The first time I heard about Dr. Ray Kurzweil was in early 2006.
Back then, a very good friend of mine hosted an excellent weekly culture program on the local radio station.
The program discussed general topics on science, history, myths and others, and one day I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to join the program for one episode that was to discuss Artificial Intelligence.
I had been introduced to the basics of A.I through my computer science degree, and I acquired a rookie understanding of the (then) current situation of Artificial Intelligence: What problems had been solved, what challenges remained, and what paths could be followed.
Needless to say, these lectures were among the ones I enjoyed the most in my university days, and were respected even after the ‘occasional’ student’s night out.
One of the topics I wanted to bring forward on the radio program, was just how far I believed reality was from science fiction.
Every time I tried to consider entities such as KITT, HAL or Arnie as future real possibilities, I couldn’t help thinking how complex it would be to build these super beings with a combination of LISP, Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, Robotics, Computer Vision, and any other AI related technology.
Could it even be possible?
I always though that we wouldn’t survive long enough to find out.
During my research for the program, I stumbled upon some of Dr. Kurzweil’s articles and books.
His view was that not only such technology advances will come, but in fact that they will come with such celerity, that, if not controlled from a very early stage, they could pose a threat to humanity.
Dr. Kurzweil fundamentally spoke about a moment of singularity, in which an unprecedented technological progress will take place, and in which, for example, AI entities could evolve with no human intervention.
It still all seemed closer to science fiction than computer science to me back then, but the other day I spotted Dr. Kurzweil’s name among the daily news headlines.
Together with an impressive list of computer science heavyweights, such as Google, NASA or the International Space University, Dr. Kurzweil has fathered the birth of the Singularity University.
As the university’s website explains, it is born with the goal to prepare tomorrow’s leaders and main actors for the technological singularity, and to give them the preparation they need to “apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges”.
The university will offer a 9 week graduate studies program, which covers the main technological fields that can take us to the next level.
Among the people involved, we find such names as Vint Cerf (the “father” of the Internet) or Peter Norvig, which certainly adds depth and credibility to this ambitious project.
I still believe that we are very far away from the significant technological shift that Dr. Kurzweil mentions, but with so many creative and brilliant minds awaiting to be even more enriched by the Singularity University, who knows, we may be closer than we think…
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Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Singularity University