New Podcast posted

I just posted a Singularity University podcast on the podcast feed. You can subscribe to the feed here.

The podcast is with Michael Anissimov. Michael is a young (twenty something), motivated transhumanist supporter. He has founded or co-founded a number of Singularity focused initiatives including the Immortality Institute, and his blog Accelerating Future.

Michael is also the chief fundraiser for The Lifeboat Foundation, which we discuss in the podcast.

If you know someone in the Singularity movement who would be a good podcast subject, mail me.

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Bloggers Beware - AI is coming...

First it was the typewriter, then the teleprinter. Now a US news service has found a way to replace human beings in the newsroom and is instead using computers to write some of its stories.

Singularity on Comedy Central

I don't watch much TV, but I try to catch 1 hour of priceless comedy each night - the back to back entertainment of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Based on this week's Singularity coverage on Comedy Central, I can only assume that our little concept is approaching escape velocity.

It was a banner week for The Singularity on Comedy Central. First, Ray Kurzweil was featured (skewered) on the Daily Show as an interviewee of investigative reporter Samantha Bee. Her "Futureshock" series was quite entertaining - and though Ray looked a bit out of sorts, he was certainly a good sport to take one for the team.

View the video here: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=73422

The next day, Steven Colbert featured theoretical physicist Janna Leven. Dr. Leven held her own ground as she and Colbert discussed The Theory of Everything, unicorns, and her new book about the Turing Machine.

Her video is in 3 parts starting here: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=73484

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Jets and Nets - Tools for Disruption

Bruce Sterling at Wired Mag had a great post last month on the emergence of jet travel and the internet as radical technology that enables post-industrial society. Like Sterling, I have come to rely on both of those technologies to do my job (as a VP of Marketing for a software company in Austin) and follow my passion in building Singularity University.

I've logged over 100k air miles already this year and worn out one laptop. Yet I wonder how long I will be able to continue to rely on these technologies to accomplish my goals. My last trip to the UK was pushed back due to the terror scare a couple of weeks ago for example.

In the article from Wired, Sterling explores how these technologies can be used as tools for massive disruption. Wired 14.08: Posts

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Intralytix - Biotech Company

Ran across an interesting development stage biotech company that is working on controlling bacterial pathogens. According to Wired News, the FDA just approved their spray to treat bacteria on foods.

"A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive."

http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,71623-0.html?tw=rss.index

Intralytix Home

Geopolitics and The Singularity

There is no doubt that the research investments needed to be made between here and The Singularity are fraught with religious / political angst in many countries. Witness the stem cell debate in the US. That discussion won't hold a candle to the larger issues of "what it means to be human" that society may face in the next 100 years.

Perhaps living in a technologically adept benevolent dictatorship will have it's advantages as we march on:

Singapore Acts as Haven for Stem Cell Research - New York Times

The Electric Sheep Company

What a cool concept. The Electric Sheep Company is your guide, consultant architect and builder for venturing into virtual worlds. They are all over the SecondLife Universe. Check out Sheep Island if you happen to be in SL.

For the uninitiated, SecondLife is a very interesting step along the path into our fully immersive virtual future.

The Electric Sheep Company

Public Library of Science

One of the tenets of The singularity is the cross pollination of research areas. Research in neuroscience will need to merge with nano for example to create the kind of breakthroughts that are necessary.

This means a dramatic acceleration in collaboration between organizations, researchers, and across disciplines. Will new technology spring up to support this collaboration. I hope so. One of the more interesting new services here is PLOS - the Public Library of Science. PLOS's central theory is that the cost of subscription to research journals in many cases limits the spread of important research knowledge. PLOS publishes 1st tier journals for free, but charges the researchers a nominal fee to be included in publication.

Wired has an excellent introduction to PLOS:

Wired 14.06: Free Radical

Admin: Straightening out the Feeds

Attention Singularity News subscribers. We have recently divided our news feed into two different feeds:

Singularity News: This feed is for text news and commentary about Singularity people, concepts, and organizations. This feed is updated daily as news becomes available.


Singularity News Podcast: This feed is for the Singularity Podcast - An audio exploration of Singularity concepts. This feed is updated weekly as new podcasts are published.

You can subscribe to both by clicking on the links above. After this posting, we will not be posting news to the podcast feed. Please subscribe to the news feed.

Surfing The Tsunami

The next 10 years of technology innovation will be unlike anything our world has ever seen. Corporations need to paddle like hell to catch this wave—or they might just be ripped asunder.

Download and read the full article excerpted from the August issue of Architecture and Governance Magazine.

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New Singularity Podcast Posted

We have just released the second Singularity Podcast: Quantum Leap. You can get it on iTunes or directly from Singularity University.