Prof. Chris Hables Gray is someone whose work on both war and the cyborg is a must read for anyone interested in those topics. I have followed Gray’s work for over 10 years and have read at least 3 of his books. So when I discovered that Chris will be one of the speakers for the upcoming ISTAS2013 conference in Toronto, that I can’t wait to attend this June 27-29, I decided to use it as an excuse to get him for an interview on Singularity 1 on 1.

During my conversation with Chris Hables Gray we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how Chris got interested in issues related to war and cyborg; the definition of cyborg and why the term has been actively avoided by both NASA and the US military; the difference between a drone and a robot; cyborg society and the politics thereof; why cyborgization is as overdetermined as it is a political process; human nature, nurture, competition and cooperation; Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto; mind-reading, mind-control and neuro-marketing; philosophy and death; transhumanism and the technological singularity; artificial intelligence and hubris; Gray’s upcoming book on Infoisms…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Chris Hables Gray is:

“We need good citizenship, strong citizenship like Socrates had when he went and risked his life to fight for Athens. [...] We can’t be just people who vote. [...] We must be really engaged citizens like our hero Socrates and risk all, risk our lives to make the world better – for our children and our friends.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Chris Hables Gray?

Chris Hables Gray, Ph.D., lectures at the University of California at Santa Cruz and California State University at Monterey Bay in the Cultural Studies of Science and Technology. His particular interest is how information technologies shape contemporary war and peace making and the politics of our ongoing cyborgization. He is the editor of The Cyborg Handbook and author of Postmodern War, Cyborg Citizen, and Peace, War and Computers. Currently he is researching social media and social change and finishing a book on information theory entitled Infoisms: Aphorisms About Information.

Ori Inbar developed a passion for augmented reality (AR) ever since he realized that it will change every aspect of life and work we can think of. This realization has motivated him to become an industry start-up entrepreneur, a founder of a not-for-profit organization, an event organizer and a recognized speaker on topics related to augmented reality. Thus I was very happy to get him for an interview on Singularity 1 on 1.

During my conversation with Ori Inbar we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the story behind his passion and motivation for augmented reality; the past and the present definition of augmented reality; differences between augmented reality, virtual reality and real reality; major applications for AR; the dangers and costs of militarization; Ori’s favorite augmented reality devices; issues of privacy, advertising and big brother; “wearing” vs “not-wearing” and Vernor Vinge‘s Rainbows End; the three laws of augmented reality design; Ogmento and AugmentedReality.org; transhumanism and the technological singularity…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Ori Inbar is: “When you think of any aspect of life or work, augmented reality is completely going to change how we do it.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Ori Inbar?

Ori Inbar is the Founder and CEO of AugmentedReality.ORG, a global non-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing augmented reality (AR), and the producer of Augmented World Expo – the world’s largest event dedicated exclusively to the AR industry. In 2009, Ori was the co-founder and CEO of Ogmento, one of the first venture-backed companies conceived to develop and publish augmented reality games – games that are played in the real world. Ori is a recognized speaker in industry events and a sought-after advisor for AR initiatives as well as one the speakers for the upcoming ISTAS2013 conference in Toronto that I plan to attend this June 27-29.

Related articles

• ISTAS13: The International Symposium on Technology and Society is Coming to Toronto
• Augmented Reality Brings ROM Dinosaurs To Life
• Sight [a Short Sci Fi Film]
• Cyborg Luddite Steve Mann on Singularity 1 on 1: Technology That Masters Nature is Not Sustainable

What happens when you add “smart people” to our increasingly “smart” world – i.e. a world of smart phones, smart cars, smart roads and smart everything!?

If, like me, you want to see, debate and discuss the spectrum of possibilities and the future implications of such a smart world, then, you will join me at the upcoming International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS).

ISTAS is an annual international forum on the Social Implications of Technology scheduled for June 27-29 in Toronto, Canada. The conference will bring world-renowned presenters and panelists such as Ray Kurzweil, Marvin Misky, Steve Mann, Gordon Bell, Helen Nissenbaum, Thad Starner, Ann Cavoukian and many others, who will share new research, projects, and ideas about people living in smart environments.

The ISTAS13 event is a powerful lineup of leaders from various fields of research coming together in a trans-disciplinary manner and intended to appeal to people with diverse backgrounds such as engineers, designers, scientists, artists, researchers in the social sciences, law and humanities, policy and decision makers, entrepreneurs, inventors, polymaths, designers, artists and technologists.

Just last month, regenerative medicine scored another solid victory by saving a toddler’s life. Yet, disappointingly, the news came and went without much follow-on thought.

Hannah Warren, a Korean-Canadian girl who is now two years old, was born without a trachea – a condition that would have meant certain death in the past.  Fortunately for Hannah, regenerative medicine techniques were able to save her life in a way that will restore health and normalcy to the cute little girl.  Doctors built a trachea for Hannah by creating a ‘scaffold’ or windpipe mold out of non-absorbable nanofibers and seeding it with stem cells from her bone marrow.  Because the bioengineered organ was made with her own cells, she won’t have to take anti-rejection drugs like regular transplant recipients must do.

Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, Professor of Regenerative Surgery at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and lead surgeon in the case had the following good news to report:

“The most amazing thing, which for a little girl is a miracle, is that this transplant has not only saved her life, but it will eventually enable her to eat, drink and swallow, even talk, just like any other normal child.  She will go from being a virtual prisoner in a hospital bed to running around and playing with her sister and enjoying a normal life, which is a beautiful thing.”

A miracle indeed, but not the first by any stretch.  Dr. Macchiarini has been involved in at least 14 other such miracles (5 with man-made scaffolds) and, although he is one of the top surgeons in this area, he is not alone.  Dr. Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University was the first to build and implant bladders into children with spina bifida (announced in 2006).  Dr. Doris Taylor at the Texas Heart Institute has engineered working hearts for rats and says that within two years she expects to ask the FDA for permission to implant lab-grown heart parts in real humans.

The ability to switch out parts as they break down, just like one might do to keep a vintage car in shape, has huge implications for human health.  Yet, despite these tissue-engineering miracles (and other biotech feats), there seems to be little popular interest in this area.  Perhaps it’s because not enough people are aware of how far tissue engineering has come or maybe it’s because it’s seen as a transplant-only issue and the number of people on waiting lists compared to the general population is miniscule.  Either way, the lack of momentum around this issue is a problem, since it’s clear that the faster tissue engineering and other biotech discoveries move, the faster we will be able to extend health for everyone.

It is time for the meme of health extension to spread. If readers of this blog are interested in transhumanism, they should embrace the low-hanging fruit of human transformation.  The health extension revolution that is on our doorstep is something that most people will be interested in – we just need to explain the data.  A little girl’s lab-grown windpipe has implications that extend to all.

About the Author:

Sonia Arrison is author of 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith (Basic Books). She is also a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute and a Trustee at Singularity University.

Related articles

• 100 Plus Book Review: Sonia Arrison on How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything
• Sonia Arrison on Singularity 1 on 1: Make Regenerative Medicine A Top Priority

Jacque Fresco is a futurist, inventor, social engineer, visionary and technician, best known for the Venus Project.

In his Future By Design documentary about Fresco’s life and ideas,  Emmy winning filmmaker William Gazecki called the 97-year-old Jacque “a modern day Da Vinci.” Others have called him “a new Buckminster Fuller.”

Now, I have to admit that I really like Jacque as a person – he just seems to have a unique combination of wisdom, life experience, sense of humor and personal humility. I also admire his multi-disciplinary accomplishments and his seemingly never-ending enthusiasm and scientific curiosity. This, however, doesn’t mean that I agree with him on everything that he says or proposes, and you would see a few of those moments during our 72 minute interview. At any rate, best thing you can do is to watch the interview in full, read Jacque’s book –  The Best That Money Can’t Buy, and judge for yourself.

During my conversation with Jacque Fresco we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how he sees himself; scarcity and money as the root of all evil; the Venus Project; the need for unambiguous language; why he claims that most people are “unsane”; whether philosophers are bullshitters; the clash of civilizations and the nation state; education and the scientific method; the modern culture of bread and spectacles; resource based economy; Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence and the technological singularity; the Zeitgeist movement; Ayn Rand and objectivism; death and cryonics…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this conversation with Jacque is: “Study the meaning of science and apply its methods to the social system!”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Paradise or Oblivion:

This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy. This documentary details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other “establishment” notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world’s people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.

Paradise or Oblivion, by The Venus Project, introduces the viewer to a more appropriate value system that would be required to enable this caring and holistic approach to benefit human civilization. This alternative surpasses the need for a monetary-based, controlled, and scarcity-oriented environment, which we find ourselves in today.

This is NOT the “major motion picture” that The Venus Project is working towards but rather is a short documentary to introduce the aims and proposals to new people.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Jacque Fresco?

Jacque Fresco has been envisioning the future for almost a century. An industrial designer and social engineer, he is a forerunner in the field of Human Factors Engineering, has worked as both innovator and inventor in a wide range of fields spanning aerospace, medicine, architecture, automotive design, psychology and much more. He is the founder of the Venus Project (formerly Sociocyberneering, Inc.), a twenty-five acre research facility in Venus, Florida — the function of which is to prepare approaches and solutions to major problems that confront the world today. The Venus Project represents the culmination of Fresco’s life work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a society based on human and environmental concern.

Fresco’s talents can only be described as prolific. His accomplishments include a tenure as design consultant for Rotor Craft Helicopter Company, service in the Army Design and Development Unit at Wright Field, a position as Research Engineer for Raymond De-Icer Corp and helped create Revel Plastics Corporation. He was a technical consultant to the motion picture industry, and also worked on the film The Magic Eye, which won the Robert J. Flaherty Award for creative film documentary.  He also has taught industrial design at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He has authored seven books and has written and published numerous articles throughout the world. In addition, he has successfully produced and filmed four educational videos about the future that are distributed to high schools, colleges and libraries worldwide.

Mr. Fresco has been a guest lecturer at many institutions of higher learning. Fresco has been featured on countless television shows throughout the world and his world lecture tour in 2010 where he traveled to over 19 countries and gave over 25 lectures was a tremendous success. Academy Award Nominated and Emmy Winning filmmaker, William Gazecki in 1998 produced a major documentary, titled Future By Design, on Mr. Fresco’s life, designs and philosophy. In 2008, the world-renowned film, Zeitgeist Addendum, by Peter Joseph showcased the work of Jacque Fresco. This film was a huge Internet phenomenon receiving 50,000,000 views within its first year. A sequel to this documentary, Zeitgeist Moving Forward, was released in 2011 featuring Mr. Fresco, his work, and direction for the future. The film Future My Love, produced by Maja Borg in 2012, prominently features the work of Jacque Fresco.  Roxanne Meadows, in 2012 produced the film Paradise or Oblivion which is about the aims and directions of The Venus Project and Jacque Fresco.

Jacque Fresco is the founder of The Venus Project, which reflects the culmination of his life’s work: the integration of the best of science and technology into a comprehensive plan for a new society based on human and environmental concern. It is a global vision of hope for the future of humankind in our technological age. Television and magazine coverage on The Venus Project has been worldwide. www.TheVenusProject.com

The term “augmentation” – when referring to humans – has a tendency to call forth mental images of Terminator-like, red-eyed androids with steel limbs and laser guns. Tinkering with that is “human” may seem like a far-out concept, but from the vantage point of technology, it’s a process we’ve been engaged in since our earliest tools. For this same reason, many experts argue that “augmentation” is an inevitable result of our present technological efforts.

It serves us well to begin this article with definitions we can work with: (Dictionary.com)

Augment:

1. To make (something already developed or well under way) greater, as in size, extent, or quantity.

Enhance:

1. To make greater, as in value, beauty, or effectiveness; augment.

The first definitions of both terms are surprisingly similar, as they both relate to a kind of purposive betterment of something already in place. To “improve upon.” This desire for betterment and extending our capacities to achieve our objectives is the undercurrent of technology. It is also what will most likely make the transition to transhumanism inevitable.

Ray Kurzweil – in his new book “How to Create a Mind” – explains how he feels that Google and Wikipedia are like an extension of himself and of his own mental capacities. Like the first mallet or spear helped to extend man’s physical abilities, these tools help to extend our mental abilities in the present age. Kurzweil recalls that when Google and Wikipedia went on a SOPA strike in January of 2012, he felt as though part of his own mind was missing. I can imagine that an early hunter-gatherer would have felt that part of his body was missing if he’d had to spend a day trying to catch rabbit or boar with his bare hands.

Utility Wins – Why Wearable Computing is Taking Off

Google Glass has little chance of changing the world based on “cool” factor alone (though we all know a few people who will grab a pair for this reason alone). Rather, if Google Glass can meaningfully enhance our cognition by doing what it promises (price shopping online for products you’re looking at, pull up directions and maps in real time, let others “see” from your perspective), then it’s got a very good chance at being adopted.

But that’s it, right? Certainly, wearable computing is about as far as humanity will go without some kind of massive revolt. We aren’t just about to stand around and get turned into androids, are we?

Though acceptance with regards to a more literal “augmentation” of human-machine merger isn’t something we can be sure about either way, the clues seem to hint: “Go.”

When computers were the size of buildings, or large rooms of buildings, there was an initial inkling that these “devices” would never catch on. In the following decades when computers were small enough to have in our homes, there certainly must have been the same inkling (“Who needs one of these computing devices in their homes?”). I’ll admit, when the next wave hit with cell phones, I was certain that the world wouldn’t adopt the ability to be annoyed by email at any time or any place. Four years later my instinct has changed and I look confused when presented with a phone without GPS and email capability.

Google Glass represents the further extension of “wearable computing,” another trend with it’s inevitable proponents and it’s critics. It’s success, I pose, will be it’s utility to us – it’s ability to attain an end that we think we desire. Engadget.com put it well:

“That’s become clearer than ever with the advent of the personal computer, which in recent decades has drawn people away from the television, the radio, the calculator and countless other devices. More recently, we’ve seen that shift again with smartphones and tablets pulling people away from PCs, telephones, cameras and video game consoles. In each case, the new technology replacing the old has taken on a more central role in people’s lives. Whereas the personal computer became a hub in the home, the smartphone has become a source of ever-present connectivity and a near-constant accessory. Wearable computing promises to extend that always-on connection even further and, potentially, change the nature of what it means to be ‘connected.”

That “end” might be checking email everywhere and at all times. Some people may enjoy that feature, others may not. However, it might also be a more pleasant and engaging trip to museums, where real-time information about the pieces is presented. Some people may enjoy that feature, others may not. It could also mean less money spent shopping, there grocery or clothing prices could be compared in real time online and offline. If there is enough of this added utility – and the “ends” are strong enough – then Glass with catch on.

If Glass does not, another company likely will – and fast. Think about the chips already embedded in Nike shoes, or the “Pebble” watch / phone / iPod, or these rape defense underwear that zap would-be attackers. If the utility is there, then it’s coming, and thousands of companies are battling to lead that pack already.

Slippery Slope – “Cyborgs” as the Next Step?

The potentially “scary” next step is a literal merger with computing or “computational substrates” to enhance our experience or improve our functioning. Unlike other improvements and technological advancements (the bow and arrow, the printing press, the cotton jinn, the calculator, the cell phone), this actually represents a genuine shift in the human condition / human experience – via the senses and capacities granted to us.

From one perspective, technology has already changed the human condition. Certainly my life now is drastically different from that of a hunter-gatherer in the year 2,000 BC. However, if you tool a human from even 50,000 years ago and raised them from birth in our environment, or tool a human baby now and raised them in the african sahara, it would be evident that our faculties, needs, and capacities are essentially identical.

With the advent of embedded enhancement to our memory, implants to improve sensory perception, or reality simulators that capable of mentally transporting us to any time and place all represent potential steps that bring us well beyond the plateau of “human” on which we’ve perched for the last 50 millennia.

There are lines of thought that either rule out this transition (IE: neglect to take a technological merger into account of humanity’s future), or which believe that humanity simply wouldn’t allow for this kind of blasphemy to our human nature.

This is one of the reasons that some experts believe that it is ridiculous to imagine homo sapiens in the cockpits of spacecraft in the year 3,000 – as well as a slew of other interesting predictions.

However, despite the drastic step forward that this transition would represent, it’s motivations would still remain the same: attaining an end that we think we desire. Utility.

Hence, this slope is just as slippery as the slope of the phone and mobile computing, and the chasm of “cyborg” is already being crossed. Initially, we will cure blindness and enable paralyzed people to walk, talk, or regain use of a mechanized body through their still-active brain channels. We’re “okay” with helping people “in need,” but handicapped people are not the only ones with needs, and as the ability to attain desired ends is achieved by these technologies, enhancement – I believe – will be inevitable (Here, for example, is an article about memory implants being used for people with memory problems, that one can imagine might be very desirable for “normal” folks as well).

Eternal Vigilance and the Importance of a Path Forward

The trends and ramifications above present us with a unique set of challenges relating to the future of our race, of sentient beings, and of consciousness itself. To point in any one direction as “the answer” seems misguided, naive and dangerous. The “progress” of greatest importance will be our effective collaboration of expertise around the very careful, very calibrated “roll-out” of these sentience-altering technologies.

In a very serious sense, “tinkering” with consciousness and conscious experience itself represents the ultimate moral precipice – the most ethically significant action conceivable. Creating human-level consciousness with circuitry alone, manufacturing an infinite number of virtual realities, expanding our senses and cognition to millions of times their present capacities, extending virtual life forever inside of computational substrates to house trillions of living consciousnesses… all of these transitions are potentially plausible – and their direction will ultimately be guided by how we release them into the world.

The “answers” are not to be found in any kind of clear-cut fashion, but through a collaboration of mindfulness about the emergence and use of these technologies – we can give ourselves the best chance of ensuring their being leveraged beneficially in the world of tomorrow (which isn’t that far out).

About the Author:

Dan Faggella is a graduate of UPENN’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program, as well as a national martial arts champion. His work focuses heavily on the transition to transhumanism, and the eminent issues and opportunities therein. His articles and interviews with philosophers / experts can be found at www.SentientPotential.com

Amon Kalkin is a cognitive scientist, electronic artist and founder of Zero State. He is 40 years old, born in New Zealand and living in the UK, where he spends his time raising a young family and gardening when he isn’t working to create a sphere of influence for positive futurist values.

During my interview with Amon Kalkin we cover a variety of topics such as: what is Zero State - its genesis, history and future goals; the importance of starting with first principles and the meaning of positive social change; if and how libertarianism and anarchism relate to Zero State; transhumanism and the technological singularity; starting a transhumanist micro-state…

My favorite quote from Amon Kalkin is short and simple but a powerful one: “Reject Apathy!”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is Zero State?

Zero State is a community affiliated with the Wave movement for positive social change through technology.

It is a grass-roots movement pursuing smart, compassionate solutions to problems, aimed at improving the human condition.

Zero State supports transformative technologies such as life extension as well as cognitive & physical enhancement. Some of their social projects include accelerating change, basic income, meshnets and bitcoin; while lifestyle initiatives explore areas such as the arts, spirituality, fashion and culture.

Their main goal is the establishment of a trans-national, virtual state – the Zero State.

ZS is dedicated to mutual aid and global renewal in science, technology, politics, economics, environmentalism and spirituality. The Zero State intends to act as a counterpoint to traditional governmental, corporate and religious institutions, bringing people together to share independently-developed tools and resources.

You can find out more at http://zerostate.net

Related articles

• Zoltan Istvan: The Transhumanist Wager Is A Choice We’ll All Have To Make

Leading Scientists, Technologists, Neuroscientists, Spiritual and Secular Leaders to Gather at the Second International Global Future 2045 Congress — June 15-16 in New York City

Visionaries and world-class practitioners in science, technology and ethics will join educators, futurists, philosophers and spiritual leaders at the 2nd International Global Future 2045 congress at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, June 15-16, 2013.

Global Future 2045 is a one of a kind congress, premised on the notion that the world stands on the brink of global change. In order for civilization to move to a higher stage of development, humanity vitally needs a scientific revolution and significant spiritual changes that will be inseparably linked, supporting and supplementing each other.

GF2045 discussions will include global challenges and science mega-projects to address them and insights on these matters from various spiritual traditions. The main focus will be the Avatar Project, which includes the development of anthropomorphic robots, telepresence systems, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), life-support systems for the brain, neuroprostheses, whole brain modeling, consciousness theory, and roadmaps for non-biological mind substrates.

Dmitry Itskov, founder of the 2045 Initiative and organizer of the Global Future 2045 congress said:

“Civilization is in the midst of a sea change, ushering in a new era of foresighted, self-directed spiritual and corporeal human evolution. [...] The mission of GF2045 is to shape the imminent capability for self-directed evolution into a strategy to benefit all of mankind.”

I have been fortunate to interview not only Russian internet tycoon and event organizer Dmitry Itskov, but also many of this year’s speakers. Still, I would not miss such a unique opportunity to meet them in person. And so, I am going to be at the Global Future 2045 Congress in New York city this June 15 and 16. If you want to join me, you can get a 10% discount [for Singularity Weblog readers only] by using discount code GF2045-SW during the on-line registration process. [For a limited time only, until midnight of May 6th EST, you will automatically get 20% off registration. ]

I myself can’t wait to have such a rare opportunity to meet so many incredible people of the cutting edge of technology, all at the same place. So, as soon as I saw the speakers’ list below, I knew I will be going to the GF2045 Congress. If you feel the same way and attend the conference, look out for the big bald head with irregular shape – usually at or near the front rows, and don’t ever hesitate to come and say “Hi”.

See you in New York!

Speakers at this year’s Global Future 2045 include:

Ray Kurzweil — Director of Engineering, Google; futurist and inventor, co-founder, Singularity University, and author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Near.

Immortality by 2045

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. Marvin Minsky — A.I. pioneer, professor of Media Arts and Science, MIT Media Lab.

Immortal Minds Are A Matter of Time

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. George Church — Harvard University PhD, molecular geneticist, pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic biology.

Brain Healthspan Extension

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. James Martin — British author and entrepreneur and the largest individual benefactor to the University of Oxford in its 900-year history.

A Crunch is Coming

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis — Founder and Chairman, X Prize Foundation, Co-founder, Singularity University, author of Abundance.

We Are Evolving Into Meta-Intelligence Group-Minds 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Theodore Berger — USC Professor, brain prosthesis technology developer.

Piecemeal Repair And Replacement of Brain Parts Is Coming

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. Ed Boyden — Optogeneticist, neuroscientist at MIT, associate member McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

Extending Ourselves Beyond Our Brains

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dr. David Hanson — Robotics designer and researcher, creating androids: humanlike robots with intelligence and feelings.

Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro — Android Creator, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory in Osaka, Japan. Dr.

Mahayogi ‘Pilot’ Baba — Self-realized Siddha Master. Mahamandaleshwar of the Juna Akhara Order of Hindu Monks.

Dr. Amit Goswami — Professor Emeritus from the Theoretical Physics Department of the University of Oregon.

If you are a loyal Singularity Weblog reader, you can visit the Global Future 2045 website and get 10% off the normal price with discount code GF2045-SW. [For a limited time only, until midnight of May 6th EST, you will automatically get 20% off registration. ]

Singularity 1 on 1 Interviews With Some of the GF2045 Speakers:

• Dmitry Itskov on Singularity 1 on 1: It’s Time To Think About Who We Are And What Is Our Place In The Universe
• Ray Kurzweil on Singularity 1 on 1: Be Who You Would Like To Be
• Peter Diamandis on Singularity 1 on 1: Singularity University is Starfleet Academy for the World’s Biggest Challenges
• James Martin on Singularity 1 on 1: We Can Control Accelerating Technology
• George Church on Singularity 1 on 1: Inactivity and Complacency Are The Most Dangerous Ideas
• Transhumanism 101 with Natasha Vita-More
• Ken Hayworth on Singularity 1 on 1: Brain Preservation is the Logical Lifeboat
• Randal Koene on Singularity 1 on 1: Mind Uploading is not Science Fiction
• Ben Goertzel on Singularity 1 on 1: The Future Is Ours To Create
• Anders Sandberg on Singularity 1 on 1: We Are All Amazingly Stupid, But We Can Get Better

Project Kronos was written and directed by Hasraf ‘HaZ’ Dulull.

HaZ follows Singularity Weblog and got in touch with me last year after I posted his first short film Fubar Redux.

During the script-writing stage of Project Kronos, HaZ asked me for research references on the subject of transhumanism and I sent him a list of links to relevant material I have covered over the past few years. Now that I see the final result in the form of this well written, well acted and beautifully produced science fiction documentary, I am very proud to have made a small contribution to it.

Great job HaZ!

Synopsis: Project Kronos is a documentary film set in the not too distant future, following a mission to achieve interstellar space travel. As the mission unfolds with extraordinary results, the scientists find themselves dealing with a much bigger agenda.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other cool science fiction films

• Shelved: Robot Comedy Shows Tragedy of Robots Replaced By Humans
• Tears of Steel: Blender Foundation’s Stunning Short Sci Fi Film
• Stephan Zlotescu’s Sci Fi Short “True Skin” To Become A Warner Bros Full Feature
• Plurality: Dennis Liu’s Big Brother Sci Fi Film Rocks
• ROSA: an Epic Sci Fi Short Film by Jesus Orellana
• Legacy, Ark and the 3rd Letter: The Dark, Post-Apocalyptic Sci Fi Films of Grzegorz Jonkajtys
• Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Sci Fi Film by Dan Trachtenberg)
• Cost of Living: Short Sci Fi Film by Bendavid Grabinski
• Robots of Brixton (a short film by Kibwe Tavares)
• Drone: An Action-Packed Sci Fi Short by Robert Glickert
• Somnolence: A Short Sci Fi Film by Patrick Kalyn
• Kara by Quantic Dream: Do Androids Fear Death?
• Aaron Sims’ Film Archetype: Your Memories Are Just A Glitch!
• Ruin: A Stunning Short Sci Fi Film by Wes Ball
• Sight [a Short Sci Fi Film]

While I personally loved the first half of The Transhumanist Wager and disliked much of the second, I am convinced that the novel is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our civilization.

In my view the novel is full of interesting and controversial contradictions. For example, on the one hand Zoltan Istvan is a philosophically sophisticated author using elements from Plato’s Republic, Nietzsche’s Overman (Übermensch), Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Zen Buddhism and other eastern and western philosophies. On the other hand Zoltan has chosen to give us a kind of simplistic, Atlas Shrugged-style of a plot in its black-and-white depiction of an evil government and the lone hero who dares to stand up to it. Regardless of my personal views, however, I enjoyed reading the book and believe that it does a good job of mapping out the dangerous period that our civilization will have to navigate in the next several decades.

During my interview with Zoltan Istvan we cover a variety of topics such as: what is the Transhumanist Wager; how and why he got interested in transhumanism; his protagonist Jethro Knights and some autobiographical elements of the novel; the potential for conflict between transhumanists and anti-transhumanists; Ayn Rand, objectivism and their impact on the Transhumanist Wager; competition, human nature and death; transhumanism and the technological singularity; the ideal state of Transhumania and the price we have to pay to accomplish it…

My favorite quote that I will take away from Zoltan Istvan is “Morality is often defined by the amount of time we have left.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

About the Author:

At the age of 21, American-Hungarian Zoltan Istvan began a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. He’s explored over 100 countries—many as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel—writing, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts.

His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San Francisco with his daughter and physician wife.

Related articles

• Death is Not Destiny: A Glimpse into The Transhumanist Wager
• A Transhumanist Manifesto
• Natasha Vita-More on Singularity 1 on 1: The Transhumanist Reader – The Story Behind The Book

Isaac Asimov in his novel I, Robot, famously proposed the three laws of robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

But I don’t think this is a promising way forward (and presumably neither did Asimov, since his novel highlights a fatal flaw in the rules). Rules and laws are a weak way of ordering society, partly because they always get broken. Our entire legal system seems to be based not on laws, but on dealing with the consequences when laws are broken.

In the Bible, God gave Moses Ten Commandments. I’m willing to bet that they were all broken within a week.

In the Garden of Eden there was only One Rule, and it didn’t take long before that was lying in tatters.

You may think that some rules can’t be broken. You may tell me that 1 + 1 = 2. Really? And what if I tell you that 1 + 1 = 3? What are you gonna do about it?

You see, rules only work when everyone agrees with them. They need to be bottom-up, not top-down. If people don’t like rules, then rules get broken. I personally believe strongly in the rule that says everyone should drive on the same side of the road and I’ve never broken it. But if I think that 30 mph is a stupid speed limit right out here in the middle of nowhere, then I’m going to put my foot on the accelerator.

On the other hand, I’ve never murdered a single member of my family. And not because the law forbids it, but because I love them. In fact, I would go to extraordinary lengths to protect them, even breaking other rules and laws if necessary.

That’s the kind of strong AI we need. Robots that protect us, nurture us, forgive us and tolerate our endless failures and annoying habits. In short, robots capable of love. Ones that we can love back in return.

About the author:

Steve Morris studied Physics at the University of Oxford and now writes about technology at S21.com and his personal blog.

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US scientists have created an artificial ear using 3D printing technology and living cells. The ear looks and behaves like a real ear and offers hope to children born with ear deformities such as microtia.

Original story by Sharon Reich for Reuters:

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• Rat Grows Human Ear, Shows Promise For Regenerative Medicine
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“Death is not destiny. Death is neither inevitable nor natural,” says Jethro Knights, protagonist in my new philosophical thriller, The Transhumanist Wager.

What does Jethro mean? Death is not destiny? Death is neither inevitable nor natural?

It means, Jethro would say, that the most significant thing that has been happening to the human species is about to end.

The Transhumanist Wager tells the story of a man who will do anything to achieve immortality via science and technology. His main focus and drive in life is finding a way to live forever, even at the possible expense of what most people would call humanity.

When I set out to write The Transhumanist Wager four years ago, I did not intend it to become an edgy, controversial book. For much of my adult life, I have been a journalist covering environmental, wildlife, and human rights stories. My articles and television episodes—many for the National Geographic Channel—were welcomed in any culture and in any country. My stories were the type that a family could amicably discuss over the dinner table, or watch on television while happily cuddling together on a couch.

Perhaps it was the effect of the war zones I covered as a journalist, rising out of my subconscious, but The Transhumanist Wager soon took on much more contentious ideas of human endeavor and culture. For a human being, most conflict zones highlight a simple fact: Once presented with horror and death, one tends to quickly discover degrees of emotion and experience never imagined or thought possible before. For me and the difficult moments that I still vividly remember, those incidents gave me the powerful conviction that human life should be preserved indefinitely, at any cost.

Jethro Knights also realizes this early in his life, after almost stepping on a landmine in a war zone (which happened to me in Vietnam’s DMZ while filming a story on bomb diggers). The revelation for Jethro is so sharp, so penetrating, so intense that nothing will ever be the same for him again.

It is from this vantage point that The Transhumanist Wager was written. And it is from the landmine experience that Jethro discovers the mortality crisis not only in himself, but in every human being alive. That crisis takes on the form of a wager—a choice that every human must make in the 21st century: to die eventually; or to try to live indefinitely. And if we try to live indefinitely, then we should use every tool and resource of science and technology available to us, Jethro insists. And we should do it immediately.

This is the quintessential message of The Transhumanist Wager. A rational and scientific-minded society owes itself the strictest dedication to applying its resources and minds to overcoming that which has been the greatest downfall of our species: our mortality.

My novel presents the story of a human being who after years of struggling, years of anguish, years of tragic loss, fights on to achieve his own immortality—and in doing so, scores a victory for all of civilization.

About the Author:

At the age of 21, American-Hungarian Zoltan Istvan began a solo, multi-year sailing journey around the world. His main cargo was 500 handpicked books, mostly classics. He’s explored over 100 countries—many as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel—writing, filming, and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts.

His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding. Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San Francisco with his daughter and physician wife.

Related articles

• A Transhumanist Manifesto
• Zoltan Istvan: The Transhumanist Wager Is A Choice We’ll All Have To Make

Transhumanism is both misunderstood and feared. Ignorant people with an ideological agenda have gone as far as labeling it “the most dangerous idea.” Thus a comprehensive book – a Transhumanist Reader, documenting both the origins and the current state of transhumanist thought has been long needed. So, when I discovered that a new book aimed at accomplishing just that is being published, I knew I simply had to interview one of the editors.

It is time to bring some basic intellectual clarity on the topic and who is better prepared to help us do that but Natasha Vita-More – “the first female philosopher of transhumanism”.

Dr. Natasha Vita-More has already been a guest on Singularity 1 on 1. Her previous two interviews were both interesting and popular and I enjoyed talking to her about her life and work. This time our conversation is more focused on issues related to the publishing of The Transhumnist Reader.

(You can listen to or download the audio file above, and, if you want to help me produce more episodes, please make a donation)

The Transhumanist Reader [Synopsis]

The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future is the first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking.

The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns.

Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism – Max More and Natasha Vita-More, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.

Who is Natasha Vita-More?

Natasha Vita-More, PhD is the founder and creative director of esDESiGN and the producer and host of H+TV online. Her research concerns the design aesthetics of human enhancement and radical life extension, with a focus on emerging and speculative sciences and technologies. Her conceptual future human design “Primo Posthuman” has been featured in Wired, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Net Business, Teleopolis, and Village Voice. She has appeared in over twenty-four televised documentaries on the future and culture, and has exhibited media artworks at National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Brooks Memorial Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, Women In Video, Telluride Film Festival, and United States Film Festival and recently “Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the Post-Biological Age” and is the recipient of several awards: First Place Award at Brooks Memorial Museum, Special Recognition at Women in Video, and special recognition for “Futures Podcast Series”.

Dr. Vita-More is a proponent of human rights and ethical means for human enhancement, and is published in Artifact, Technoetic Arts, Nanotechnology Perceptions, Sistemi Intelligenti, Metaverse Creativity, D’ARS, and the Global Spiral. She is co-editor of the The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology and Philosophy of the Human Future (Wiley-Blackwell 2013).

Related articles

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Will Crockett is a photo innovator and web TV personality. He has more than 30 years as a commercial photographer with clients like Pfizer, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, Cadbury, United Airlines, TIME magazine and the US Pentagon.

Crocket is also the man behind DiscoverMirrorless.com and ShootSmarter.com as well as a prototype test shooter for many camera manufacturers. [His early reviews were the main reason why I ended up buying a Panasonic GH3 camera to shoot my in-person interviews with.]

During my interview with Will Crockett we cover a variety of topics such as: how and why he fell in love with photography; hybrid photography and the end of the DSLR; the benefits of mirrorless cameras; amazing features of future products coming to market the next 6 to 12 months; the proliferation of cameras and monitors and the impact thereof; intelligent resolution, face detection and face recognition; 3D imaging; future of professional photography; copyright and social media…

My favorite Crockett quote that I will remember from our conversation is:

“Think what people want and let’s go give it to them. Not what we can do and try and sell it to them.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is Hybrid Photography?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Will Crockett? 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Side By Side [documentary trailer]:

Digital technology has created a groundbreaking evolution in cinema, challenging film as the standard format for motion pictures. In the new documentary Side By Side, Keanu Reeves takes us on a tour of the past and future of the moviemaking process.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Who says that electric cars are boring?!

The new Mercedes SLS EV has 738 foot-pounds of torque, 740 horse power, goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, reaches 155 mph top speed and carries a price tag of half a million dollars.

The most powerful AMG high-performance vehicle of all time has four electric motors producing a total output of 552 kW and a maximum torque of 1000 Nm. As a result, the gullwing model has become the world’s fastest electrically-powered series production vehicle: the SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. The car’s outstanding driving dynamics come courtesy of AMG as well as torque distribution to individual wheels, which is made possible by means of wheel-selective all-wheel drive. The most “electrifying” gullwing model ever has been developed in-house by Mercedes-AMG GmbH.

The high-voltage battery for the SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive is the result of cooperation between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth (GB). The battery has a range of about 150 miles and takes 3 hours to be charged via a specific three-phase, 22-kilowatt charging system. (Full charging from normal plugs takes around 20 hours.)

The local emission-free electric vehicle, the SLS AMG Coupé EV is aimed at technology-minded environmentally-friendly super sports car fans who can afford the half-a-million-dollar price-tag.

In short, this baby is not your aunt’s Prius!

How does it drive? Well, buckle up for the next 20 min and see Chris Harris’ full video review to find out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Researchers in Boston are in the final stages of testing a new technique to fabricate a fully functional human ear with a patient’s own cells. The team made a rat grow a human ear on its back by taking a CT scan of the person’s ear and then 3d printing a mirror image of it. The plastic print-out was then used as a mold to hold bio-material over a wire-mesh and was seeded with the patient’s own stem cells to ensure bio-compatibility.

The rat was used as a test-bed for fine-tuning the process which eventually will be done in incubators and will progress to engineering much more complex organs such as hearts, lungs and livers.

Using scans, computer modelling and 3D printing, the scientists say their research heralds a new era of regenerative medicine.

Original story by Ben Gruber for Reuters News:

Matthew Putman is the most eclectic guest I have had on Singularity 1 on 1. Matthew is a PhD in applied mathematics and engineering, Professor at Columbia University, a Thiel fellowship mentor, entrepreneur, poet, jazz pianist, inventor holding patents in nano-imaging, film and theater producer and a cancer survivor.

After spending over an hour talking to Putman I feel confident in saying that he is indeed an eclectic genius extraordinaire who is not afraid to embrace his humanity and follow his passions. So, while some of his friends have noted that Matthew’s eclecticism is “not the best route to target a Nobel prize”, they acknowledge that Putman is a lot of fun to be around. I can attest to the latter myself because I enjoyed very much having him on my show and am looking forward to our first face-to-face conversation.

During my interview with Matthew Putman we cover a variety of topics such as: why he considers himself to be a producer, first and foremost; the contradiction between being a Thiel mentor and a Columbia University Professor; the present and future of education; the importance of experimentation; his work in polymers and semiconductors; nanotechnology and Nanotronics Imaging; Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project and other such initiatives; his fear of death and his personal struggle with cancer; his take on immortality and the technological singularity; determinism and free will.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Matthew Putman?

Matthew Putman is a musician, scientist, producer and author currently living in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Marine and two children. He is a Researcher at Columbia University, and the founder and CEO of Nanotronics Imaging. His area of scientific focus includes advanced materials, and nanosystems. He teaches courses on new unique ways to use nanoparticles in polymers for the creation of flexible electronics, bio-scaffolds, flexible solar panels and other cutting edge areas of material science. Nanotronics is a growing business in high resolution imaging that is currently providing unique process control and research tools for the semiconductor industry as well as life sciences.

As a musician he has received acclaim from for his first album Perennial which was released in August 2008, and the quintet called The Gowanus Recordings. Matthew is an inventor who holds patents in several areas including a new microscope with extremely high resolution. He has co-authored technical papers, and received the American Chemical Society Best Paper Award. He was an owner of the technology company Tech Pro which was purchased by Roper Industries in 2008. Matthew is a published poet, whose book Magnificent Chaos has just been published and is available.

Matthew has worked as a music, theater and film producer. In the 1990′s he produced a monthly series of readings of new works at Lincoln Center. He also worked with playwrights such as Israel Horovitz whom he managed the Gloucester Stage Company with in 2000. Matthew was a producer of the off-Broadway play Perdita by Pierre-Marc Diennet, with his wife Marine which played at the Lion Theater on Theater Row. Matthew and Marine have also worked together as Associate Producers of the award winning film Definition of Insanity. Matthew is an Executive Board Member of The Montauk Observatory, and a founding benefactor and advisor of the World Science Festival. He is also an Artist in Residence for Imagine Science. Matthew is recently an adviser for the not-for profit The Cure Is Now.  Matthew is an adviser and investor in Plexus Entertainment Group, a leader in online movie distribution.

Currently Matthew is working an affordable test for cervical cancer to be used in Sub Saharan Africa. He is also composing a ballet based on the life of Kurt Godel.

The BionicOpter by Festo, is just the very latest in a serious of truly amazing robot designs inspired by nature.

The 17.3-inch long BionicOpter dragonfly drone can flutter through the air in any direction, and even hover, just like its biological inspiration. Its four carbon fiber and foil wings beat up to 20 times per-second, propelling it through the air as if it were swimming rather than flying. Piloting the robo-bug is achieved through a smartphone app, but an on-board ARM-based CPU makes small adjustments to ensure stability during flight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The BionicOpter has thirteen degrees of freedom allowing it perform unique flight manoeuvres. In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space.

The drone’s highly integrated, lightweight design provides for its unique way of flying and is made possible by the lightweight construction and the integration of functions: components such as sensors, actuators and mechanical components as well as open- and closed-loop control systems are installed in a very tight space and adapted to one another.

With the remote-controlled dragonfly, Festo demonstrates wireless real-time communication, a continuous exchange of information, as well as the ability to combine different sensor evaluations and identify complex events and critical states.

Fore more, you can check out all the animated clip below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

From the News: Robotic dragonfly creates buzz for German designers

German engineering company, Festo has unveiled its latest robotic creation, a mechanical dragonfly called the BionicOpter. Like a real dragonfly, the BionicOpter can hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings, an achievement Festo says takes aerial robotics to new heights.

Original story by Rob Muir for Reuters:

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Shelved is an animated short sci fi film telling the comedic/tragic story of a couple of warehouse robots that get replaced by humans.

The movie was created by Auckland’s Media Design School and its comedic elements are a nod towards the early films of directors Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) and Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused).

Shelved was directed by James Cunningham with visual effects by eleven Media Design School students.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other cool science fiction films

• HENRi [Sci Fi Film Trailer]
• Tears of Steel: Blender Foundation’s Stunning Short Sci Fi Film
• Stephan Zlotescu’s Sci Fi Short “True Skin” To Become A Warner Bros Full Feature
• Plurality: Dennis Liu’s Big Brother Sci Fi Film Rocks
• ROSA: an Epic Sci Fi Short Film by Jesus Orellana
• Legacy, Ark and the 3rd Letter: The Dark, Post-Apocalyptic Sci Fi Films of Grzegorz Jonkajtys
• Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Sci Fi Film by Dan Trachtenberg)
• Cost of Living: Short Sci Fi Film by Bendavid Grabinski
• Robots of Brixton (a short film by Kibwe Tavares)
• Drone: An Action-Packed Sci Fi Short by Robert Glickert
• Somnolence: A Short Sci Fi Film by Patrick Kalyn
• Kara by Quantic Dream: Do Androids Fear Death?
• Aaron Sims’ Film Archetype: Your Memories Are Just A Glitch!
• Ruin: A Stunning Short Sci Fi Film by Wes Ball
• Sight [a Short Sci Fi Film]

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The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant is a 10 minute animated adaptation of Nick Bostom’s philosophical parable about death.

The story recounts the tale of a vicious dragon, with ever-growing appetite, who started with tens and, eventually, went on consuming hundreds of thousands of people every day.

The fable recounts the enormous human suffering and economic toll that the dragon-tyrant was exacting on humanity and the countless heroes who perished trying to sleigh it. Eventually people concluded that the dragon was invincible and came up with numerous justifications and teachings that we all ought to embrace the dragon as an inevitability. So, when a sage old man proposed that technology would eventually make it possible to build a contraption that could kill the dragon-tyrant, most experts not only dismissed it as a possibility but also as a worthy goal altogether:

“Getting rid of the dragon would deflect us from realizing the aspirations to which our lives naturally point. I tell you – the nature of the dragon is to eat humans. And our own nature is truly and nobly fulfilled only by being eaten by it.”

You can see the video below to find out what happens next or go and read Professor Bostrom’s original text here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related articles

• “Long for this World: Live Forever or Die Trying
• Do you want to live forever?

What started eight years ago as a short story about a man who falls in love with a sentient hologram has become a passion of mine. That story, “Love With The Proper Hologram”, ultimately became a novel—one that I pitched by asking the following question:

“What rights will our intelligent creations have…”

What rights indeed? Sorry to say, after six stories and two novels, I don’t have the answer. What I do have, is the certainty that unless we address the subject in advance, tragedy is sure to befall us. Imagine, sentient beings, “people” who think and feel as we do, at the mercy of anyone with the means to pay for them.

Surely, that would be a fairly small cohort—right? Think again. Picture a mass produced neural array, one that could fit in a shoe box, selling for under $1000. Now picture it connected to a 3-D or holographic home entertainment system, selling for under $2,000, and the problem becomes clear. Virtually anybody could own one, the result: a new slavery.

As a descendent of the West African slave trade, I must confess to being particularly sensitive about this. The very thought that my descendents, even four or five generations removed, might become the new slave masters is appalling. Yet I know of no way to avoid that eventuality. Technology is almost certain to bring us sentient beings, and we, just as surely, seemed destined to treat them as devices, commodities.

Strangely, my libertarian instinct balks at the idea of government intervention, i.e. new laws. How would they define sentience? Might it be defined so broadly as to restrict the ownership of “smart” devices, the latest computers, etc? Would such laws even be constitutional, or would we require an amendment to prohibit such sales – a new 13th amendment?

Assuming private ownership could be outlawed, would the scientific community stand still for laws prohibiting the research that would ultimately lead to the development of these beings? Even if such laws were passed, how would they be enforced? The answer, quite simply, is not very well, if at all. Such research will take place regardless of the government’s attempt to suppress it. Eventually man made sentient beings will live amongst us, and we’ll be forced to answer the question in my pitch: what rights will they have?

Hopefully, the speculation contained in the second half of that pitch: “…or will they have none at all.” won’t come to fruition. For that way lies madness, and if we are to avoid it, perhaps we should start thinking seriously about this subject, now.

About the Author:

Having written a prodigious amount of technical documentation as a computer programmer, systems analyst and industrial automation engineer, Samuel King began to write fiction in 2003. He is currently working on the final novel of the Symbiosis series: East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Software is eating up education. Ubiquity of connected devices, school budget pressures and dependency on the publishing industry make education a ripe target for software based disruption. As a result, an increasing number of software companies have been founded in recent years around the idea of making digital education smarter, cheaper and more accessible. The educational market has reacted positively to these new services: enrollment to online courses grew at 17% compared to only 1.5% growth in overall higher education, digital textbooks are expected to account for 35% of the textbook market by 2016 while blended learning is projected to reach a 98% penetration by 2020. As expected, such growth has created interest in the capital market: the edtech space has known several large transactions over the last three years and seen the birth of about half a dozen startup incubators.

Many among these companies pursue the holy grail of an autonomous instructional system. The premise is that pattern analysis algorithms running on large amounts of student performance data will create a new system of learning centered around a narrow artificial intelligence. Such system would independently guide students, coming up with personalized recipes to mastering cognitive skills. In concept, this is not different from how mapping software helps you find the quickest route to the gas station. In practice, the scope and complexity required to achieve human like instruction is more similar to a self driving car than a GPS navigation system.

In recent years, narrow artificial intelligence has been gaining ground at exponential pace and is soon to become mainstream. Our favorite search engines, ecommerce sites and social networks are all based on massive adaptive algorithms. The aforementioned robocars are already driving themselves through the streets of Nevada and California, while the military has been using autonomous aircrafts (drones) for over two decades. Personal helpers such as Apple’s Siri are on every smartphone and consumer friendly robots are the next big thing. In 2011 IBM’s cognitive system known as Watson defeated two human champions in the game of Jeopardy! Now IBM announced it intends to make a smartphone version of this powerful intelligence. Ray Kurzweil, a world renowned inventor and an artificial intelligence pioneer, has recently joined Google. A move that hints exciting artificial intelligence applications are soon to be introduced by the search engine giant.

In edtech, companies like Knewton, Grockit, Dreambox Learning, and Carnegie Learning are years into the making of adaptive software. In January 2012, the Hewlett Foundation conducted a competition for automated essay scoring which yielded human equivalent results, a long sought-after feat. 2012 is also known to be the year of the MOOC with Stanford (Udacity, Coursera), MIT and Harvard (edX) offering massively open online courses which rely heavily on automation and machine learning.

While the current crop of adaptive educational software can be seen as primitive, the likely manifestation of artificial intelligence in the field of education is an autonomous instructional system. There is, however, a significant prerequisite: such system requires large quantities of data from which patterns can be extracted and algorithms trained on. While in many fields of science data can be easily collected, the education industry has not historically collected significant data. Neither in quality nor in quantity. Further, it is still very much an open question what data needs to be collected.

Most educational software collects student results that are then correlated to learning context, learning style and resources. Such correlations are effective in yielding shallow personalization such as content recommendations and basic alerts. In essence, this is no different from product recommendations in ecommerce systems: useful, but by no means intelligent. To build a narrow artificial intelligence, we need to collect not only information about the learning results but information about the learning process. We need to monitor students continuously instead of sparsely. It is likely that we will need to borrow techniques from outside the field of education: monitoring human machine interaction and a/b testing (advertising, gaming); physiological sensors and brainwave scanners (quantifiedself, ehealth); augmented and virtual reality (gaming) and social graphs to name a few.

And so, the race is on. Many edtech startups attempt to build the platform of education, one that could collect data behind the scenes the same way Google, Amazon and Facebook collect data about their users. Others offer standardized cloud based educational data stores and application programing interfaces that can be used by educational app developers. Either way, the serious players are all trying to reach the critical mass of data required for the breakthrough. With heavy hitters like Sebastian Thrun, Anant Agarwal and Bill Gates joining the race, it is likely the winner will emerge over the next few years.

Privacy is always a major concern when it comes to data centric technology, and the data collected by such systems is very sensitive. Assuming we start collecting data at early childhood, we will end up with more than a decade of personal research backed by fine grained data. It will provide insight into students personalities, intelligence, strengths and weaknesses and could be used by commercial and government bodies alike to manipulate them to their needs. Can we stop this data from reaching potential employers, government agencies and other curious parties? Some suggest the rules of supply and demand will force future students to share their data as means of getting admitted to their school of choice or dream job, much in the way students share their GPA score today.

Traditional educational software is built around content and assumes humans will perform the instruction. In most cases, it is simple for schools to judge the content’s quality and how well it is matched to their requirements. Autonomous educational software is build around the instructional component and aims to replace the human with a machine. This begs the question: can we trust commercial companies to define these algorithms for us, or should educational software be regulated by the government? Traditionally, governments define the curriculum and train and monitor teachers. Performance data is kept within a government controlled ecosystem. Is society ready to let go of these principles and trust the machines and their builders? Many believe our government and existing education administration and will never allow for such revolution take place. Others say it is deep in our human nature to adopt tools that give us an advantage and this technology will be no exception.

Generally, teachers perform three functions: knowledge transfer and skill development; imparting community values; and social and behavioral training. In a world of an autonomous instructional system, teachers will give up the function of knowledge transfer and skill development to machines. Those educators that excel at this function will work for technology companies instead of schools. Their job will be to develop new teaching techniques [methodologies] which they will get to test and implement at a much larger scale than they do today. An example of how this could look like is the work of Eric Mazur of Harvard University on peer instruction and the aforementioned MOOCs.

Other teachers will focus on the remaining functions which are unlikely to be replaced by narrow artificial intelligence due to their social nature. They will also continue and perform a supporting role in knowledge transfer and skill development. An intangible is that a good teacher not only has the knowledge and skills to help a student succeed, but also care. This sense of care may be difficult for a machine to produce. That said, these social functions will also depend more on technology and data. One example is insights derived from the social graph and particularly the communication patterns between its members. Another is video analysis of social situations.

In both cases, we will see more specializations. The role of educators will shift towards a greater separation between theorists and practitioners. The former driving methodologies the latter applying them in classrooms. Great educators will focus on the science of teaching. They will become ubereducators and their methodologies will have global impact. Practitioners will be focused on the art of teaching, supporting students and guiding their emotional and social growth.

A futuristic teaching machine in a classroom. The teacher loads the books into a hopper and the knowledge percolates into the boys’ heads through wires leading to headphones. Sadly, one boy doesn’t receive any knowledge because he has to turn the handle. (1899)

Many point out that our education system is rooted in the industrial era and that it is no longer able to perform its social role. Sir Ken Robinson explains it best. I believe the learning revolution is near. With access to a diverse world of knowledge, intelligent machines performing personalized instruction and humans focused on noncognitive skills, the future of education looks bright. That said, as a society we need to be prepared for such change and put checks and balances so that our core values, traditions and social nature are not lost in the process.

About the Author:

Tomer Doron is a technologist, entrepreneur and a Singularity University Alumni. His first company, PangeaTools developed mathematical models for virtual labs used in teaching physics, chemistry and biology. His current venture, Exploros, focuses on the virtual classroom and the use of real-time collaboration for developing non-cognitive skills.

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The author, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has written about the technological singularity, a time when he predicts things will change so rapidly that he likens it to a mathematical singularity. In particular, he postulates the invention of an artificial intelligence capable of re-designing itself, which will inevitably lead to ever-faster progress.

To back up his theory, Kurzweil likes to show exponential curves representing the ever-faster development of computer processor performance, the price of transistors, DNA sequencing costs and such like.

But just how mathematically rigorous is this theory? Is it right to speak of a singularity occurring some time in the middle of the 21^st century?

Students of cosmology know that genuine singularities are places where scary stuff happens. Especially naked singularities, which I cannot illustrate here for the sake of public decency. It is not a term to be treated lightly. In this article, I am going to prove that if Kurzweil’s prediction of strong AI is true, then a genuine singularity will occur, and in a surprising way, quite unlike popular thinking on the matter.

Let us suppose that there are an infinite number of inventions that people could ever invent. And by people I mean not just humans, but also alien civilisations, robots and any other class of inventive being. Let us number these inventions starting with 1 (a method for starting a fire, perhaps), then 2 (a method for avoiding burning your fingers), and so on.

Now let us assume, as Kurzweil’s exponential graphs indicate, that the time interval between inventions becomes ever smaller as more inventions are made. This is logical, because the more inventions that are available to an inventor, the easier it is to invent something new. Also, the smarter an AI becomes, the easier it is for it to invent an even-smarter version of itself. This is the key assumption in Kurzweil’s theory.

Now, here comes the tricky mathematical part. If the time between inventions becomes ever smaller as the number of inventions increases, then the total time taken to invent all possible inventions is finite. I will call this time T.

The proof of this is analogous to the resolution of Zeno’s paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. Zeno, the Greek philosopher, who believed that change is an illusion, outlined the following thought experiment. The great warrior Achilles is in a race against the tortoise and the tortoise is given a head start. If both runners start at the same time, then by the time Achilles reaches the starting point of the tortoise, the ponderous tortoise will have moved forward some distance less than Achilles, but will still be in front. By the time Achilles reaches the tortoise’s new position, the tortoise will have moved forward again. It will require an infinite number of steps for Achilles to catch up with the tortoise.

Of course, the paradox is easily resolved by realising that the time taken to complete each one of these infinite steps grows progressively shorter.  Simple calculus shows that Achilles will overtake the tortoise after a finite time T.

The situation is precisely analogous to the question of invention. Although the number of possible inventions is infinite, if the time taken between inventions becomes progressively shorter, then after a time T, everything that can be invented will have been invented. This includes all possible books, all conceivable works of art, an infinite number of cat memes and even the flying car. And the time T is not infinitely far in the future, but is finite and in principle calculable.

Such a time has been prophesied by various cultures and religions throughout history. It has been called Ragnarok, The Twilight of the Gods and the End of Days, but in this article I will call it “T time”.

So, after T time there will be literally nothing to do, as everything interesting will already have been done. This is the true singularity, and it is not a time when things are changing ever more rapidly, but when they have changed so much that no further change is possible. In a neatly ironic way, it is a time when Zeno’s belief that change is impossible will become true.

Some people may think of this as a utopia, but it is really just time for taking a quiet nap after T.

About the author: Steve Morris studied Physics at the University of Oxford but discovered that writing about other people’s ideas is easier than having original ones yourself. He now writes about awesome technology at S21 and shares random thoughts at Blog Blogger Bloggest.

James D. Miller is a professor of economics and, most recently, the author of Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World. James is the second economist on Singularity 1 on 1 and he respects and agrees with much of Robin Hanson‘s conclusions. In my view, however, Miller’s book Singularity Rising ends up presenting a much richer, more diverse, more balanced, more interesting and, in some ways, more utopian future. [e.g. see his ideas about "honorable unemployment"]

During our conversation with James D. Miller we cover a variety of topics such as: how he started studying theoretical physics but ended up in economics; academia, the technological singularity and Miller’s definition thereof; his recent book Singularity Rising; “honorable unemployment”; the Fermi paradox and our civilization’s chance of surviving; neurofeedback and other cognitive enhancements used by James; capitalism, freedom and radical changes in the economic system.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is James D. Miller?

James D. Miller is an associate professor of economics at Smith College and was a speaker at the 2008 Singularity Summit. He has a JD from Stanford where he was on Law Review and a PhD from the University of Chicago where his dissertation advisor was a Nobel Prize winner. He is a columnist for BetterInvesting Magazine and regularly wrote for CNBC.com during the tech bubble. The Singularity Institute called Miller’s work “important” and relevant to its core mission.

Singularity Rising

In Ray Kurzweil’s New York Times bestseller The Singularity is Near, the futurist and entrepreneur describes the singularity, a likely future utterly different than anything we can imagine. The singularity is triggered by the tremendous growth of human and computing intelligence that is an almost inevitable outcome of Moore’s Law. Since the book’s publication, the coming of singularity is now eagerly anticipated by many of the leading thinkers in Silicon Valley, from PayPal mastermind Peter Thiel to Google co-founder Larry Page. The formation of the Singularity University, and the huge popularity of the singularity website kurzweilai.com, speak to the importance of this intellectual movement.

But what about the average person? How will the singularity affect our daily lives—our jobs, our families, and our wealth?

Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World focuses on the implications of a future society faced with an abundance of human and artificial intelligence. James D. Miller, an economics professor and popular speaker on the singularity, reveals how natural selection has been increasing human intelligence over the past few thousand years and speculates on how intelligence enhancements will shape civilization over the next forty years.

Miller considers several possible scenarios in this coming singularity:

A merger of man and machine making society fantastically wealthy and nearly immortal.

Competition with billions of cheap AIs drive human wages to almost nothing while making investors rich.

Businesses rethink investment decisions to take into account an expected future period of intense creative destruction.

Inequality drops worldwide as technologies mitigate the cognitive cost of living in impoverished environments.

Drugs designed to fight Alzheimer’s disease and keep soldiers alert on battlefields have the fortunate side effect of increasing all of their users’ IQs, which, in turn, adds a percentage point to worldwide economic growth…

Dr. Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project recently got 1 billion worth of funding from the European Union. The money will be spread in 100 million dollar payments over the next 10 years and is aimed at scaling up Markram’s past research in simulating parts of a rat brain to the first and most comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer and simulate the complete human brain.

The Human Brain Project is a landmark endeavor in modern neuroscience:

“It’s like building a giant telescope to peer into deep space, only that we’ll be able to look deep into the brain and ask questions that are impossible experimentally and theoretically. It’s an infrastructure to be able to build and simulate the human brain, objectively classify brain diseases and build radically new computing devices.” Dr. Henry Markram

Click here to view the embedded video.

Doesn’t that mean that the technological singularity just got nearer?!….

Related articles

• Authors at Google: Ray Kurzweil on How to Create a Mind
• Blue Brain Project (the Documentary)
• Dharmendra Modha on How to Build a Brain-like Computer
• Gary Marcus on Singularity 1 on 1: How do we bridge the mind with the brain?!…
• Chris Eliasmith on Singularity 1 on 1: We Have Not Yet Learned What The Brain Has To Teach Us!
• Randal Koene on Singularity 1 on 1: Mind Uploading is not Science Fiction

Zvika and Omri – two of my Singularity University friends, as well as co-founders of LifeBEAM Technologies, are planning to produce the world’s first smart cycling helmet.

The helmet is taking cutting edge tech from the defense and aerospace industries with integrated heart rate sensor, allowing real time, accurate, hassle-free heart-rate monitoring.

Now, you can say that I am supporting these two guys because they are my friends – and you will be right. However, I am also a cyclist who is totally fed up with the 30-year-old chest strap technology of all other heart rate monitors currently available on the market.

So, I am also supporting them because I think that LifeBEAM not only has a great cycling product but also the right team to work through all the prototype-phase-glitches and bring a top-notch product to market, at an affordable cost.

That is why I support SMART – The world’s first smart cycling helmet.

If you are a cyclist looking for the best in heart rater monitoring, I suggest you do that too:

Click here to view the embedded video.

LifeBEAM is proud to present SMART -

The world’s first smart cycling helmet with an integrated heart rate sensor, allowing real time, accurate, hassle-free heart-rate monitoring without using a chest strap!

The SMART platform is lightweight and incorporates a microprocessor integrated with LifeBEAM’s advanced algorithm, a state-of-the-art optical physiological sensor, accelerometer, and full wireless communication capabilities.

We Need Your Help!

While we have experience in the Aerospace industry, this is our first consumer facing product, and we need your help to make it a success!

The SMART Solution

We integrated our unique sensor & algorithms, originally developed for fighter pilots & astronauts, into the Lazer’s GENESIS helmet resulting in the SMART – a cycling helmet that provides highly accurate, real time measurements of heart rate under normal as well as extreme physiological conditions without the problems inherent to chest straps.
The information gathered by the SMART appears in real time on your mobile phone, sport watch or cycling computer via ANT+ or Bluetooth.

Our sensing technology was built for intense activities in extreme environments and demonstrated highly accurate results compared to the most reliable ECG chest belts in market. It is, therefore, suitable for high performance athletes in any cycling environment.

Heart-Rate Monitoring

Cyclists who want to monitor and improve their performance cannot ignore their heart rate. Personal heart-rate provides a window to individual’s overall fitness.

Heart rate is commonly monitored using chest straps. Fitness watches, cycling computers & smartphones – all provide a platform that can communicate with a chest strap and display heart rate.

But what if you hate wearing that strap around your chest for hours? Straps can chafe, irritate, lose contact and migrate. We now offer the perfect solution – the SMART.

What do you get with SMART?

The SMART will arrive to you ready-to-use with no assembly required.
The systems includes:

• Lazer Sport GENESIS helmet integrated with LifeBEAM sensing technology
• LifeBEAM’s physiological sensor & processing unit:
  • Integrated 3-axis accelerometer
  • Bluetooth 4.0 or ANT+ Wireless Communication capabilities
  • Rechargeable Lithium battery – at least 15 hours of continuous usage
  • Weight: 50 grams (0.132 lbs.)

The sensor & technology integrated into the SMART platform will allow future implementation of additional sensing, sound & display features.

 From Aerospace to Cycling

LifeBEAM is a startup company comprised of engineers and pilots, passionate about the development of physiological monitoring solutions. We specialize in remote monitoring of multi-physiological parameters, such as heart-rate, blood flow, oxygen saturation and more.

Our first development was a unique miniature sensing platform that was implemented into fighter pilot and astronaut helmets, to monitor their physiological conditions, help them perform better, and in extreme cases – even save lives.

Now you can use this technology during cycling!

What could be simpler than putting on your SMART cycling helmet integrated with our small and almost invisible sensor, and continuously monitoring your heart rate?!

Technology – main features & benefits

LifeBEAM’s core sensing technology is based on state of the art non-invasive optical methods, using miniature components that allow unobtrusive & continuous physiological monitoring. These unique sensing methods enable a high-accuracy measurement of various physiological parameters.

LifeBEAM’s main technological expertise creates applicative solutions that are significantly insensitive to motion artifacts and thus can be used in dynamic environments and under extreme conditions.

So what’s so cool about SMART?

SMART uses electro-optical technology to continuously measure your heart-rate.

The optical sensor is placed on the helmet’s front, gently touching your forehead. The sensor samples the blood pulse in a high frequency and transmits a raw signal to the processing unit, which is placed in the helmet’s back.

The processing unit filters the signal from motion artifacts and, using the communication module, wirelessly transmits the cleansed pulse to your display device in real-time.

AND…YES, IT WORKS WITH MOST DEVICES AND APPS IN THE MARKET!

The SMART is compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 & ANT+ devices – smartphones, fitness watches, cycling computers – and works with most fitness applications, so use your favorite display device or smartphone app for additional functions, such as: average speed, distance, pace, GPS, calories-burned, etc.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Future Developments

We plan to continue developing the SMART, keeping it up to date with the ever-changing technologies, in order to provide the best and most cutting-edge product for our customers.

Integrating a processing unit and wireless communication capabilities opens the door for various additional sensors & features that will be processed in the helmet and transmitted wirelessly to any place!

A few examples for some optional future implementations:

• Additional Functions: Stand-alone device, Crash detection, Bicycle locator, integration with Cycling training apps for additional parameters and more!
• Advanced display capabilities: head up display capabilities just like in fighter pilots helmets!
• Additional Sensors: GPS, SIM, Logger and more!
• Sound feedback features.

Prototyping process

After successfully monitoring a pilot’s vitals, LifeBEAM wanted to expand and reach new horizons.

On one of their weekend rides, two engineers from our team modified our technology and integrated it into their cycling helmets.

Excited by the outcome and the idea of combining our technology with their love of cycling, they convinced the team to pursue their dream.

On the following 6 months, the R&D team worked together to amend the algorithms to suit the cycling environment and develop a kit that could be integrated into a professional cycling helmet while prolonging the battery life, maximizing the duration between charges, and without adding unnecessary weight.

After numerous testing iterations & prototype improvements, we were ready to choose the right helmet-manufacturing partner.

Cooperation with LAZER SPORT

Lazer is one of the top cycling helmet manufacturers in the world with over 90 years of experience (the oldest helmet manufacturers still operating).

With its headquarter in Belgium, Lazer designs, manufactures and markets helmets in more than 50 countries.

Lazer’s GENESIS cycling helmet (in Canada also called GS) is one of the most popular helmets in the world.

Helmet spec:

• Fit System: Rollsys® Retention System
• Construction: In-Mold (6 pieces)
• Ventilation: 19 vents
• Weight: 280g (0.617 lbs) (M) CE
• Certification: CE – CPSC – AS
• Sizes: M-L

Many great champions teamed up with Lazer along the years.

Awards & Recognitions

In 2010, LifeBEAM won the national innovation contest “Ramon Breakthrough”, sponsored by Google and represented Israel at Singularity program at NASA Ames in Silicon Valley.

In 2012, we were honored to participate in NASA’s R&D activity, where our unique sensors were used and tested during different research activities.
In addition, we have performed a joint research at the European Flights training facility in the Netherlands and with a number of Air Forces around the world.

Rewards/Pricing

We created a great list of exciting perks that will allow you to enjoy our forthcoming product & technology while supporting our efforts.

The Pioneer Deal: Early Bird (200 available) – $149

The SMART Package: Own a SMART – $189

The Gift package: Surprise your friend with a SMART Gift– $195

The Buddies package: Order 2 SMARTS with your friend or ride buddy – $358

The Group package: Order 5 SMARTS for your cycling group – $845

The Silver Distributor package: Order 20 SMARTS – $2,780

The Gold Distributor package: Order 50 SMARTS – $6,450

Use of Funds

We are asking for your help so we can produce the first run of the SMART and deliver them to our initial customers. If you love cycling, sports, or fitness in general, we would love your support so we can bring the SMART helmet to market and further implement our technologies in new products in the future.

Join Our Ride!

Our team developed the groundbreaking technology, but in order to bring it to mass production … we need your help!

We ask you to help us elevate our project from a working prototype to its final production stage.

We welcome you to join our ride! Thanks for your support!!!

HENRi is an emotionally powerful short film, which explores human existence at the most fundamental, personal level—what it means to be a conscious individual.

Hundreds of years in the future, a derelict spacecraft, controlled and powered by a human brain, floats aimlessly in the outer reaches of space. HENRi, the name of the ship’s power system, is an acronym which stands for Hybrid Electronic / Neuron Responsive Intelligence, and was the first of Earth’s Neuro-Tech space exploration research vessels. Trapped in the cold, mechanical prison of the vessel, the “brain,” which has no recollection or concept of self, gradually begins to experience disjointed images of its former life—images it cannot understand. Carrying the remains of a crew long dead, and becoming increasingly self-aware, HENRi experiences the instinctual desire to be free. Yearning for freedom and yet unable to move, the brain devises a plan to build itself a mechanical body from parts of the ship. Maybe then it will understand the images it is seeing—maybe then it will feel alive.

Writer / Director Eli Sasich has an extensive background in film production, and his portfolio includes narrative, and experimental films, documentaries, and commercials. He loves genre movies, especially the sci-fi films from the 70s and 80s.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full film available now for Instant Streaming / Digital Download, and on Blu-ray / DVD at: henrithefilm.com

Other cool science fiction films

• Tears of Steel: Blender Foundation’s Stunning Short Sci Fi Film
• Stephan Zlotescu’s Sci Fi Short “True Skin” To Become A Warner Bros Full Feature
• Plurality: Dennis Liu’s Big Brother Sci Fi Film Rocks
• ROSA: an Epic Sci Fi Short Film by Jesus Orellana
• Legacy, Ark and the 3rd Letter: The Dark, Post-Apocalyptic Sci Fi Films of Grzegorz Jonkajtys
• Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Sci Fi Film by Dan Trachtenberg)
• Cost of Living: Short Sci Fi Film by Bendavid Grabinski
• Robots of Brixton (a short film by Kibwe Tavares)
• Drone: An Action-Packed Sci Fi Short by Robert Glickert
• Somnolence: A Short Sci Fi Film by Patrick Kalyn
• Kara by Quantic Dream: Do Androids Fear Death?
• Aaron Sims’ Film Archetype: Your Memories Are Just A Glitch!
• Ruin: A Stunning Short Sci Fi Film by Wes Ball
• Sight [a Short Sci Fi Film]

Swiss-based scientists are developing a device that will find chemical markers for cancer in a drop of blood. The team from EPFL in Lausanne says the hand-held device will enable doctors to make diagnoses very early in the disease process, thereby both improving outcomes for patients and reducing hospitalization costs.

Original story by Jim Drury for Reuters News:

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Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have developed a device they say will revolutionize the way doctors screen for esophageal cancer. The pill-sized scanner uses lasers to generate a 3D model of the esophagus with microscopic resolution, giving doctors the ability to check for pre-cancerous conditions without the need of a biopsy.

Original story by Ben Gruber for Reuters:

2012 will be remembered as the year when scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva found the Higgs boson.

It was the longest, most costly manhunt in science for an elusive particle that was said to be key to the workings of the universe. For a generation of physicists, it was an appointment with history.

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Much attention has been paid to 3D printing lately, with new companies developing cheaper and more efficient consumer models that have wowed the tech community. They herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society?

Beyond an initial novelty, 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Duke University neurobiologist Miguel Nicoleilis says it might one day be possible for humans to communicate and collaborate with each other wirelessly, using only our thoughts.

Dr Nicoleilis has already developed interface technology connecting animal brains with machines and is now publishing the results of experiments with rats demonstrating the possibilities of so-called brain-to-brain interface technology.

In this experiment two rat brains were connected wirelessly in what the researcher calls a “biological computer.” The rats then end up collaborating with each other in order to receive a reward.

Dr. Nicoleilis believes that this kind of direct brain-to-brain communication is the first step on the way to what he calls the brain-net – where humans will be able to communicate and collaborate with each other using only their thoughts..

Original story by Rob Muir for Reuters news:

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis Explains Brain to Brain Interface Study Published in Scientific Reports

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yesterday I went to speak to a class of grade 12 students from the Newtonbrook Secondary School in Toronto. I have been looking forward to this opportunity to challenge and be challenged by the next generation of bright young minds, and was not going to be prevented from going there, be it by a Canadian winter storm of by any other of life’s tragedies.

Needless to say, I enjoyed speaking to the students very much and hope that they benefit from talking to me as much as I did talking to them.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

My Talking Points for Newtonbrook Secondary School:

I want to begin today by acknowledging your teacher Hermine Steinberg – Hermine doesn’t know what I am going to say today and she probably wouldn’t approve some or much of it. What she certainly knows is that she is taking a risk by inviting me here. And, from my life experience I know that you risk, you take a chance only if you care about something or someone. So I want to recognize her and tell you that you are lucky to have a teacher who is willing to risk for you, because she really cares.

Who am I and why am I here today?

My name is Nikola Danaylov aka Socrates. I am the blogger behind SingularityWeblog.com and the host of the Singularity 1 on 1 podcast.

I get about 50,000 unique visitors per month and have had over half a million downloads of my show.

Two summers ago I was very fortunate to be one of very few people who had the opportunity to go to Singularity University which is located on NASA’s Ames Campus in Mountain View, California. There I met some of the most incredible people in the world such as Steve Wosniak, Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis, Aubrey de Grey and astronaut Dan Barry and had the chance to visit companies like Google, Facebook, Cisco, Tesla and many others.

But enough about me.

I am here to talk about you!

One of the big questions in schools today is: Are students Bored or Apathetic?!

My hypothesis is that students are bored. Just like I was bored when I was in school.

So for the next 40 min or so I will throw some of today’s biggest ideas at you to find out if I am right or wrong. After I am done we will start a conversation where you can say what you think and how you feel.

So, let’s start our conversation with education: the thing about education is that it holds a promise. A promise that was probably told to you by both your parents and by your teachers.

“Do your school work, get good grades in your classes and you will get a good job and a good life.”

Well, I am here to tell you that your school grades don’t matter that much. In fact, they don’t matter at all.

Let me give you 2 examples: Bob McDonald and Jack Andraka.

So, in short, I don’t care that you barely passed or even failed biology or chemistry. You can still reinvent the meaning and the scope of biology, chemistry or anything else you put your mind to it.

As someone who spent a long time in school and has had a few academic awards, I have come to discover that success in school doesn’t mean success in life – neither personally nor professionally.

Education is historical i.e. to say it is retrospective in nature. It is about the past. But what I am here for is to propose that we must look to the future.

And so: Why talking about the future is as important, if not more, than talking about history?!

Let me give you 2 reasons:

1. “We can’t do anything about the past, however. People often excuse this by saying that we know a lot more about the past. But modest efforts have often given substantial insights into our future, and we would know much more about the future if we tried harder.” Robin Hanson

2. It might be that your generation will be the one to steer our civilization at a time of unparalleled peril and promise. At a time when humanity may face immortality or extinction, when we might colonize the stars or go back to the stone age.

And, so, let’s talk about the future:

The biggest trend is Accelerating Change: according to Ray Kurzweil in the next 10 years we are going to experience change equal to the one that used to happen for 1,000 years.

Moore’s Law and the Law of Accelerating Returns

Exponential change – 30 exponential steps down the way takes a billion steps down the road

What are the major fields of accelerating change:

1. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: from Google’s robot car to killer drones to Deep Blue and Watson

2.  Genetic engineering and Synthetic Bio

Decoding the human genome cost over 3 billion dollars and took many scientists a cooperative effort for over 10 years.

Today you can do that for 2,000 dollars with single machine over 1 day. What does that mean?

That means we might put an end to cancer, create algae that eats pollution or produces oil, or that we could eventually plant a seed that may turn into a house.

4. Explosion in internet and computer users and especially in data: 3 billion internet users exponential explosion of devices i.e. Internet of Things

cheaper, faster, smaller, better – smart phones and everything else

Today’s smartphone most powerful computer of 1985 (War Games computer)

Zetabytes of information: kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte, zetabyte i.e. 1 with 21 zeros that’s 250 billion DVD’s of information per year

92% of world data was generated in the past 2 years

5. Nanotechnology: being able to build things from the ground up, one atom at a time.

No waste, no energy loss, on the spot, on demand by nanofabricators.

6. 3D printing from jaws, to beaks, to prosthetics and houses

7. Bio printing: Dr. Anothony Atala printed a human bladder from stem cells.

8. Ageing and life expectancy

Cro-Magnon Era: 18 years
Ancient Egypt: 25 years
Ancient Greece: 28 years
1400 Europe: 30 years
1800 Europe and USA: 37 years
1900 USA: 48 years
2002 United States: 78 years

right now every 1 year our life expectancy improves by 3 months

There will be a point when every year our life expectancy will improve by another 1: this is what Dr. Aubrey de Grey calls Longevity Escape Velocity. In simple words that means that we will be able to prolong life indefinitely.

9. Whole brain simulation, whole brain emulation and mind uploading:

Books and music went from material to digital but that is only the beginning. I am here to tell you that whatever can become information will become information.

We are all living software – what Prof. George Church calls the oldest text i.e. DNA.

The trend is that eventually we will transition seamlessly material things into information and, with 3D printing, information back into material objects.

And that includes us!

Mind uploading is not science fiction any more!

10. Transhumanism: the belief that with technology we have and we can continue to improve who we are and what we can do.

Hamlet’s Transhumanist Dilemma

The Transhumanist Manifesto

11. The technological singularity

Definitions of Singularity:

1.     the state of being singular, distinct, peculiar, uncommon or unusual
2.     (mathematics) the value or range of values of a function for which a derivative does not exist
3.     (physics) a point or region in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density; associated with Black Holes
4.     In the technological sense there are many definitions but I will give you one that fits best what we are talking about today:

Intelligence explosion: this intelligence could be enhanced, augmented human intelligence. Or it could be machine i.e. Artificial Intelligence.

So, the question is: what happens when machines becomes smarter than us?

The best answer we have come up with so far is that: “We don’t really know!”

And that is why it is a singularity, it is a point in our future where our ability to predict and model what is likely to happen will fall apart.

So, what does this all mean for you?

Chances are that you are the ones to stand on the edge of the event horizon. You are the generation that might have to steer our civilization at a time of unparalleled peril and promise.

At a time when humanity may face immortality or extinction, when we might colonize the stars or go back to the stone age.

And so, I am here to ask you: “What are you going to do?”

Takeaway message:

Education is very important but not the one that others, be it teachers or parents, give to you – it is what you give to yourself.

Thus the diploma that you get will be less and less important than ever before. So I say – take education into your own hands because your education matters the most to you and your life.

Don’t wait for permission from your parents or teachers to change the world. Keep learning and improving.

Build stamina: Life is a marathon, not a sprint. You will fail endless times before you succeed. (Dan Barry had to apply 13 times to NASA but he never gave up on his dream to be an astronaut.)

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Geroge Bernard Shaw, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” Man and Superman, 1903

So when your teacher or parents ask you to be “reasonable”, I say: “Be very unreasonable!”

Related articles

• Socrates on the Wow Signal Podcast: Be Unreasonable!
• 15 Steps Towards Your Podcasting Success: Socrates At Podcamp Toronto 2013

Yesterday I spoke at this year’s edition of the annual Podcamp Toronto at Ryerson University.

Since people often ask me for tips on podcasting, I decided to record my presentation so that it is always available to anyone interested in knowing how I started or what in my view are the most important elements for a successful podcast.

Accidentally, the presentation ended up being filmed by two separate cameras: front view – by Peter Mykusz from Tribute Video; and side view – by my friend and budding photographer Josh Glover, who was using my own Panasonic GH3 with the 25mm Leica Summilux.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video in full.  For this time only, you can even choose whether you prefer the side or the front camera view . If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fifteen Steps Towards Your Podcasting Success: Socrates at the 2013 Podcamp Toronto 

1. Start with the end in mind? Start with why?

Not for the money. Love it. To learn. To prepare. To change the world. To make a difference. 

2. Do your homework and start with the right foundation!

How do you do that?

Learn from the best! Studying mediocrity only produces more mediocrity. Success leaves traces. The breadcrumbs are there. All you need to do is find them and follow the path.

For example, in terms of blogging I learn from and follow Seth Godin, ProBlogger, Copyblogger, David Risley, John Chow and Smart Passive Income.

If you are a total beginner you should start with BecomeABlogger.com. This is a fantastic free video course where all you need to do is provide an email address and get the training videos straight into your inbox.

To learn about podcasting check out PodcastAnswerMan.com and especially his free online course Learn How To Podcast.

To learn video blogging see Gideon Shalwick and especially his free Rapid Video Blogging ebook.

3. Buy your own domain and build your online hub there. Never use third party hosts such as TypePad, Blogger, WordPress.com, PodBean or Libsyn. This way you will have full control over your own content while building domain equity, looking professional and even saving money.

I suggest hover.com - to register your domain, and then ZippyKid.com - to host your own wordpress site.

For audio hosting I use and recommend Amazon S3.

For video hosting you can use YouTube or Vimeo.

4. Start an Email List as soon as you start blogging or podcasting. This is and will remain to be your most valuable asset.

I personally use MailChimp and love it. Plus it’s free for users with less than 2,000 subscribers. You really can’t beat that.

5. Choose your recording device:

If you are tight on money then you can start with your iPhone or any other smart phone.

I personally started my podcast with the Blue Yeti microphone but after the first 2 or 3 episodes switched to the Rode Podcaster Kit which comes with the desk arm and the shock mount. I am very happy with the Rode and don’t plan to change it any time soon.

In case you plan to do any field recording, and want better quality than what your phone can give you, you should look at the Zoom H1. If you have a bigger budget, and want to go for excellent audio quality and many features such as XLR inputs, I recommend TASCAM DR-100mkII. I have used this device too and know it is absolutely top notch.

6. Get the right Software:

To be a podcaster you will need some software to record and edit your episodes. I am a PC user and recommend the following programs: Skype for interviewing people; CallBurner for recording Skype audio, VOD Burner for recording Skype video; Audacity for editing audio; Adobe Premiere Elements 11 for editing video.

7. Consider video: 

You tube is the second largest search engine. So, don’t start with it but keep in mind that, if you are to be as popular as possible, you might have to start video-recording your podcast. The reasons behind that vary from search engine optimization to the fact that you are giving your listeners many ways to consume your content. So a single recording can provide you with 3 types of content: audio, video and text.

I recommend that you start recording video either with your phone or with a cheap point and shoot camcorder. If you want the very best in point and shoot then what you need is a Canon VIXIA HF G20. If that is not enough and you want top notch picture, which requires extended knowledge and a substantial financial investment, then get a Panasonic GH3.

8. Go for quality not quantity. This applies both for the articles and episodes you post (and their frequency) as well as the audience you are trying to reach. Get 1,000 True Fans and you will be set. (I will go to war for my audience…)

Get the very best experts in the world to speak on your show.

9. Write for People not for search engines: SEO is important, so do the basics: tag your images, write smart titles, provide a good meta description of your articles and use a professional blog theme. Once you’ve got that covered – write for real people. It is real people (or lack thereof) who will make you succeed or fail as blogger and a podcaster. (as well as most other things in life.)

I admit that catering to search engine spiders may provide some short-term results. The question is though: What do you do when Google updates their search algorithm and you lose your Page rank placement?! You would have to start catering to people.

Why not start with the right focus, ignore short-term temptations and write for the long term?

Write for people. Write so that you have a lasting on-line presence, business and reputation. (Seth Godin breaks all the SEO rules in the world and still gets half a million readers per day.)

10. Be authentic and have integrity! Be honest. Never sell out. Never miss the bad or the imperfect end of things. Once you commit to something – follow through. And follow the evidence no matter where it takes you! When you fail or mess up – admit you made a mistake, own up to it and take action to remedy the situation.

11. Give first, give often and give a lot without asking or expecting something back. Best way to achieve your dreams is to help others achieve theirs. It is not about you – it is about other people. (e.g. tweet and link even to your competition.)

12. Campaign a cause. Don’t market yourself or your product. Set the goal to be making a difference for all – not only your readers or customers, and go after that. If you make a difference people will reward you by reading your blog and buying your product.

13. Let others do the marketing for you but be your own representative!

Let the best known sneezers spread your ideavirus but realize that only you can be your best brand representative.

14. Do the work. There are no shortcuts. So just do the work. (By the way – writer’s block is a myth!)

15. Be unreasonable and never give up!… and don’t wait for permission to go after your dreams and change the world. (Dan Barry had to apply 13 times to NASA but he never gave up on his dream to be an astronaut.)

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Geroge Bernard Shaw, “Maxims for Revolutionists,” Man and Superman, 1903

Ayesha Khanna is the co-founder of the Hybrid Reality Institute and co-author of Hybrid Reality book for Kindle.

During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Ayesha Khanna we discuss a variety of topics such as: women and technology; whether men are from Mars and women from Venus; her book Hybrid Reality and what she calls the hybrid age;  smart cities; the philosophy and politics of technology; big brother and hacktivism; government policy, higher education and unemployment; technological progress and freedom; her recent start-up Urban Intel…

In addition to the title, my two most favorite quotes from Ayesha are:

“The hybrid age is a new sociotechnical era that is unfolding as technologies merge with each other and humans merge with technology – both at the same time.”

“I want people to stop talking about statistics and start talking about human beings.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Ayesha Khanna?

Ayesha is CEO of Urban Intel, Asia’s e-learning platform for professional skills development. Urban Intel provides the skills training that equips current and prospective employees of corporations and governments to meet the demands of Asia’s rapid urbanization. A technology and innovation strategy expert, Ayesha has over 15 years of experience advising clients and cities on product development, digital branding, and customer experience. Ayesha is also Director of the Hybrid Reality Institute, directs the Future Cities Group at the London School of Economics and is a Faculty Advisor at Singularity University.
Prior to founding Urban Intel, Ayesha founded the Hybrid Reality Institute, a research and advisory group focused on emerging technologies and their policy and economic consequences for cities. She has written on technology, innovation and intelligent cities in BusinessWeek, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, Strategy+Business, and Foreign Policy. She is author of the books Straight Through Processing (2008) and Hybrid Reality (2012).

Ayesha has a BA (honors) in Economics from Harvard University, an MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and is completing her PhD on urban information infrastructures at the London School of Economics.

Ayesha is on the Board of Advisors for Humanity+, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation, a Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and was co-curator of TEDxGotham. In 2010, she co-chaired the Innovation Advisory Board for the New York City congressional campaign of Reshma Saujani.

My second interview with economist Robin Hanson was by far the most vigorous debate ever on Singularity 1 on 1. I have to say that I have rarely disagreed more with any of my podcast guests before. So, why do I get so fired up about Robin’s ideas you may ask?!

Well, here is just one reason why I do:

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly believed. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas. Soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.”

John Maynard Keynes “The General theory of Employment, Interest and Money”

To be even more clear, I believe that it is ideas like Robin’s that may, and often do, have a direct impact on our future.

And so I am very conflicted. Ever since I finished recording my second interview with Hanson I have been torn inside:

On the one hand, I really like Robin a lot: He is that most likeable fellow, from the trailer of The Methuselah Generation: The Science of Living Forever, who like me, would like to live forever and is in support of cryonics. In addition, Hanson is also clearly a very intelligent person with a diverse background and education in physics, philosophy, computer programming, artificial intelligence and economics. He’s got a great smile and, as you will see throughout the interview, is apparently very gracious to my verbal attacks on his ideas.

On the other hand, after reading his book draft on the Em Economy, I believe that some of his suggestions have much less to do with social science and much more with his libertarian bias and what I will call “an extremist politics in disguise.”

So, here is, the way I see it, the gist of our disagreement:

I say that there is no social science that, in between the lines of its economic reasoning, can logically or reasonably suggest details such as: policies of social discrimination and collective punishment; the complete privatization of law, detection of crime, punishment and adjudication; that some should be run 1,000 times faster than others, while at the same time giving them 1,000 times more voting power; that emulations who can’t pay for their storage fees should be either restored from previous back-ups or be outright deleted (isn’t this like saying that if you fail to pay your rent you should be shot dead?!)…

Suggestions like the above are no mere details: they are extremist bias for Laissez-faire ideology while dangerously masquerading as (impartial) social science.

During the 2007 OSCON conference Robin Hanson said:

“It’s [Bias] much worse than you think. And you think you are doing something about it and you are not.”

I will go on to claim that Prof. Hanson himself is indeed a prime example of exhibiting precisely such a bias, while at the same time thinking he is not. Because not only that he doesn’t give any justification for the above suggestions of his, but also because, in principle, no social science could ever give justification for issues which are profoundly ethical and political in nature. (Thus you can say that I am in a way arguing about the proper limits, scope and sphere of economics, where using its tools can give us any worthy and useful insights for the benefit of our whole society. That is why the “father of economics” – Adam Smith, was a moral philosopher.)

I also agree with Robin’s final message during out first interview – namely that “details matter.” And so it is for this reason that I paid attention and was so irked by some of the side “details” in his book’s draft.

The two quotes that I will no doubt remember – one from Robin’s book draft and another one, that frankly shocked me during our second interview, are the quotes that I respectively, absolutely like and agree with, and totally hate and find completely abhorrent:

“We can’t do anything about the past, however. People often excuse this by saying that we know a lot more about the past. But modest efforts have often given substantial insights into our future, and we would know much more about the future if we tried harder.”

“The Third Reich will be a democracy by now!” (Yes, you can give Robin the benefit of the doubt for he said this in the midst of our vigorous argument. On the other hand, as Hanson says – “details do matter.”)

So, my question to you is this: Is Robin Hanson’s upcoming book on the Em Economy social science or extremist politics in disguise?!

To answer this properly I would recommend that you see both the first and the second interview, read Robin’s book when it comes out, and be the judge for yourself. Either way, don’t hesitate to let me know what you think and, in particular, where and how I am either misunderstanding and/or misrepresenting Prof. Hanson’s work and ideas.

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Robin Hanson?

Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, and chief scientist at Consensus Point. After receiving his Ph.D. in social science from the California Institute of Technology in 1997, Robin was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, Robin received a masters in physics and a masters in the philosophy of science from the University of Chicago, and afterward spent nine years researching artificial intelligence, Bayesian statistics, and hypertext publishing at Lockheed, NASA, and independently.

Robin has over 70 publications, including articles in Applied Optics, Business Week, CATO Journal, Communications of the ACM, Economics Letters, Econometrica, Economics of Governance, Extropy, Forbes, Foundations of Physics, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Information Systems Frontiers, Innovations, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Journal of Law Economics and Policy, Journal of Political Philosophy, Journal of Prediction Markets, Journal of Public Economics, Medical Hypotheses, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Public Choice, Social Epistemology, Social Philosophy and Policy, Theory and Decision, and Wired.

Robin has pioneered prediction markets, also known as information markets or idea futures, since 1988. He was the first to write in detail about people creating and subsidizing markets in order to gain better estimates on those topics. Robin was a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, at Xanadu in 1990, of the first web markets, the Foresight Exchange since 1994, and of DARPA’s Policy Analysis Market, from 2001 to 2003. Robin has developed new technologies for conditional, combinatorial, and intermediated trading, and has studied insider trading, manipulation, and other foul play. Robin has written and spoken widely on the application of idea futures to business and policy, being mentioned in over one hundered press articles on the subject, and advising many ventures, including GuessNow, Newsfutures, Particle Financial, Prophet Street, Trilogy Advisors, XPree, YooNew, and undisclosable defense research projects. He is now chief scientist at Consensus Point.

Robin has diverse research interests, with papers on spatial product competition, health incentive contracts, group insurance, product bans, evolutionary psychology and bioethics of health care, voter information incentives, incentives to fake expertize, Bayesian classification, agreeing to disagree, self-deception in disagreement, probability elicitation, wiretaps, image reconstruction, the history of science prizes, reversible computation, the origin of life, the survival of humanity, very long term economic growth, growth given machine intelligence, and interstellar colonization.

Related articles

• Robin Hanson on Singularity 1 on 1: Details Matter… And For That You Need Social Science

It’s been 25 years since David Morrison – a NASA Space scientist who also works for the SETI institute, first pointed out that near Earth asteroids pose a substantial hazard to our planet.

The discovery that the dinosaur extinction about 65 million years ago was caused by an asteroid was part of the impetus behind that. So David was among the first advocates that we need a system to track, identify and eventually deflect any larger asteroids which might pose danger to our planet.

The recent asteroid impact in Russia which was the cause for a lot of property damage, as well as 500 people treated for injuries related to it, was just a reminder that we are still a young and vulnerable civilization. In this video interview Morrison discusses not only the danger from asteroids but also the fear that some have from alleged “end of the world” events.

Original story and video interview by Engadget:

Life-like robotic patients are being used by doctors and nurses who want to practice their clinical skills.

They are designed to display symptoms such as asthma, heart attacks and infections.

The staff can film themselves treating the robots to see how they do.

Original story by James Cook for BBC News:

Christine Peterson is not only the co-founder and past president of the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology but also the person credited with coining the term open source software. More recently her interests have evolved to include longevity and life extension technologies and she is currently the CEO of Health Activator.

During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Christine Peterson we discuss a variety of topics such as: how she got interested in nanotechnology and the definition thereof; how, together with Eric Drexler, she started the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology; her interest in life extension; Dr. Drexler’s seminal book Engines of Creation; cryonics and chemical brain preservation; 23andMe and other high- and low-tech tips for improved longevity; whether we should fear nanotechnology or not; the 3 most exciting promises of nanotech; women in technology; coining the term “open source” and using Apple computers; the technological singularity and her take on it…

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is Christine Peterson?

Christine Peterson writes, lectures, and briefs the media on coming powerful technologies, especially longevity and nanotechnology. She is CEO of HealthActivator, which provides online videoconferences on science-based health, brain fitness, and longevity.

She is Co-Founder and Past President of Foresight Institute, the leading nanotech public interest group. Foresight educates the public, technical community, and policymakers on nanotechnology and its long-term effects.

She serves on the Advisory Board of the International Council on Nanotechnology, the Editorial Advisory Board of NASA’s Nanotech Briefs, and the Advisory Board of Singularity Institute, and served on California’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology.

She has often directed Foresight Conferences on Molecular Nanotechnology, organized Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes, and chaired Foresight Vision Weekends.

She lectures on nanotechnology to a wide variety of audiences, focusing on making this complex field understandable, and on clarifying the difference between near-term commercial advances and the “Next Industrial Revolution” arriving in the next few decades.

Her work is motivated by a desire to help humanity and Earth’s environment avoid harm and instead benefit from expected dramatic advances in technology. This goal of spreading benefits led to an interest in new varieties of intellectual property including open source software, a term she is credited with originating.

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• Nanotopia
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Choose your favourite catastrophe – climate change, asteroid strike, killer pandemic, nuclear war, malevolent artificial intelligence, a black hole created in the Large Hadron Collider, etc, etc. There are so many potential threats to our existence, one of them is bound to happen, right?

Well, no. The thing is, humans have always lived on the brink of catastrophe. Ice ages, famines, supervolcanoes, the Black Death, world wars, HIV/AIDS. Any one of these could have destroyed civilisation or even humanity. Why didn’t they? It can’t have been just good luck. There must be a reason.

In 1798, Thomas Malthus predicted that the world’s population would inevitably overtake its capacity to feed itself, and that mass starvation and the collapse of civilisation would follow. His prediction was based on the observation that population tends to grow exponentially, whereas agricultural capacity grows linearly at best, as it depends on the amount of land under production. And yet Malthus was wrong. Food production increased enormously in the following century, thanks to improvements in agriculture, more than matching population growth.

Contrast this with the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, who designed flying machines that could not be built. He also conceived the car, the parachute, diving suits, robots and a machine gun, amongst other inventions that could never be realised in his own lifetime. And yet Da Vinci’s ideas later came to fruition and he is recognised as one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived.

Malthus predicted the inevitable and was proven wrong. Da Vinci designed the impossible and was proven right.

What’s the difference? Da Vinci had vision. He recognised problems, but realised they could be solved. Malthus had the foresight to see problems too. But he regarded them as immovable barriers.

So here’s the lesson. Problems are everywhere, but they can be solved. Climate change can be reversed, asteroids deflected, pandemics vaccinated against, nuclear wars prevented.

All problems can be solved, but only if you believe that you can solve them. As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think that you can or you can’t, you’re usually right.”

About the author: Steve Morris studied Physics at the University of Oxford and spent ten years working for the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He now writes about science & technology at tech review site S21 and on his blog.

Dr. “George Church is one of the most brilliant scientists in the world,” says Steven Pinker on the front cover of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves.

Regenesis is the recent book that Church wrote together with Ed Regis, where the authors “imagine a future in which human beings have become immune to all viruses, in which bacteria can custom-produce everyday items, like a drinking cup, or generate enough electricity or biofuel to end oil dependency. Building a house would entail no more work than planting a seed in the ground…”

These are just few low-hanging fruits that the tree of synthetic biology may provide for us. So why is it that some scared pundits are calling it “the most dangerous idea”?!…

During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with George Church we discuss the above plus a variety of other topics such as: how he got interested in genetics and why he considers himself more of a technologist and inter-disciplinarian; the synthetic biology revolution of the past few years (beating Moore’s Law by a factor of 6); his views on religion; his dyslexia, high cholesterol and other mutations; 23andMe and DNA testing in general; the difference between genetics and synthetic biology; transhumanism, faith, mirror organisms and mirror humans; intellectual property rights and patenting living organisms; genomics and longevity…

My two favorite quotes from Dr. Church are:

“Inactivity and complacency are the most dangerous ideas… and assuming things will be fine if we do nothing.”

“We should not assume things will stay the way they are. Or that inactivity is the right path.”

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Who is George Church?

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Director of  PersonalGenomes.org, providing the world’s only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These lead to the first commercial genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in  1994 . His innovations in “next generation” genome sequencing and synthesis & cell/tissue engineering resulted in 12 companies spanning fields including medical genomics ( Knome, Alacris, AbVitro, GoodStart, Pathogenica ) and synthetic biology ( LS9, Joule , Gen9, Warp Drive ) as well as new privacy, biosafety & biosecurity policies. He is director of the NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. His honors include election to NAS & NAE and Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science.

Related articles

• Andrew Hessel on Singularity 1 on 1: Don’t Fear Synthetic Biology
• Raymond McCauley on Singularity 1 on 1: Be Your Own Scientist – Try It And See
• Making Silk from Milk: a Documentary about Synthetic Biology
• 23andMe DNA Test Review: It’s Right For Me But Is It Right for You?

Gravity light set to illuminate the developing world

A British company is offering a safe and efficient alternative to the dangerous kerosene lamps that are in wide use throughout the developing world. Called Gravity Light the electric-powered device costs just five dollars, using the force of gravity to keep the light switched on.

Original story by Jim Drury went to meet its creators.

GravityLight is a revolutionary new approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which powers GravityLight, creating 30 minutes of light on its descent. For free.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Following the initial inspiration of using gravity, and years of perspiration, we have refined the design and it is now ready for production. We need your help to fund the tooling, manufacture and distribution of at least 1000 gravity powered lights. We will gift them to villagers in both Africa and India to use regularly. The follow-up research will tell us how well the lights met their needs, and enable us to refine the design for a more efficient MK2 version. Once we have proved the design, we will be looking to link with NGOs and partners to distribute it as widely as possible. When mass produced the target cost for this light is less than $5.

Why GravityLight?

Did you know that there are currently over 1.5 billion people in the World who have no reliable access to mains electricity? These people rely, instead, on biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) for lighting once the sun goes down.

Lift the weight and let gravity do the rest.

The World Bank estimates that, as a result, 780 million women and children inhale smoke which is equivalent to smoking 2 packets of cigarettes every day. 60% of adult, female lung-cancer victims in developing nations are non-smokers. The fumes also cause eye infections and cataracts, but burning kerosene is also more immediately dangerous: 2.5 million people a year, in India alone, suffer severe burns from overturned kerosene lamps. Burning Kerosene also comes with a financial burden: kerosene for lighting ALONE can consume 10 to 20% of a household’s income. This burden traps people in a permanent state of subsistence living, buying cupfuls of fuel for their daily needs, as and when they can.

Today my guest is Doug Wolens. Doug is the lawyer-turned-documentarian whose most recent film is The Singularity.

I have to say that neither Doug nor his film are what I expected. To paraphrase and add to one of the other iTunes film reviewers – what I was expecting was “Wohooo! Singularity!” But what I got instead was a surprisingly detailed critical examination of the notion of the singularity, by a very honest, open-minded and profoundly human and humanistic film-maker. And that made the whole experience uniquely better.

During this Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Doug Wolens we discuss a variety of topics such as: how he decided to quit being a lawyer and become a documentarian film-maker and story-teller; growing up in the 60′s and getting inspired by the Apollo program; reading Ray Kurzweil‘s seminal book The Age of Spiritual Machines and deciding to make a movie about those ideas; the singularity, its definition and what the film is all about; Doug’s Socratic method of film-making and story telling; his 12-year-long struggle to produce, shoot, edit and distribute the movie; the things that inspired and surprised him the most during the making of The Singularity; his experience interviewing Ray Kurzweil…

My two favorite quotes from Doug are:

“Just because I am suggesting science as a means, it doesn’t get us to a scientific end. It gets us to a humanistic end.”

“It is ultimately up to you – the viewer, you – the thinker in the world, to say: “This is right for me; this is how I want to live in this world.”"

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Singularity [The Film]: Will we survive our technology?!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Film Synopsis: The Singularity is defined as the point in time when computer intelligence exceeds human intelligence. This notion of superhuman machines has long served as fodder for tales of science fiction. Yet most scientific leaders argue that these changes are inevitable, based on the accelerating rate of technological progress.

Clearly, some emerging technologies could have unknown consequences that could lead to catastrophic events or be abused for malicious purposes.

While we cannot be certain of what our future brings, it is nonetheless important to understand the great strides being made in fields such as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and molecular biology, and how these technologies will radically alter the way we live. Inevitably, the question arises: what kind of humans do we want to become?

Director Doug Wolens speaks with leading futurists, computer scientists, artificial intelligence experts, and philosophers who turn over the question like a Rubik’s Cube. Those who insist this paradigm shift is only decades away emphasize that we’re on the cusp of creating nanotech machines that patrol our bloodstream and repair cellular damage, athletes with jacked-up genetic code who sprint like gazelles, an Internet that downloads directly to the mind, and medical labs with computer-replicated brains working by the thousands to cure disease.

Ultimately, if we become more machine-like, and machines more like us, will we sacrifice our humanity to gain something greater? Or will we engineer our own demise? Even if the answers are impossible to know, THE SINGULARITY makes clear that we cannot postpone addressing the questions.

The down-to-earth and visually fun animations created by Jerry van de Beek and Betsy de Fries of Little Fluffy Clouds, illustrate the complex ideas with clear and simple artistry. These animations build upon our past notions of the future and playfully complement the talking-head interviews.

The film’s score, composed by renowned cellist Chris Lancaster, resonates to the viewer’s core. Wanting to stay away from heavy-handed music and sound cues, Wolens and Lancaster collaborated to create a cohesive sound that reflects the film’s sensibilities and aesthetics.

THE SINGULARITY is a comprehensive and insightful documentary that examines technology’s accelerating rate, and deftly addresses the resulting moral questions.

Who is Doug Wolens?

Doug Wolens grew-up in Chicago, earned two BA degrees, a law degree, and spent seven years as a practicing attorney in New York City; he moved to San Francisco and became a filmmaker in 1993. Wolens’s first short, Happy Loving Couples, was selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival. He’s made two other shorts, Reversal (1994) and In Frame (1995), all of which have played at film festivals throughout the world. His 1996 feature documentary, Weed, premiered at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam and had a 40-city theatrical tour of the U.S. In 2000, Wolens feature documentary Butterfly was broadcast nationally on P.O.V. PBS’s award-winning documentary showcase and on The Sundance Channel. Wolens successfully self-distributed Butterfly to more than 50 theatres throughout the country.

Wolens lives in San Francisco with his wife Katie and son Theo. He is currently developing a documentary on aesthetics and design.

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• Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man

Robin Hanson is not just a well known economist with seminal work in prediction markets. He is also a physicist, philosopher and AI researcher. Besides being a polyglot he is also an extremely likable fellow and both of those make him very hard to argue against. Add up the fact that it’s been over a decade since my study of economics and you will get a better idea as to why I struggled to keep up with him during our conversation. Well, regardless of my poor performance, I have to say that I enjoyed talking to Hanson very much. So I plan to bring him back for a follow up interview where we can spend more time talking exclusively about his upcoming book on the economics of brain emulations.

During this Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Robin we discuss a variety of topics such as: his wide spectrum of interests such as physics, phylosophy, economics and artificial intelligence; the general lack of academic engagement with issues related to the singularity; why cheap energy will not be a panacea to our problems or even a major boost to our economy; the singularity and his definition thereof; the two major ways to Artificial Intelligence; the economics of brain emulations (what he calls Ems)…

(As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)

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Who is Robin Hanson?

Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University, a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University, and chief scientist at Consensus Point. After receiving his Ph.D. in social science from the California Institute of Technology in 1997, Robin was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health policy scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1984, Robin received a masters in physics and a masters in the philosophy of science from the University of Chicago, and afterward spent nine years researching artificial intelligence, Bayesian statistics, and hypertext publishing at Lockheed, NASA, and independently.

Robin has over 70 publications, including articles in Applied Optics, Business Week, CATO Journal, Communications of the ACM, Economics Letters, Econometrica, Economics of Governance, Extropy, Forbes, Foundations of Physics, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Information Systems Frontiers, Innovations, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Journal of Law Economics and Policy, Journal of Political Philosophy, Journal of Prediction Markets, Journal of Public Economics, Medical Hypotheses, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Public Choice, Social Epistemology, Social Philosophy and Policy, Theory and Decision, and Wired.

Robin has pioneered prediction markets, also known as information markets or idea futures, since 1988. He was the first to write in detail about people creating and subsidizing markets in order to gain better estimates on those topics. Robin was a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, at Xanadu in 1990, of the first web markets, the Foresight Exchange since 1994, and of DARPA’s Policy Analysis Market, from 2001 to 2003. Robin has developed new technologies for conditional, combinatorial, and intermediated trading, and has studied insider trading, manipulation, and other foul play. Robin has written and spoken widely on the application of idea futures to business and policy, being mentioned in over one hundered press articles on the subject, and advising many ventures, including GuessNow, Newsfutures, Particle Financial, Prophet Street, Trilogy Advisors, XPree, YooNew, and undisclosable defense research projects. He is now chief scientist at Consensus Point.

Robin has diverse research interests, with papers on spatial product competition, health incentive contracts, group insurance, product bans, evolutionary psychology and bioethics of health care, voter information incentives, incentives to fake expertize, Bayesian classification, agreeing to disagree, self-deception in disagreement, probability elicitation, wiretaps, image reconstruction, the history of science prizes, reversible computation, the origin of life, the survival of humanity, very long term economic growth, growth given machine intelligence, and interstellar colonization.

The Centrifuge Brain Project is a 6 min short mdockumentary about the scientific experiments with amusement park rides in general and their effects on the brain in particular.

The film narrator – Dr. Nick Laslowicz from the Instutue of Centrifugal Research in Florida, takes us through the story of investigating the effects of kindergarten rides on the learning curve of four-year-old children.Eventually the researches came up with the idea of building a larger, stronger and faster device that would allow them to examine the effects on adults.

Despite the initial setback of the first prototype falling apart after reaching 6 g’s, Dr. Laslowicz and his colleagues persisted and eventually produced a number of impressive devices such as the Spheroton Centrifuge (1982), the Wedding Cake (1985), the High Altitude Conveyance (HAC 1991), the Expander (1993), the Dandelion prenatal ride (1996), the SPC Steam-Pressure Catapult (2003) and others.

My two favorite quotes from the film:

“These machines provide total freedom. Cutting all connection to the world we live in; communication, responsibility, weight. Everything is on hold while you are being centrifuged.”

“If anything the mistake is in nature. Gravity is a mistake!… We fight the forces that hold us down and all life is an effort to escape from reality…”

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CallApp provides users with all the information they need about anyone they communicate with, even if that contact is not in their contact-book or in any of their social networks. CallApp displays the contact’s latest photo, social activity, websites, email and additional valuable information.

For example: my phone is ringing from an unrecognized number and before I answer I need some crucial information. Who is calling? Why are they calling? Is it urgent? With CallApp installed on my phone, I see that it’s actually a famous reporter calling. I see the reporter’s picture, that he just checked-in to a nearby hotel and that his latest tweet shows he’s working on a story. We’re not friends on any social networks nor have we ever been in contact, but I’m able to get all of the background before deciding if to answer the call.

CallApp achieves all that by connecting each phone to a universal social contact book of over half a billion phone numbers. This contact book is integrated with over 50 different information sources such as social networks, online directories, search engines and more. Combining all the information available about people & businesses from the web with everything CallApp users decide to share about their contacts: reviews, spam alerts, comments…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Israeli tech dials up new insights on callers

You can find out more than ever about the people on the other end of the phone line thanks to new technologies developed in Israel.

Original story for Reuters by technology correspondent Matt Cowan:

Transcript: As the old saying goes, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoes. But turns out, one’s phone can be pretty telling too.

The Israeli company CallApp is looking to take the mystery out of making and receiving calls.

Company Video Promo Saying (English):

“Wouldn’t it be great if your smartphone was smart enough to provide you the exact info you need about anyone right when you need it? Well, once you install CallApp it will. CallApp connects your phone to a supersmart universal contact book that’s constantly combining all the information on the web that people and businesses share about themselves with everything CallApp users share about their contacts.”

In London as part of a trade visit, CEO Oded Volovitz gave Reuters TV a demo.

(Soundbite) Oded Volovitz, CallApp CEO, saying (English):

“Okay, so now I’m getting a call and what I see first of all is the name of the person calling me, the picture of the person, our mutual friends from all the social networks. I can see your affiliation, for instance the school of journalism. I can see all of the websites related to you found over the web. I can see LinkedIn position (and) Twitter. I can see your last tweet. I can see your last (Foursquare) check in. You checked in at Apostrophe. When I press on it, it will open up the Foursquare account. I can see a map. There are pictures and stuff of where you’ve been to.”

Sound a bit creepy? Volovitz says the technology simply pulls information that’s publicly available across the web into one place… but is pieced together with military precision.

(Soundbite) Oded Volovitz, CallApp CEO, saying (English):

“Most of our team are people who in the army did a lot of artificial intelligence stuff. So this is something that’s very important, because we’re all about artificial intelligence and getting to understand information very quickly about anyone.”

Advanced Validation Solutions is the name of another technology developed in Israel and which is now being used in Britain to detect fraudsters. This is a reconstruction of an actual call, demonstrating how a person’s voice is monitored to help detect whether or not they’re telling the truth.

(Sound of Demo Video) Lior Koskas is the managing director of the firm Digilog which offers the service in the UK.

(Soundbite) Lior Koskas, Digilog Managing Director, saying (English):

“It’s analyzing the frequency of the voice. What we do is sample your voice when you’re telling the truth and then from that moment forwards, anything you say will be compared to that baseline and any variation in the frequency which happens whether you like it or not when your telling truthful or false statement will be detected by the technology and will be displayed in a very simple manner on the screen.”

He says the technology is being used by banks, insurance companies and even the police.

(Soundbite) Lior Koskas, Digilog Managing Director, saying (English):

“Some might say that it’s a bit scary, it’s big brother but if you look at it from a genuine people perspective, genuine claimant perspective, this is something that will help them to get what they really need to get really quickly.”

This technology has been around for a decade, but Koskas says its getting more sophisticated all the time.

CallApp is still in beta and so far only available on Google Android phones. In both cases, Israeli research is giving us a deeper understanding of the people on the other end of the line.