[Vision2020] NASA & Google Back "Singularity University:" Computers More Clever Than Humans

[Ted Moffett]

I heard about this "University" on short wave... This is out of a science
fiction novel, but supported by some rather important players in science and
technology.  Among the four possible futures for humanity (I assume
combinations among the four are of course likely) discussed in the
astonishing environmental documentary from Scandinavia, "The Planet," (Mad
Max, Star Trek, Ecotopia, and Big Government), the view of the future
expressed by Kurzweil heading the "Singularity University" is clearly a
"Star Trek" future:

Info on "The Planet" environmental documentary, the best I have witnessed in
this genre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planet
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NASA and Google back "Singularity University:"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/03/nasa-google-futurology-kurzweil-singularity

An American inventor who plans to live forever has been appointed head of a
new school for futurologists backed by
Google<http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/google>and the US space
agency Nasa.

Ray Kurzweil <http://www.kurzweiltech.com/raybio.html>, who worked as a
computer scientist before turning to future gazing in the late 1980s, will
become chancellor of the Singularity University based at Nasa's Silicon
Valley campus in California.
The institution gains its name from a controversial 2005 book by Kurzweil,
entitled The Singularity is Near <http://singularity.com/>. In it, he argues
that the exponential advance of technology is set to transform society by
giving rise to computers that are more clever than humans. The leap in
computing <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/computing> power will drive
rapid advances in other fields, he claims, that together could solve the
problems of climate change, poverty, famine and disease.
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Among Kurzweil's other predictions are a pill that lets you eat what you
want without getting fat – which he believes could be available within ten
years; a world where all energy comes from renewable sources within 20
years; and a life expectancy that increases at a rate faster than you age
within 15 years.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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