A blog focusing on some of the most prominent “-isms” surrounding humanity’s technological future: extropianism, transhumanism, posthumanism, the mouth-filling Singularitarianism, and others in that constellation.
October 5, 2009
Here are a few images from this past weekend’s Singularity Summit, now that it has drawn to a close. Here’s Aubrey de Grey autographing a book for a conferencegoer: And de Grey wasn’t the only fellow sporting such ample facial hair; here’s an attendee: These beard photos might make you wonder about the...
October 4, 2009
Anna Salamon, the first speaker at the 2009 Singularity Summit, is also the last: “How much it matters to know what matters: A back-of-the-envelope calculation.” (Abstract and bio here.) Salamon starts off with highlighting the apparently stupid reasons people do what they do — habit, culture, etc. — and says they could...
October 4, 2009
The penultimate item on the agenda of the 2009 Singularity Summit is a panel discussion, on no particular topic, involving Aubrey de Grey, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Peter Thiel. The moderator is Michael Vassar of the Singularity Institute. And it is in that order, from left to right, that the four men appear in this...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] Eliezer Yudkowsky, a founder of the Singularity Institute (organizer of this conference), is up next with his talk, “Cognitive Biases and Giant Risks.” (Abstract and bio.) He starts off by talking about how stupid people are. Or, more specifically, how...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] The conference’s last batch of talks is now underway, leading off with one of the Singularity movement’s most colorful characters, Aubrey de Grey, and is titled “The Singularity and the Methuselarity: Similarities and Differences.” (Abstract...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] The last talk before the final break of the conference is on venture capitalism, moderated by CNBC’s Robert Pisani, and including Peter Thiel, David Rose, and Mark Gorenberg. Thiel mentions that many companies take a very long time to become profitable. He says...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] Peter Thiel is a billionaire, known for cofounding PayPal and for his early involvement in Facebook. He also may be the largest benefactor of the Singularity Summit and longevity-related research. His talk today is on “Macroeconomics and Singularity.”...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] Gary Marcus, an NYU psychologist, is underway with the first of the afternoon talks, “The Fallibility and Improvability of the Human Mind.” (Abstract and bio.) Marcus starts off discussing natural language, and the common argument that it is highly...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] The last talk of the morning is from Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on “The Finger of AI: Automated Electrical Vehicles and Oil Independence.” (Abstract and bio.) He starts off bemoaning the horrors of human driving, mostly for...
October 4, 2009
[Continuing coverage of the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York City.] And now, Ray Kurzweil’s talk on response to critics of the Singularity. (Abstract here. My coverage of his previous talk is here.) “If everything is going to hell in a handbasket,” says Kurzweil starting off, “It’s the exponentially...