As I’m sure you’ve gathered based on the copious amounts of tweets and blog posts that have clogged your proverbial tubes, this past weekend was Singularity Summit. I told you we’d discuss the future of humanity, waxing poetic on everything from mechanical brains, to life-and-death, to human and artificial intelligence. And discuss we did.
The weekend was incredibly well-organized in terms of content. Appropriately, we started out with an overview of the Scientific Method, which was essentially a survey of the history of science. The first day delved into the intersection of humans and computers, focusing specifically on artificial intelligence. The program contained a number of talks about adding technology to the human brain. We heard from the world’s First Cyborg and learned how to become Superhuman with haptic interfaces. We heard from the infamous Ray Kurzweil. The day finished off with a tantalizing preview of the topics to be discussed on Day Two, with discussions on the real power of cells and the emulation of biological systems.
Day Two took a definitively more biological approach to the future of humanity. We looked at the idea of aging as an illness and talked more broadly about the future of the environment. We heard from our first female speakers, who discussed limb regeneration and DNA. More discussion of artificial intelligence ensued, this time from the perspective of Evolutionary Psychology.
The final talk was given by James Randi, well-known skeptic of pseudoscience and the paranormal. He asked if there really was any such thing as a “Scientific Consensus.” In providing a more general discussion, as did the first talk on the Scientific Method, this capstone talk perfectly wrapped up a weekend of intelligent, and sometimes conflicting, speculation.
In comparison to the World Futures 2010 conference, this was a much smaller event. That’s probably due to the specificity of the topic. “The future of humans and technology” is much a broader topic than “The Future.”
The demographic at Singularity Summit was much younger. It was also much more male. That being said, the networking at Singularity Summit was far superior, although that perhaps was due to hooking into the conference’s Twitter stream.
The best parts of conferences like these are the networking opportunities, the new ideas, and the book suggestions. It’s rare in day-to-day life to feel overwhelmed with new, exciting information. After a weekend filled with eye-opening theories, I now have a very deep book list that I can’t wait to get started on, new people in interesting fields to get to know, and many, many fresh ideas to research.
Overall, not a bad way to spend a weekend.
Singularity Summit is back in the news. A few days ago, David Correia wrote an in-depth critique of the event and the Singularity Movement. In his piece “If Only Glenn Beck Were a Cyborg,” in CounterPunch, he includes some colorful and descriptive rhetoric about the Singularity, which he calls “The Technorapture.”
