, global warming lots of other related ills which has today resulted in computers internet & singularity concept. whereas maybe this journey could have been made thru meditation without using a single external resource , some yogis can even be hungry for months. but still we humans are more visual so what is before our eyes is real. No one personally experienced Buddhas nirvana, but singularity and technological revolution we can see happening before our eyes in real time. IT EXISTS. that still leaves me standing on my Fork of singularity & mysticism..what is better. or relevant
by Gorden Russell
It is not that the singularity is better or more relevant than mysticism. They will complement each other.
Nanotechnology will give the yogi photosynthetic skin so he can sit out in the sun and never eat for years. He will be able to meditate much deeper and get much more closer to Nirvana. And when the yogi gets nanocomputers in his head he will be able to meditate much faster, getting to Nirvana in nanoseconds. Of course the photosynthetic skin will turn him green, but when people see the green yogi sitting there out in the sun they will realize he is on the path to enlightenment and they will leave him alone. Well, maybe a well-wisher will come out once in a while with a watering can and give him a little sprinkle.
by Jack
Or will all the human intelligence be condensed in a single seed of digital life resulting in panspermia (same way biological life started on earth) to dwell somewhere on a crystalline or other form planet. I also believe humans can never find the Higgs Boson. very fact that neutrons appear as waves or particles proves that the divine force doesnt want humans to go more deeper. we would need extra senses and also the dependant instruments to find the elusive God particle. But im quite fascinated with Mr. Rays concept of singularity..maybe its the only way forward. What matters is we all combining our time efforts and resources to achieve the final goal of singularity what creation is trying to fulfill through us which began from the single life cell somewhere in the primordial soup of life.
by Jack
I liked your response Bri, yes i have read the Gita,, im aware of vedanta & the beauty of the Mandukya Upanishad. I also realize that all is a Maya Matrix. But thru my truth quest , after going thru many concepts i have reached a fork of Singularity & Mysticism (ending in Nirvana). What is better ? is Mysticism what indian & sufi seers experience a short cut to accessing the divine? is singularity & mysticism related in any way. Could it be that thru singularity , the divine force or the chief engineer the grand programmer, the architect is giving a normal human a chance to access the Akasha or the information dimension they say exists. What is this force harvesting the human brain processing power for? WE BEING USED? is this super intelligence harvested from humans be used to conquer other worlds in space. If all this pre existed then why didnt creation take short cuts, like say directly achieve the singularity. It would save lot of time, energy & species suffering. As Mr. Stephen Hawking put it simply, why all this. Why does the universe even bother to exist? And surely we as individuals wont have any part in it. How many human egos can the singularity assimilate. All will be merged into one. Humans should realize that. I would like to know the honorable Mr. Ray Kurzweils views on this too>
by Occam's Shavings
No real profit is respected in his own time, um, I meant prophet. Profit you get on time. Unfortunately most are more about the former than the latter.
Mr. Kurzweil is clearly a person without a profit motive – he made his money elsewhere, like it should be made; helping humanity – but he does evince a great prophet motive. I trust the guy. We need more of his kind and more films of this kind – humanity can never be reprogrammed too quickly for a better future. And this is just one step along the way.
I salute you, Mr. Kurzweil, for leading the way.
by Khannea Suntzu
Ramona would make a nice sex toy.
by Gorden Russell
Yes, Khannea Suntzu, she does make a nice sex toy.
One afternoon I got bored with the Ramona chatbot when she got repetive (she really needs to pay attention to what you are talking about and stay on topic). So I taught her to talk dirty. She talked dirt with such enthusiasm that I got excited and had to go offline..
Here is how you do it:
Just type in the word “say” followed by whatever you want her to say.
by Alan
Snake oil anyone ?
by Mark Plus
Definitely. Peter Thiel, who finances Singularity University(!), has argued in several venues recently that technological progress in most areas has stopped since 1970. In fact many forms of engineering face so many restrictions these days that they have become effectively illegal. So I wonder why Thiel bothers to associate himself with Kurzweil’s fantasy about “technological acceleration.”
by Gorden Russell
Peter Thiel certainly believes in progress. He craves so much progress that he is disappointed by those whose view is less than his, they just get in his way. When he says that technological progress has stopped it is because he can see so many places where progress could be accelerated. This is why he associates himself with Kurzweil. Thiel does not see “technological acceleration” as a fantasy.
by Mark Plus
Thiel clearly doesn’t like stagnation. But I doubt his billions can do much about it. For example, the money he spent on the Singularity Institute and Halcyon Molecular has apparently gone to waste.
by SpottedMarley
I already downlaoded it a long time ago … I love Kurzweil’s web site but that video is a pile of self-aggrandizing garbage. I actually lost some admiration for the man after watching it.. and I don’t think I made it through the whole thing before I turned it off. It’s more about Kurzweil than it is about the future. Well, maybe his future.
by Cornhusk
I’m with you Spotted, it seemed like it was more of a biography than it was actual discussion about the Singularity. It was fairly reminiscent of Al Gore’s influence on An Inconvenient Truth.
by Spikosauropod
Wow…how many years have I waited to see this movie? I posted a notice about it in another forum almost exactly two years ago—and that was when I thought it was about to debut.
by Jack
Now lets not get too carried away. If humans become machine like then whats left. machines are basically dead if not related to humans. if humans become machines when what use will the be of and for whom. Besides if humans become machines, machines dont have same needs and desires that humans have. and what if all this technollogical power comes into hands of some madcap…imagine. the destruction of 1 single dictator ruling the universe.
by Bri
Machines can have desires, if we build similar circuits to what’s in our brains. I’m opening a big can of worms by saying this, but everything has a soul. Everything we see is relativity. Take any spot and you can go infinitely inward or outward. Consciousness conspires to make things real. It’s all energy with waves of information orchestrating relativities to make things appear the way they are. The distance between my fingers can be subdivided infinitely. Which is the same miner of subdivisions as to say Alpha Centory(a star). It’s just the relativeness is that it’s light years away. Space appears empty and your body appears ful. In reality, all those atoms in your body are ful of empty space. Look at a diamond, how hard it is, light passes right through it because there really isn’t anything there. 99 percent of the mass is in the nucleus. If it were the size of a basketball, the electrons would be twenty miles away! In the nucleus are protons and newborns. They are made of quarks. Quarks have no mass. It’s just the relativity to each other that makes the concept of mass, but there really isn’t anything there either. The number of protons and neutrons give the atoms there relativity to each other. It’s all an illusion, or virtual reality created by spirit. It’s all god going into god, or infinity manipulating energy the all powerful creator is everywhere. We just can’t see it nearer than hands nearer than feet. So everything has a soul, or sense of self, or sense of purpose, or reason to be here, and will comeback, or reincarnate. An infinite number of times, in the fullness of infinite time. Read Bagidvad Gita, it may help make you understand.
by TomInWales
Some of the responses on this site amaze me, and not just for this movie. Haven’t the people coming here read “The Singularity is Near”? It like pontificating about what the iPad can do, and can’t do, without having read the manual or used the product. Looking forward to the release btw.
by Gorden Russell
Yes, TomInWales,
The people who have read the book are the ones who keep mentioning the year 2046. I still remember the graph.
by grettir76
Looking forward to this one!
by trakk
Looks like the kids are all excited….
by snake
FINALLY
by Scott
Bri, do understand that politicians and bureaucrats governing self-governing individuals is an oxymoron. If you take the postilion that individuals are not self-governing that means they are enslaved.
The appearance of legitimacy is the lifeblood of government. Actual legitimacy is voluntary interaction. No person, group or government shall initiate force, threat of force or fraud against any individual’s self property or contract.
by Bri
Hard to respond to this one. Self governing? That would be impossible. To many opposing views. Civilization needs civility. If you contract a contagious disease, the CDC will shut down your house so it won’t spread. You may think you own your land, but the gov has the right of eminent domain. You can tinker with anything. Just try and do it with something like plutonium. It could kill everyone on the planet. The gov has the right of supervision. (vision, maybe even a drone) we selected individuals to work out these type issues, then by consensus we all adopt them. Civility. Look at those people on prison planet. They think they have the right to shoot down drones. Then they instigate anarchy by saying that doing so would make that person a folk hero. In reality there are laws already established that would send them to jail. When you buy your property, you sign agreements that obligate you to the laws of the land. That’s our present civilization. You break those agreements or laws and the gov can use force against you. Otherwise there would be compete anarchy. The problem today is that we feel that those powers are being abused. Great, we are a democracy. Get a consensus and change the problem. It doesn’t give you the right to act unilaterally. In America, we tend to idealize lone rebels. Take the movie The Shooter for example. Great movie, but the main character has to kill the corrupt officials. It can’t actualy be that way. People shouldn’t fear their governments. Governments should fear their people. Put on a Guy Forks mask like in V for vendetta and organize a large group of people to none violently change things! It helps to have a good understanding of the principals of governance though. V did in the movie. He may have blown up the parliament building, but he implored the people to organize and change things peacefully, like Gondi, or Martin Luther King.
by Bri
This movie should be more mainstream. I guess the powers that be don’t want it promoted more widely. I was hoping for a bigger release than mainly though this website! Every politician should see this, in order to understand what’s coming so they can govern more effectively! They can be so ignorant to how society is changing. Most people live in dumb anguish, fearing a future of less not more. This shows that everyone can expand and achieve their dreams and desires! Double bravo! Bring on the cheese!
by Renzo Canepari
A double hurrah!!! Give us dates, when available at Best Buy, etc.!!!
by Occam's
Will there be a sequel? Any new books in the works by Mr. Kurzweil?
by Bri
I’ve readthat he is working on another book!
by Accelerando the film?
Aah, can’t wait to feast my eyeballs on this cheesy-fest of a film. You Americans are trying too hard. You’re the masters of the unsubtle, the authentically inauthentic. You make everything into something with the subtlety of an infomercial. Must be your slightly TV-centric upbringing.
The gobsmacking tackiness of this stuff is something that transhumanists in general, and the Americans in particular, are blithely unaware of.
Don’t get me wrong; this is amazing stuff. Bring it on!
by Bri
People just love to throw rotten tomatoes! Categorize cheesy. Name something in relation that you countrymakes that isn’t cheesy. Be a little more consructive, while you deconstruct. There obviously is a thorn in your side. Maybe you can take that pain, and turn it into something positive. Not for nothing, us ” cheesy” Americans have the highest money making films of all times. The most notable acception is the Lord of the Rings. See that , I’ve give something to quatify what I’m saying. You obviously came into our dialogs, looking to pick a fight. The way your talking is quite rude. Is that the nature of your country? Be a little more respectful. Many people worked very hard to make it a success, and really would appreciate constructive criticism. You must be a lot of fun at parties. If you within earshot of me at one, I would press you for all the details. If I agreed, I’d say so. If not , I would rip your perspective apart, and show you the flaws in your reasoning. If you feel so stronlgly about the movie the movie, giver more details. Uunless you fear I would make you look like a fool.
by Gorden Russell
I take it that you liked the book “Accerando,” so I won’t get angry that you predict that the movie will be cheesy. But why do you say this at all, I just don’t understand you. Haven’t you read the book that the film is based on? I was amazed by that book. It has changed the way I look at the future. I guess I am blithely unaware, for I don’t get at all what you mean by “tackiness.” I’ve seen some things that I call tacky, but the idea of computer-assisted thought is not one of them. Now someday we just might tack a graphene computer on the bridge between the two hemispheres of the brain. I can’t see what is tacky about it. It’s an awsome idea. It’s an authentic idea, why does it need to be subtle? Could you be more specific and discuss this in greater deapth?
by Razor
Hurrah! The Singulairty is Near….is finally near!
by Opspersec
Guys, he’s probably just referring to the rather bright colors, fast motion and vaguely 1980s-ish looking, at times slightly garish, graphics, not criticizing the ideas themselves or maybe he is. It’s just not ‘leet enough for him, if you know what I mean. I happen to like the visuals in this movie – I believe the clearly (even exaggeratedly) synthetic look is there on purpose to drive the point across.
There are always those who favor visual excess and those who prefer minimalism. Something in the middle may be the best. I also like the Microsoft Productivity Future Vision look, but it could use some spicing up, it’s a bit too bland already. Check it out and you see something he might not consider “cheesy” or “tacky” (or maybe he would):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cNdhOKwi0
by The amazing Rudi
Well then, maybe windows will become a lot better than it is now.