NASA and Google To Back New "Singularity University"

Slatterz and Keith Kleiner were among several readers to send in word of Singularity University, announced at TED today by Ray Kurzweil. He and X Prize founder Peter Diamandis began talking about creating the school last year, after Diamandis read Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity is Near. NASA and Google are both supporting the project, NASA with space and Google with cash. The school aims to foster "disruptive innovation." As envisioned, Singularity U. will sponsor 3-day and 10-day courses for executives year-round, and its main offering will be a single 9-week course of study over the summer for 120 students, each of which will pay $25,000 for the privilege. Announced faculty so far includes Nobel Prize winning physicist George Smoot, NASA Ames chief scientist Stephanie Langhoff, Vint Cerf, and Will Wright, creator of the video games Spore and The Sims.

Comments

Doing != Teaching

[LingNoi]

I don't think this is going to work because although these people are the top in their fields, it doesn't make them good teachers, which is important if you're paying $25,000 for a 10 day course.

Re:Doing != Teaching

[genner]

I don't think this is going to work because although these people are the top in their fields, it doesn't make them good teachers, which is important if you're paying $25,000 for a 10 day course.

It will work because it looks great on a resume which is all modern education is good for anyway.

Re:Doing != Teaching

[collinstocks]

...and its main offering will be a single 9-week course of study over the summer for 120 students, each of which will pay $25,000 for the privilege...

You obviously missed that part.

Other than that, you make a good point, though.

Re:Doing != Teaching

[martin-boundary]

However, it *is* going to work because at the end of two weeks, those guys will have collected 120 * $25,000 = $3m from a bunch of idiots.

Re:Doing != Teaching

[DiegoBravo]

The same as with MBAs, pay 30k/year in order to listen the obvious, sometimes from funny teachers... BUT at the end, make commercially interesting relationships.

But the real question is...

[zerospeaks]

Will it blend?

here we go

[QuantumG]

Is it just me or is Kurzweil turning his cult into a religion?

Re:here we go

[morgan_greywolf]

What makes you say so? I'm not any kind of fan Kurzweil or his technology singularity concept (I've heard of it, but haven't read any of Kurzweil's writing on the subject), but the idea is absolutely intriguing. Not only that, it's entirely possible he may be right. Ray Kurzweil is a very smart man who has always been at the forefront of technological development.

Re:here we go

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. Cult = small, unpopular religion. Religion = large, popular cult. The basic idea is the same, of course; the difference is in magnitude and some popular form of legitimacy.

Re:here we go

[geekoid]

Don't even start.

The difference between a cult and a religion is 100 years.
What about Catholics? are they a cult? How about Lutherans?
All religions fell under the definitions you list at one point in their history.

Cult: A group of people who blindly follow a person or ideology with no verifiable evidence.

Re:here we go

[geekoid]

Actually, it's not mine. I forgot to give the credit where the credit belongs. It was said by Michael Shermer

Oh, so at what point did the Catholics stop becoming a cult, as per the definitions you listed?
Same for Lutherans.

The term Catholic goes back to abput 105/6. It was meaning Universal...but some how I thinkg the Romans and Jews may have a different take.
This is obvious if you study the time, perios and events that were happening at the time the letter was written.

Of course, you have read the Letter to the Smyrnaeans ? and studied the founding of the church?

To say ANY christian* religion isn't a cult as per the definitions you gave is absurd.

All this brings me to my point:
Either define a moment when something moves from 'cult' to 'religion', or it's just a larger cult.

Stop trying to ahve it both ways.

I specifically mention Christian because that's what we are discussing, I can come up with similar historical examples for most religions.

Re:here we go

[durrr]

You seem to have some misconceptions about what the singularity is, it simply means things are improving a bit faster than before, as in, it's moving so fast we have trouble actually following the development, sortof like today, only that when you you visit slashdot you'll be facing two months content in todays rate in a single day.

We are already extremely dependant on machine and internet connections to keep up the rate today, our dependence and rate of immersion will simply increase along with the rate of progress. I don't really see where the loss of imagination, creativity and individuality comes into play here.

Also, religion usually lacks scientific basis and contains supernatural aspects, it's sortof what makes it a religion, the concept of the singularity may perhaps be a bit naive but it's not a religion. Sure it sounds a bit romantic and head in the clouds to dream of the Time of Change when the world will turn utopian but as a matter of fact we are living in a time of change and extremely rapid progress right at the moment, it's only the utopian part that's missing but the situation is rapidly improving for the average human.

Re:here we go

[bnenning]

For it to happen means mankind no longer has imagination, creativity, and individuality.

I don't understand this. None of those are necessarily eliminated by a singularity; if anything they're more likely to become stronger.

Re:here we go

[badboy_tw2002]

Not that I'm on board with all his predictions (I did find the book interesting). What you're describing is towards the tail end of it - his main proposition is still that machine intelligence (and enhanced human intelligence) will lead to faster and faster scientific breakthroughs, which lead to smarter machines, which leads to....the singularity is dependent on new generations of people/machines that can improve on their own intelligence.

I think of course the part he missed is when they wake up the first smarter than human computer intelligence. They tell it to go to work on making something smarter than itself, and it tells them to "GTFO, I'm going to be a screenwriter, not a stupid nerdy computer scientist!"

The Singularity is Nonsense

[mosb1000]

It is complete and utter nonsense. These people are so obsessed with the idea that science and knowledge and inventiveness can solve all our problems that they've neglected the actual process of technological development, which is filled with ideas that look good on paper but don't work when you try them in the real world. When it comes to solving problems, nothing beats hard work, not even the "singularity".

I believe in it

[mangu]

I have several (mostly intelligent...) friends who believe this tripe

I believe we will reach a point when technical progress will create a society completely different from anything we have ever seen, before the mid of this century.

But this does not mean I believe any of the participants in this event has something significant enough to say to make it worth paying $25000 to listen to them.

Re:Sad.

[QuantumG]

I believe the correct dis is "The Rapture for nerds".

Re:TED conference

[TubeSteak]

Where the hell are grad and post-grad students supposed to dig up $25,000 for a 3 month course?

I'm surprised Google isn't putting up cash for an endowment that will allow the "singularity university" to pick students based on merit instead of means.

buzz

[Un pobre guey]

Blah blah blah singularity blah blah blah TED blah blah blah NASA blah blah blah Ray Kurzweil blah blah blah Ames blah blah blah disruptive blah blah blah innovation blah blah blah Nobel Prize blah blah blah Vint Cerf blah blah blah information technology blah blah blah Will Wright blah blah blah $25,000 blah blah blah executives blah blah blah Google blah blah blah Singularity U blah blah blah tackle huge issues facing humanity blah blah blah San Francisco Bay Area blah blah blah cross section of emerging disciplines blah blah blah nanotechnology blah blah blah biotechnology blah blah blah pandemics blah blah blah global health care concerns blah blah blah.

Re:buzz

[CodeBuster]

Funny? This should have been modded insightful. He probably just summarized the entire conference for FREE (minus celebrity cocktail parties).

Nowhere

[BorgCopyeditor]

A lever makes one man capable of lifting several tons by means of his own strength.

Where is the lever for the mind that makes thousands of brilliant technological advances out of a single man's half-baked brain fart?

Where is the force-multiplier for the mind?

Re:Nowhere

[ChienAndalu]

Where is the force-multiplier for the mind?

You are sitting in front of one of those.

A computer doesn't help you with any physical work.

Re:Nowhere

[Timothy Brownawell]

A lever makes one man capable of lifting several tons by means of his own strength.

A library lets me learn many times what I could discern on my own. A computer lets me design things that would otherwise be impossibly complex, or solve impossibly complex formulas. Newer programs can solve problems for me, given only a way to rate solutions.

Where is the lever for the mind that makes thousands of brilliant technological advances out of a single man's half-baked brain fart?

That would be like a "lever" that lets one man lift several tons and arrange them into a skyscraper by just flailing about wildly.

Where is the force-multiplier for the mind?

Libraries, slide rules, computers, the Internet, ... there's lots, as long as your mind is open.

Re:Nowhere

[Anonymous Coward]

it's called python, bitch.

Re:Singularity University?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently my wife.