Singularity Summit 2010: Deep Thinking
For those unfamiliar with the term, we’ll be discussing the word Singularity in the context of futurism rather than astronomy. Coined by Vernor Vinge and popularized by Ray Kurzweil, the term has come to mean the point at which technological progress exceeds our ability to keep up, rendering the future unpredictable in a variety of ways. One of the key notions is that, thanks to Moore’s Law, computing progress is exponential, and that we will likely reach a smarter-than-human artificial intelligence sometime within the next twenty years or so.
It might sound a bit crazy- but we decided to dig a bit deeper, and attend the annual Singularity Summit, held last weekend in San Francisco. It’s similar in some ways to the TED talks- but without much of the emphasis on education or design that render many of those talks so wide-ranging. Which isn’t to say that the program was limited! Speakers included biophysicist Gregory Stock, MIT haptics guru Mandayam Srinivasan, and Kurzweil himself, who gave his speech via teleconference (to the dismay of most of the audience with whom we spoke) among many others.
Our favorite talks were the last two. The final speaker, James Randi, spoke on illusion, demonstrating some of the misdirections that he is famous for and discussing how important it is that all of us remember that we can be easily fooled. And Irene Pepperberg gave a stirring presentation on non-human intelligence, with a focus on avians and some neat (and sometimes sad) information on how smart birds are, like her famous African grey parrot, Alex.
The summit itself took place over two days, though somewhat oddly for a fairly geeky convention, did not offer live streaming. Videos should be made available in the near future, though, and we definitely suggest checking out what the various speakers had to say. Don’t miss Steven Mann, described as the first cyborg, who demonstrated an interesting instrument- basically, a water piano. We got a chance to try it ourselves, and it’s a neat concept, though his suggestion that orchestras should divide themselves up along liquid/solid/gas lines struck us as a bit unlikely.
The Summit may be over, but if you appreciate the ideas, there are plenty of other ways to get involved. For starters, there is the Singularity Institute, the organization that put together the conference, and offers grants and handles research. There is also the Singularity University, where graduate and executive studies are offered in a variety of topics including not just AI and robotics, but neuroscience, future studies, energy & ecological systems, and more. And there is always next year’s summit to look forward to- putting hundreds of smart, interesting people together in a room will always lead to interesting and engaging conversations.
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