| David Orban Reviews Singularity Summit 2009The Singularity Summit 2009 was a resounding success in New York this past weekend, Oct 3-4 2009. For those who are not familiar with the Singularity Summit, it is the most prominent, high profile annual event focused on the Singularity. Over 800 attendees crowded the prestigious venue of the 92 Street Y, an important landmark in the cultural scene of the city. |
| Helping 1 Billion People in Under Ten Years - Singularity U Completes Inaugural YearToday marks the final day of the inaugural 9 week summer session of Singularity University, and what a finish it will be. 40 talented students with impressive academic and entrepreneurial backgrounds have spent the last nine weeks attending lectures and workshops, debating ideas, and meeting with luminaries in the academic and business worlds. |
| Video Q&A With Ray Kurzweil at Singularity UniversityOn the first day of Singularity University the students and staff were given the opportunity to sit down with Ray Kurzweil in a Q&A free-for-all with the luminary that lasted for more than an hour. Singularity Hub was there to capture footage as Kurzweil answered questions about new paradigms, virtual reality, the future, and much more. |
| Singularity University To Launch June 29 - Exclusive Interview With Executive Director Salim IsmailWith the official launch of the inaugural summer session of Singularity University just days away, the Hub sat down with the University’s Executive Director Salim Ismail to get an inside look at this exciting event (see video interview at the end of this post). For those who are a little behind on the story, 40 students from across the world have been chosen from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants to participate in the first ever 9 week summer session of Singularity University. The University will bring together some of the top names in genetics, aging, computing, and several other fields. |
| Kurzweil in the Lyons’ DenDoes the Transcendent Man just want to be a robot? That’s part of the story coming out of Daniel Lyons’ recent article in Newsweek about Singularity front man, Ray Kurzweil. The other part is that Kurzweil is much too optimistic in his predictions and his beliefs. It’s not a flattering article, for either Kurzweil or Singularity enthusiasts in general. For his part, Kurzweil defended his positions in a responding letter to the editor. It’s the media equivalent of a boxing match and I’m not sure who landed the more devastating blows. |
| Growing Organs in the LabWhy transplant an organ when you can grow yourself a new one? Organ-farming laboratories are popping up across the planet, and showing impressive results. Here we look at the state of the union of a rapidly advancing field called tissue engineering: what’s been accomplished so far, and what’s right around the corner. |
| Awesome Documentary - The Scientific Battle Against Alzheimer’s DiseaseHBO’s documentary, “The Alzheimer’s Project”, is free for viewing on their website. If you have not yet seen it, make sure to take a look because this masterfully crafted, easily digestible film is an eye-opening look at Alzheimer’s disease, those who are afflicted by it, and those who are working to stop it. |
| Ugolog Creates Surveillance Website To Watch Anyone, AnywhereWhat if people all over the world randomly decided to setup motion detection webcams and then send feeds from these webcams to a single website that would centralize the video data for anyone to search, view, and manipulate? A website called Ugolog does exactly this. The concept is both spooky and captivating all at once. |
| Brain-Doping at the Lab BenchDrugs and science have a long history together, and today this is more true than ever as scientists increasingly use brain enhancing drugs to give them an edge in their work. Of 1,427 people working at scientific institutions in over 60 countries, about 20% of the respondents admitted to using brain-enhancing drugs for non-medical purposes.
Should we be outraged? After all, the Tour de France is plagued by accusations of drug use, and fans are justifiably angry when tests return positive. How is mental exercise any different? Why should some scientists have a chemical edge over others?" |
| Freezing Lazarus: The Cryonics of Eternal LifeSingularity enthusiasts hope that death will be but a long nap, and dream they might awaken to a futuristic afterlife here on Earth. But how much of this is science, how much is hype, and how much is faith? To find out, we’ve surveyed the landscape of cryonics today. |
| Peter Diamandis - Exclusive Video Interview At Singularity University CPM2Singularity Hub is proud to present an exclusive video interview with Xprize founder and Singularity University Vice Chancellor Peter Diamandis that we took during Singularity University’s CPM2. As many of our readers know, Singularity University held its second Curriculum Planning Meeting (CPM2) at its NASA Ames headquarters this past weekend. CPM2 was a two day meeting where the faculty, advisors, and staff of Singularity University convened to discuss and plan the curriculum and the goals for its upcoming inaugural 9 week summer session being offered to 40 amazing students. |
| Despite Setback, March Toward Designer Babies InevitableIn an apparent bow to public pressure and outrage, as of March 2, 2009 the Fertility Institutes has retracted its pledge to offer “designer babies”. Although The Fertility Institutes appears to have lost this particular battle, the war on the issue has only just begun. Companies like the Fertility Institutes, as well as aspiring parents across the world, will continue to test the waters in an inevitable march toward genetic selection and even modification. |
| Augmented Human Reality Unveiled By MIT ResearchersImagine looking at a someone and instantly being fed a visual and auditory stream of information about them, such as their email address, education, marital status, interests, ethnicity, and so on. Imagine using hand gestures in a minority-report fashion to take photos, draw images, and sort information. These capabilities and more recently wowed the audience at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, CA where MIT researchers for the first time publicly unveiled a new technology, dubbed “Sixthsense“. |
| Official Powerpoint from Kurzweil/Diamandis TED PresentationToday Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis officially unveiled the Singularity University to the world during a presentation at the TED conference in Long Beach, CA. Kurzweil began the talk with a roughly 6 minute introduction to the concept of the singularity, followed by a 3 minute explanation of Singularity University by Diamandis. Below is the powerpoint presentation given by Kurzweil and Diamandis: |
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