A new institute funded by Google and NASA will train futurists to prepare for a supposed technological singularity —a point before 2050 where machines will be able to self-improve, essentially evolving on their own. At this point, some futurists believe, technology will spur on a new era of mankind, where people meld with machines and have extended abilities and lifespans granted by advances in nano and biotech. Artificial intelligence will become as advanced as–and indistinguishable from–humans’, finally pass the famous machine-detecting Turing Test and eventually surpass us in emotional range as well as logic.
The concept of this singularity was made popular by Ray Kurzweil, an active entrepreneur and author of the controversial The Singularity is Near. Kurzweil insists that human-machine hybrids are inevitable after this transition and that cyborgs will be the norm. Kurzweil will be directing the non-accredited Singularity University, which will be based at NASA’s Ames Research Center, next to the Googleplex (not to be confused with the Singularity Institute, a similar, also California-based endeavor).
The institute will feature talks focusing on the future of biotech, nanotech, and A.I. Its main focus is how the continual advancement of tech will be able to solve today’s major problems — poverty, war, possibly even aging and death. The announcement came at this year’s Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference.
Kevin Warwick, author of I, Cyborg, is another controversial figure in the field, not only preparing for the singularity but rushing toward it with outstretched arms. The University of Reading professor is intent on making himself a cyborg; he implanted electrodes into the arms of him and his wife for wireless communication. His implant let his nervous system communicate directly with a computer to remotely control a robot arm, as well as remotely communicate with his wife. He competes for the title of ‘first cyborg’ with Steve Mann, a researcher and author of Cyborg. Mann wears personal computing equipment, such as computers components sewn into his clothes and webcams in wraparound glasses, in order to modify what he sees and experiences. He claims this enhances his reality (read his somewhat lonely narrative in Tech Review here).
What fascinates me about these researchers are the zeal with which they throw themselves to the future, driven by something inherently escapist but visionary at the same time. While futurists are, by definition, obsessed with the future, social influences get side swept. Certainly technology will continue to benefit society in ways by making things cheaper, faster and more accurate. But it will most likely not be the cure-all futurists are waiting for.
Interesting. I wonder what the ‘preparation’ entails. Personally, I’d need psychotherapy to assure me of my own self worth, if I were destined to be surrounded by machines and cyborgs that had surpassed me in intelligence and emotional range. (And once these two hurdles are overcome, you know it’ll be easy to make them sexier than we are! ; )
Seriously, though– this idea that we can make something greater than ourselves to solve the problems we can’t– damn. I guess I have to hope it’ll work. We all want our kids to turn out better than we did, right?