“The Day Before Something Is Truly A Breakthrough, It’s A Crazy Idea.”

The latest pie-eyed efforts toward making Skynet self-aware come from two of our all time favorite future-worshipping organizations. Paging John Connor:

Google and Nasa are throwing their weight behind a new school for futurists in Silicon Valley to prepare scientists for an era when machines become cleverer than people.

The new institution, known as “Singularity University”, is to be headed by Ray Kurzweil, whose predictions about the exponential pace of technological change have made him a controversial figure in technology circles.

Google and Nasa’s backing demonstrates the growing mainstream acceptance of Mr Kurzweil’s views, which include a claim that before the middle of this century artificial intelligence will outstrip human beings, ushering in a new era of civilisation.

The so-called “singularity” is a theorised period of rapid technological progress in the near future.

Proponents say that during the singularity, machines will be able to improve themselves using artificial intelligence and that smarter-than-human computers will solve problems including energy scarcity, climate change and hunger.

Yet many critics call the singularity dangerous. Some worry that a malicious artificial intelligence might annihilate the human race.

Mr Kurzweil said the university was launching now because many technologies were approaching a moment of radical advancement. “We’re getting to the steep part of the curve,” said Mr Kurzweil. “It’s not just electronics and computers. It’s any technology where we can measure the information content, like genetics(emphasis mine).”

“We are anchoring the university in what is in the lab today, with an understanding of what’s in the realm of possibility in the future,” said Mr Diamandis, who will be vice-chancellor. “The day before something is truly a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.”

Not much to say here. I think the story speaks for itself. Nothing like allowing self-aware advanced artificial intelligences to tamper with human genetic material to really get us where we need to be as a race.

Please send your copies of Terminator and The Matrix to:

Singularity University
NASA Research Park, Building 17
MS 566-120, Moffett Field, CA 94035