tagged w/ Singularity
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The Singularity University, co-founded by Peter Diamandis, examines the future relationship between humans and computers on this week's Current Covers.The Singularity University, co-founded by Peter Diamandis, examines the future... more
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2 months ago
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The nanotech and Singularity obsessed NEw York artist currently has a show exhibiting - the interview is quirky and SciFi, the art mezmerizingThe nanotech and Singularity obsessed NEw York artist currently has a show exhibiting... more
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article discusses dozens of strategies to elevate collective intelligence and explains how it would create a better worldarticle discusses dozens of strategies to elevate collective intelligence and explains... more
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Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing.
True? True.
So if computers are getting so much faster, so incredibly fast, there might conceivably come a moment when they are capable of something comparable to human intelligence. Artificial intelligence. All that horsepower could be put in the service of emulating whatever it is our brains are doing when they create consciousness — not just doing arithmetic very quickly or composing piano music but also driving cars, writing books, making ethical decisions, appreciating fancy paintings, making witty observations at cocktail parties.
If you can swallow that idea, then all bets are off. From that point on, there's no reason to think computers would stop getting more powerful. They would keep on developing until they were far more intelligent than we are. Their rate of development would also continue to increase, because they would take over their own development from their slower-thinking human creators. Imagine a computer scientist that was itself a super-intelligent computer. It would work incredibly quickly. It could draw on huge amounts of data effortlessly. It wouldn't even take breaks to play Farmville.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html#ixzz1DiEM3YDOComputers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster... more
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On Feb. 15, 1965, a diffident but self-possessed high school student named Raymond Kurzweil appeared as a guest on a game show called I've Got a Secret. He was introduced by the host, Steve Allen, then he played a short musical composition on a piano. The idea was that Kurzweil was hiding an unusual fact and the panelists — they included a comedian and a former Miss America — had to guess what it was.
On the show (see the clip on YouTube), the beauty queen did a good job of grilling Kurzweil, but the comedian got the win: the music was composed by a computer. Kurzweil got $200.
Kurzweil then demonstrated the computer, which he built himself — a desk-size affair with loudly clacking relays, hooked up to a typewriter. The panelists were pretty blasé about it; they were more impressed by Kurzweil's age than by anything he'd actually done. They were ready to move on to Mrs. Chester Loney of Rough and Ready, Calif., whose secret was that she'd been President Lyndon Johnson's first-grade teacher.
But Kurzweil would spend much of the rest of his career working out what his demonstration meant. Creating a work of art is one of those activities we reserve for humans and humans only. It's an act of self-expression; you're not supposed to be able to do it if you don't have a self. To see creativity, the exclusive domain of humans, usurped by a computer built by a 17-year-old is to watch a line blur that cannot be unblurred, the line between organic intelligence and artificial intelligence.
That was Kurzweil's real secret, and back in 1965 nobody guessed it. Maybe not even him, not yet. But now, 46 years later, Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away.
Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing.
True? True.
So if computers are getting so much faster, so incredibly fast, there might conceivably come a moment when they are capable of something comparable to human intelligence. Artificial intelligence. All that horsepower could be put in the service of emulating whatever it is our brains are doing when they create consciousness — not just doing arithmetic very quickly or composing piano music but also driving cars, writing books, making ethical decisions, appreciating fancy paintings, making witty observations at cocktail parties.
If you can swallow that idea, and Kurzweil and a lot of other very smart people can, then all bets are off. From that point on, there's no reason to think computers would stop getting more powerful. They would keep on developing until they were far more intelligent than we are. Their rate of development would also continue to increase, because they would take over their own development from their slower-thinking human creators. Imagine a computer scientist that was itself a super-intelligent computer. It would work incredibly quickly. It could draw on huge amounts of data effortlessly. It wouldn't even take breaks to play Farmville.
Probably. It's impossible to predict the behavior of these smarter-than-human intelligences with which (with whom?) we might one day share the planet, because if you could, you'd be as smart as they would be. But there are a lot of theories about it. Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely. Maybe we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. The one thing all these theories have in common is the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011. This transformation has a name: the Singularity.
The difficult thing to keep sight of when you're talking about the Singularity is that even though it sounds like science fiction, it isn't, no more than a weather forecast is science fiction. It's not a fringe idea; it's a serious hypothesis about the future of life on Earth. There's an intellectual gag reflex that kicks in anytime you try to swallow an idea that involves super-intelligent immortal cyborgs, but suppress it if you can, because while the Singularity appears to be, on the face of it, preposterous, it's an idea that rewards sober, careful evaluation.On Feb. 15, 1965, a diffident but self-possessed high school student named Raymond... more
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Only in California: Aaron Blumenshine spotted an Anybots telepresence robot ordering a scone at Mountain View’s Red Rock cafe. The Singularity is upon us, and it has a taste for baked goods.Only in California: Aaron Blumenshine spotted an Anybots telepresence robot ordering a... more
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It's been called "the rapture of the nerds." For some computer experts, the Singularity is the moment when an artificial intelligence learns how to improve itself in an exponential "intelligence explosion." They say it's a bigger threat to puny humans than global warming or nuclear war — and they're trying to figure out how to stop it.It's been called "the rapture of the nerds." For some computer experts,... more
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"Inspirated by the play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett, a Godot machine is a nice example of intersection between art and science. Put into practice, it is a mechanical device that keeps a subject of interest in one place all the time...."
(...continue...)"Inspirated by the play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett, a... more
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Singularity has everything that a fun Summer flick has: explosions, plot twists, speedy action, and more explosions. It isn’t a perfect game by any design means, but it’s perfect for the Summer.Singularity has everything that a fun Summer flick has: explosions, plot twists,... more
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The Onset of the 21st Century will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged as our species breaks the shackles of its genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, celebrated futurist Ray Kurzweil presents a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.The Onset of the 21st Century will be an era in which the very nature of what it means... more
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The ingredient of a mysterious government conspiracy mixed with mutated or zombified humans usually create some of the best video games ever seen. Singularity, the newest game from Raven Software, attempts to mix these items together in the hopes of a best selling franchise but falls far from it in this middling title.The ingredient of a mysterious government conspiracy mixed with mutated or zombified... more
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MrKLM
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1 year ago
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A Singularity walkthrough that guides you through the beginning to ending moments of cutscenes and gameplay in this sci-fi FPS from Quake 4/Wolfenstein developer Raven Software for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The story is based on an alternative timeline where the Russians changed history. Yes, its time-manupilation gameplay is awesome.
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2010/06/26/singularity-walkthrough-video-guide-pc-xbox-360-ps3.htmA Singularity walkthrough that guides you through the beginning to ending moments of... more
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Researchers from the University of Utah and Qinghai University in China have discovered two genes which assist ethnic Tibetans survive in the high altitude of the Himalayas. Their study, recently published in the journal Science, compared key genes in 31 unrelated Tibetans to those of 45 lowland Chinese and 45 Japanese people. They found that the EGLN1 and PPARA genes were responsible for the characteristic lower levels of hemoglobin in Tibetans – revealing half the genetic mystery in to what allows them to survive in the thin air. Further research in this field may not only reveal the genes responsible for high-altitude adaptation, it could be the first step in providing the same genetic boon to people all over the world.Researchers from the University of Utah and Qinghai University in China have... more
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ON a Tuesday evening this spring, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, became part man and part machine. About 40 people, all gathered here at a NASA campus for a nine-day, $15,000 course at Singularity University, saw it happen.
While the flesh-and-blood version of Mr. Brin sat miles away at a computer capable of remotely steering a robot, the gizmo rolling around here consisted of a printer-size base with wheels attached to a boxy, head-height screen glowing with an image of Mr. Brin’s face. The BrinBot obeyed its human commander and sputtered around from group to group, talking to attendees about Google and other topics via a videoconferencing system.
The BrinBot was hardly something out of “Star Trek.” It had a rudimentary, no-frills design and was a hodgepodge of loosely integrated technologies. Yet it also smacked of a future that the Singularity University founders hold dear and often discuss with a techno-utopian bravado: the arrival of the Singularity — a time, possibly just a couple decades from now, when a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form that we can’t predict or comprehend in our current, limited state.
At that point, the Singularity holds, human beings and machines will so effortlessly and elegantly merge that poor health, the ravages of old age and even death itself will all be things of the past.
Some of Silicon Valley’s smartest and wealthiest people have embraced the Singularity. They believe that technology may be the only way to solve the world’s ills, while also allowing people to seize control of the evolutionary process. For those who haven’t noticed, the Valley’s most-celebrated company — Google — works daily on building a giant brain that harnesses the thinking power of humans in order to surpass the thinking power of humans.
Larry Page, Google’s other co-founder, helped set up Singularity University in 2008, and the company has supported it with more than $250,000 in donations. Some of Google’s earliest employees are, thanks to personal donations of $100,000 each, among the university’s “founding circle.” (Mr. Page did not respond to interview requests.)
The university represents the more concrete side of the Singularity, and focuses on introducing entrepreneurs to promising technologies. Hundreds of students worldwide apply to snare one of 80 available spots in a separate 10-week “graduate” course that costs $25,000. Chief executives, inventors, doctors and investors jockey for admission to the more intimate, nine-day courses called executive programs.
Both courses include face time with leading thinkers in the areas of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, energy, biotech, robotics and computing.
On a more millennialist and provocative note, the Singularity also offers a modern-day, quasi-religious answer to the Fountain of Youth by affirming the notion that, yes indeed, humans — or at least something derived from them — can have it all.
“We will transcend all of the limitations of our biology,” says Raymond Kurzweil, the inventor and businessman who is the Singularity’s most ubiquitous spokesman and boasts that he intends to live for hundreds of years and resurrect the dead, including his own father. “That is what it means to be human — to extend who we are.”ON a Tuesday evening this spring, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, became part... more
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I’ll be perfectly honest here when I say that I’d totally forgotten that Singularity even existed until recently. I suppose that’s part of the danger when games get announced too far ahead of their release; Singularity was first revealed at E3 2008, if you recall.
Still, this new trailer reminds us of the promise this game could have if Raven Software manages to accurately find the right balance between the neatness of the time-twisting powers and a tight, solid FPS. We certainly wouldn’t protest a bit of story either!
Either way, enjoy this new trailer, dubbed “Last Resort.” Singularity is due June 29th, 2010 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
http://www.crushfragdestroy.com/2010/04/26/oh-look-a-new-singularity-trailer/I’ll be perfectly honest here when I say that I’d totally forgotten that... more
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Last week iTunes gave three Current comedy podcasts the coveted title of best podcasts of 2009.
- Rotten Tomatoes Show (#4)
- Target Women (#10)
- infoMania (#16)
Congratulations to the infoMania and Rotten Tomatoes Show teams.
A lot of Current's shows are available through the iTunes store. So now you can watch'em live on TV, stream'em from Current.com, and download them from iTunes. That's singularity. I think--- I hear a lot of people use that word, and I want to fit in.
In the meantime check out the award winning Sarah Haskin's and her year-end edition of Target Women.
Last week iTunes gave three Current comedy podcasts the coveted title of best podcasts... more
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