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Dr. Geordie Rose is a founder and Chief Technology Officer at D-Wave Computers. I met Geordie at the IdeaCity conference in Toronto where he made an impassioned presentation about D-Wave and quantum computing. Needless to say, as soon as Dr. Rose stoped speaking I rushed to ask him for an interview. As it turns out Geordie is already a fan of Singularity 1 on 1 and isntantly said that he would be happy to do it. As a father of three kids and the CTO of a trail-blazing quantum computing company, Dr. Rose is a very busy person. Yet somehow he was generous beyond measure in giving me over two hours for an interview with the apparent desire to address as many of mine and the audience's questions as possible. During our conversation with Geordie Rose we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: how wrestling competitively created an opportunity for him to discover Quantum Mechanics; why he decided to become an entrepreneur building computers at the edge of science and technology; what the name D-wave stands for; what is a quantum computer; why fabrication tech is the greatest limiting factor towards commoditizing quantum computing; hardware specs and interesting details around Vesuvius - D-Wave's latest model, and the kinds of problems it can compute; Rose's Law as the quantum computer version of Moore's Law; how D-wave resolves the de-coherence/interference problem; the traditional von Neumann architecture behind classical computer design and why D-Wave had to move beyond it; Vesuvius' computational power as compared to similarly priced classical super-computers and the inherent difficulties in accurate bench-marking; Eric Ladizinski's qubit and the velodrome metaphor used to describe it; the skepticism among numerous scientists as to whether D-Wave really makes quantum computers or not; whether Geordie feels occasionally like Charles Babbage trying to build his difference engine; his prediction that quantum computers will help us create AI by 2029; whether the brain is more like a classical or quantum computer; how you can apply for programming time on the two D-wave quantum computers; his take on the technological singularity... My three favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with Geordie Rose are: "Think about the Long Term and don't pay all that much attention to the issues of the day." "Machine learning is progressing faster than you think and will become more broadly available on shorter timescales than you might have hoped." "Becoming involved is not impossible! " (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)   Who is Geordie Rose? Dr. Geordie Rose is a founder and CTO of D-Wave. He is known as a leading advocate for quantum computing and physics-based processor design, and has been invited to speak on these topics in venues ranging from the 2003 TED Conference to the 2013 HPC User Forum. Geordie's innovative and ambitious approach to building quantum computing technology has received coverage in MIT Technology Review magazine, The Economist, New Scientist, Scientific American, Nature and Science magazines, and one of his business strategies was profiled in a Harvard Business School case study. He has received several awards and accolades for his work with D-Wave, including winning the 2011 Canadian Innovation Exchange Innovator of the Year award. Dr. Rose holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of British Columbia, specializing in quantum effects in materials. While at McMaster University, he graduated first in his class with a BEng in Engineering Physics, specializing in semiconductor engineering. He also is a two-time Canadian national wrestling champion, the 2010 NAGA Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, and a member of the McMaster University sports Hall of Fame.  

Dr. Geordie Rose is a founder and Chief Technology Officer at D-Wave Computers. I met Geordie at the IdeaCity conference in Toronto where he made an impassioned presentation about D-Wave and quantum computing. Needless to say, as soon as Dr. Rose stoped speaking I rushed to ask him for an interview. As […]

Dr. Geordie Rose is a founder and Chief Technology Officer at D-Wave Computers. I met Geordie at the IdeaCity conference in Toronto where he made an impassioned presentation about D-Wave and quantum computing. Needless to say, as soon as Dr. Rose stoped speaking I rushed to ask him for an interview. As it turns out Geordie is […]

Roman V. Yampolskiy is an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering and Director at the Cybersecurity Lab of the University of Louisville. He is also an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a visiting fellow of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). Dr. Yampolskiy is a well known researcher with a more holistic point of view, stressing the perils as much as the promises of exponential technology. Thus I was happy to bring him on Singularity 1 on 1 to try and bring some balance to our views of the future. During our conversation with Roman we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: our shared experience of growing up behind the Iron Curtain; his personal motivation and main goals; why he disagrees with Marvin Minsky on the progress made in Artificial Intelligence; why he loves the "brute force" approach to AI; the Turing Test and its implications for humanity; Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics; Hugo de Garis and the Artilect War; Samuel Butler and Ted Kaczynski; his upcoming book Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach; the chances for a "soft" or "hard" take-off of the technological singularity… (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)   Who is Roman Yampolskiy? Roman V. Yampolskiy holds a PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. There he was a recipient of a four year NSF (National Science Foundation) IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellowship. Before beginning his doctoral studies Dr. Yampolskiy received a BS/MS (High Honors) combined degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA. After completing his PhD dissertation Dr. Yampolskiy held a position of an Affiliate Academic at the Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University of London, College of London. In 2008 Dr. Yampolskiy accepted an assistant professor position at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville, KY. He had previously conducted research at the Laboratory for Applied Computing (currently known as Center for Advancing the Study of Infrastructure) at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Yampolskiy is also an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a visiting fellow of the Singularity Institute, recently renamed MIRI. Dr. Yampolskiy’s main areas of interest are behavioral biometrics, digital forensics, pattern recognition, genetic algorithms, neural networks, artificial intelligence and games. Dr. Yampolskiy is an author of over 100 publications including multiple journal articles and books. His research has been cited by numerous scientists and profiled in popular magazines both American and foreign (New Scientist, Poker Magazine, Science World Magazine), dozens of websites (BBC, MSNBC, Yahoo! News) and on radio (German National Radio, Alex Jones Show). Reports about his work have attracted international attention and have been translated into many languages including Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Spanish.

Roman V. Yampolskiy is an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering and Director at the Cybersecurity Lab of the University of Louisville. He is also an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a visiting fellow of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). Dr. Yampolskiy is a well known researcher with a […]

Roman V. Yampolskiy is an Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering and Director at the Cybersecurity Lab of the University of Louisville. He is also an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a visiting fellow of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). Dr. Yampolskiy is a well known researcher with a more holistic point of view, […]

Joseph Carvalko is a lawyer with many decades of experience who bravely sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States for deserting a POW in Korea. Carvalko is also an engineer and inventor with 10 patents in fields spanning bio-medicine, electronics and the financial services. Joseph […]

Joseph Carvalko is a lawyer with many decades of experience who bravely sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States for deserting a POW in Korea. Carvalko is also an engineer and inventor with 10 patents in fields spanning bio-medicine, electronics and the financial services. Joseph is the author of an interesting and very well researched book titled The Techno-Human Shell: A Jump in the Evolutionary Gap, as well as a poet, jazz pianist and a cyborg. And so it wasn't hard to see that Carvalko would make a great guest for Singularity 1 on 1 the moment I met him. During our conversation with Joseph we cover a variety of interesting topics such as:  his unique path to starting up a legal practice as a trial lawyer; how and why he sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States, and his consequent book We Were Beautiful Once; the story of how he himself became a cyrborg as the genesis for The Techno-Human Shell; whether copyright and patents hurt or promote progress; NSA surveillance programs such as PRISM; the Turing Test and legal rights for Artificial Intelligence; his take on the technological singularity… (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)   Who is Joseph Carvalko? Joe Carvalko, born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, has traveled throughout the world and lived variously between the Southwest, Mid-west, the South, and the Northeast coast. He writes about his experience across a wide variety of genres including, fiction, poetry, science, technology and law. Most recently Carvalko authored We Were Beautiful Once: Chapters from a Cold War (Sunbury Press, 2013), a fiction inspired by a case he tried against the U.S. government for an accounting of a Korean War soldier it claimed was MIA. The trial was featured in a 2004 documentary Missing, Presumed Dead: The Search For America’s POWs narrated by Ed Asner. Joe also authored The Techno-Human Shell: A Jump in the Evolutionary Gap (Sunbury Press, 2012), about how future medical technology will transform us into part cyborg. In 2012, he was one of two finalists for the Red Mountain Press, top poetry honors for The Interior; and one of three finalists for the 2012 Esurance Poetry prize for The Road Home. In 2007 he authored A Road Once Traveled: Life From All Sides, a narrative on the fabric of American life, and 2004 he authored A Deadly Fog, poems, essays and short stories about war in America. Currently Carvalko is under contract to publish Law, Science and Technology for American Bar Association Publishing. Shortly, Anapora Literary Press will publish Notes Out Of Time-Verse In Five Moments, a memoir in poetry. When not writing, he is Adjunct Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University, School of Law, a member of the Community Bioethics Forum, Yale School of Medicine and a member of the Yale Technology and Ethics working group, a jazz pianist and a member of a pride of four 4 cats. Related articles Ann Cavoukian on Singularity 1 on 1: We have to protect privacy globally or we protect it nowhere!

Joseph Carvalko is a lawyer with many decades of experience who bravely sued the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States for deserting a POW in Korea. Carvalko is also an engineer and inventor with 10 patents in fields spanning bio-medicine, electronics and the financial services. Joseph is the author of an […]

Last month I had the privilege of visiting Max More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. [Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so.] During our visit CEO Dr. More walked us through the Alcor facilities as well as the process starting after clinical death is proclaimed, through the cooling of the body and its vitrification, and ending in long term storage. My selfish reason for visiting was making sure that my big bald head fits well in the neuro-patient's storage containers. Thus I was happy that Max explained the differences between neuro and whole body preservation and showed us the cryo-tanks where 117 patients are in long term storage. I owe very special thanks to Richard and Tatiana Sundvall for producing this video because without them it would not have happened. I am also obliged to videographer Carl Geers not only for doing a great job behind the camera but also for putting up with my mercilessly caustic sense of humor for three long days.   After our video tour of Alcor CEO Max More was kind enough to take another 25 minutes and answer some questions. During our conversation with Max we discuss: general affordability and prices for Alcor; long-distance membership and why minimizing cooling delays is critical for optimum body preservation; preserving pets; chemical brain preservation; the importance of preserving the neuron's micro-tubules; the potential for X-prize-type of a competition for minimizing tissue damage and improving preservation; the relationship between cryonics and transhumanism. My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Max More is: "Cryonics is critical care medicine taken to the next step." (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)   Special Bonus: Alcor is offering one year of Associate Membership to anyone who "Likes" these videos on YouTube or shares them on any social network. This does not guarantee that you will be cryopreserved should something unexpected and lethal happen to you, but does make it easier to make arrangements in an emergency. For more information see: http://www.alcor.org/BecomeMember/associate.html. Just contact Diane Cremeens at diane@alcor.org and mention "SingularityWeblogBonus" to receive your free Associate Membership. [Offer valid till Dec 31, 2013]   Related articles Question Everything: Max More on Singularity 1 on 1 Cryonics: The Meaning and Story of Cryogenic Biostasis Ken Hayworth on Singularity 1 on 1: Brain Preservation is the Logical Lifeboat

Last month I had the privilege of visiting Max More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. [Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to […]

Last month I had the privilege of visiting Max More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. [Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the […]

Peter Joseph is a musician, film-maker and social activist best known as the man behind the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist movement. Peter’s films have become a counter-culture phenomenon on the internet and have had millions of views.  He has not shied away from controversy and has […]

Peter Joseph is a musician, film-maker and social activist best known as the man behind the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist movement. Peter's films have become a counter-culture phenomenon on the internet and have had millions of views.  He has not shied away from controversy and has dared to push a strong vision for the future. Eventually his audience turned into a global movement aimed at replacing capitalism with a radically new social system based on a Resource Based Economy (RBE). And so I was very happy to have Peter Joseph on my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast in order to discuss and debate his past work, his vision of our future and his proposed solutions. During our 75 minute conversation with Peter we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he sees himself as a social critic and an optimist; his goals and motivation; Zeitgeist - the meaning, the movies and the movement; the major projects Peter is currently working on - e.g. the Global Redesign Institute; the schism between the Zeitgeist movement and the Venus Project; my take on the film trilogy and Peter's logic for structuring his argument the way he did; the measure and meaning of progress; the natural world and being in sync with it; RBE, Capitalism, sustainability and central planning; the role of Artificial Intelligence within the Zeitgeist vision of the future; Peter's take on the technological singularity... (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above, or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.  If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation)   Who is Peter Joseph? Peter Joseph (B. 1979, Winston-Salem, NC, USA) is an American Musician,Filmmaker, Author and Social Activist; best known worldwide as the creator of the award-winning "Zeitgeist Film Series" and founder of the "The Zeitgeist Movement", a social sustainability advocacy group which currently operates across the world. He also founded and curates the Annual Zeitgeist Media Festival for the arts and is on the Advisory Board/Steering Committee for "Project-Peace on Earth". Apart from ongoing feature film projects, Joseph launched a free, TV style web-series called Culture in Decline in July of 2012, which has been translated into over 25 languages & has received critical acclaim and scored millions of online views. A pioneer in free, open-distribution media, Joseph's work supports non-profit, unrestricted syndication via free online viewing and free downloads. He conducts such work via his production company: Gentle Machine Productions LLC. Joseph has lectured around the world, including the UK, Canada, America, Brazil & Israel, on the subjects of cultural/social sustainability, the importance of critical thought, and the social role of the arts and scientific literacy. He was a featured speaker at the 2011 Leaders Causing Leaders Conference and his work has been profiled in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Marker, Free Speech TV, The Young Turks, Hollywood Today and many other media outlets. He has participated in multiple TEDx Events, has worked with The Global Summit and is also a frequent social critic on the news network Russia Today. As far as activism, apart from The Zeitgeist Movement, he identifies, in part, with emerging counter-culture organizations, such as Occupy Wall St. and has spoken at official OWS gathers in Los Angeles and New York City, along with smaller ones as well. His films have been mentioned in conjunction with Occupy in many contexts, including  "Film for Actions" editorial: The Top 10 Films that Explain Why the Occupy Movement Exists, along with "A Movie Guide to Occupy Wall Street" by Laurene Williams. Joseph is also an active musician and performs around Los Angeles, CA where he currently resides. In short, Joseph's broad focus is on media related expressions with the intent of affecting society in a positive way.   Related articles

Peter Joseph is a musician, film-maker and social activist best known as the man behind the Zeitgeist film trilogy and the founder of the Zeitgeist movement. Peter’s films have become a counter-culture phenomenon on the internet and have had millions of views.  He has not shied away from controversy and has dared to push a strong […]