The Singularity Is Near, C-SPAN2, 4pm

[The2ndWheel]

http://www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=6455&schedID=401

Description: Ray Kurzweil talks about the rapid advancements in technology and the possible implications of this for our future. Mr. Kurzweil also explains how technology evolves and demonstrates how, with this understanding, he has been able to successfully predict things like the worldwide use of the internet decades before most people even knew what it was. Mr. Kurzweil also talks about the potential for nanotechnology and addresses concerns that an increased reliance on technology will be bad for humanity. This talk was hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. Includes Q&A.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Thanks!

Worth watching again!


BookTV Schedule January 14 - 17
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[rainy]

2. I saw part of this today and it is alarming to say the least!

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Alarming? Why?

People think The Singularity is something like the nerds' version of The Rapture. It isn't. It's simply the name given for a stage of information growth that outpaces the physical capacity to contain it -- as in not having enough bits and bytes to hold it all, let alone allow it all to "compute". It has been described, metaphorically, as an event horizon, not a black hole. Or, perhaps, a bottleneck that automatically widens the neck of the bottle.

The Singularity will be the next "revolution", like the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

--p!