Singularity.FM

Today I have Douglas Rushkoff as my guest at Singularity Podcast and we discuss a variety of topics such as his most recent book Program or Be Programmed, the impact of modern media and social networking, technology in general and the technological singularity in particular. Who is Douglas Rushkoff? Douglas […]

Today I have Douglas Rushkoff as my guest at Singularity Podcast and we discuss a variety of topics such as his most recent book Program or Be Programmed, the impact of modern media and social networking, technology in general and the technological singularity in particular. Who is Douglas Rushkoff? Douglas Rushkoff is an author, teacher, […]

It was an interesting and enriching contrast to have John Horgan as my guest at Singularity Podcast. Following Jason Silva's super impassioned and optimistic defense of the singularity, accompanied by Jason's belief that humanity will eventually conquer death and accomplish immortality,  it was intellectually stimulating to discuss the opposite point of view. John is perhaps the best known critic of both Ray Kurzweil and the technological singularity, and in the spirit of Singularity Symposium, I invited him to present some of his views and criticisms here at Singularity Weblog. As always, Socrates asks the questions, my guests such as John and Jason provide their answers, and then you make up your mind on your own. (That is not to say that I don't have an opinion of my own for I clearly do. It is just that I don't think you must put that much value in it really...) Who is John Horgan? John Horgan is a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey. A former senior writer at Scientific American, he has also written for The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and many other publications around the world. Currently John writes the Cross-check Blog for Scientific American, does video chats for Bloggingheads.tv and writes a column for BBC Knowledge. Many of John's publications have received international coverage, including front-page reviews and news articles. His first book The End Of Science: Facing The Limits Of Knowledge In The Twilight Of The Scientific Age was a bestseller translated into 13 languages. His follow up The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation was a finalist for the 2000 British Mind Book of the Year and has been translated into eight languages. Related articles Jason Silva on Singularity Podcast: Let Your Ideas Be Noble, Poetic and Beautiful (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com)

It was an interesting and enriching contrast to have John Horgan as my guest at Singularity Podcast. Following Jason Silva‘s super impassioned and optimistic defense of the singularity, accompanied by Jason’s belief that humanity will eventually conquer death and accomplish immortality,  it was intellectually stimulating to discuss the opposite point […]

It was an interesting and enriching contrast to have John Horgan as my guest at Singularity Podcast. Following Jason Silva‘s super impassioned and optimistic defense of the singularity, accompanied by Jason’s belief that humanity will eventually conquer death and accomplish immortality,  it was intellectually stimulating to discuss the opposite point of view. John is perhaps […]

In today's edition of Singularity Podcast I've had the privilege of doing an interview with Jason Silva. I enjoyed talking to Jason immensely and have to admit that I was fascinated by his impassioned, enthusiastic and poetic take on the singularity and our reach for immortality. If there is one thing, however, that I will personally keep from this first conversation with Silva, it will be the following long but absolutely profound quote from the Imaginary Foundation that he shared with me during the interview: "We live in a society in which spurious realities are constructed by the media, by governments and by big corporations. We are bombarded with pseudo realities fabricated by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated mechanisms. Perhaps for many designers irony is the only possible response to a media space where it’s impossible to distinguish reality from manipulation. Yet the imaginary foundation is future-focused, and always has been, so we’re exploring what comes after we push through the darkness; we’re already revelling in the beauty on the other side of the looking glass. And believe me, it’s wonderful. Living creatively and joyfully requires dismissing gloom, defeatism and negativism. We acknowledge problems, but we do not allow them to dominate our thinking and our direction. So we prefer to be for rather than against, to create solutions rather than to protest against what exists. There are things worth believing in; there are things worth being passionate about; and so our action must not be a reaction but a creation. For ideas catch the dewdrops and reflect the cosmos, so let those ideas be noble, let them be poetic and let them be beautiful." Who is Jason Silva? You might recognize Venezuela-born Jason Silva from his work hosting shows for Al Gore's Emmy-winning Current TV network—and from his Gap's Icon campaign billboards. What you probably don't know, however, is that he is also a documentarian obsessed with the intersection of science, technology, and art, and is working on a new film called Turning Into Gods. Check out the concept teaser trailer edited by Jason Silva and Sean Puglisi and follow Jason on Twitter to find out when the movie comes out: Related articles by Zemanta Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Aubrey de Grey's Singularity Podcast: Longevity Escape Velocity Maybe Closer Than We Think (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: George Dvorsky on Transhumanism and the Singularity (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Kevin Warwick on Singularity Podcast: You Have To Take Risks To Be Part Of The Future (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com)

In today’s edition of Singularity Podcast I’ve had the privilege of doing an interview with Jason Silva. I enjoyed talking to Jason immensely and have to admit that I was fascinated by his impassioned, enthusiastic and poetic take on the singularity and our reach for immortality. If there is one […]

In today’s edition of Singularity Podcast I’ve had the privilege of doing an interview with Jason Silva. I enjoyed talking to Jason immensely and have to admit that I was fascinated by his impassioned, enthusiastic and poetic take on the singularity and our reach for immortality. If there is one thing, however, that I will […]

In a recent blog post I asked: Does Technology Make Us Smart or Stupid? At least part of my motivation for asking the question was a result of watching a thought provoking must-see PBS Frontline documentary by Douglas Rushkoff called Digital Nation, which examined many of the pros and cons of the internet and modern […]

In today's edition of Singularity Podcast I had the privilege of doing an hour long interview with the first cyborg -- Prof. Kevin Warwick. I enjoyed talking to Prof. Warwick immensely and got him to share his views on a wide variety of topics such as human and artificial intelligence, robotics, the technological singularity, God, the beginning of the universe and so on. Also, during the interview Kevin Warwick threw a friendly challenge towards Ray Kurzweil by asking: "Why is it that Ray hasn't experimented with implant technology yet?" Enjoy! Who is Kevin Warwick? Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, England, where he carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and cyborgs. As well as publishing over 500 research papers, Kevin’s experiments into implant technology led to him being featured as the cover story on the US magazine Wired. He has been awarded higher doctorates (DSc) both by Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and has received Honorary Doctorates from Aston University, Bradford University and Coventry University. He was presented with The Future of Health Technology Award in MIT, was made an Honorary Member of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, received The IEE Senior Achievement Medal and the Mountbatten Medal. In 2000 Kevin presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, entitled “The Rise of the Robots”. Kevin’s most recent research involves the invention of an intelligent deep brain stimulator to counteract the effects of Parkinson Disease tremors. Another project involves the use of biological neural networks to drive robots around. Kevin is though best known for his pioneering experiments involving a neuro-surgical implantation into the median nerves of his left arm to link his nervous system directly to a computer. He was successful with the first extra-sensory (ultrasonic) input for a human and with the first purely electronic telegraphic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans -- himself and his wife Irena. For more information you can visit Kevin Warwick's Official Site: http://www.kevinwarwick.com/ Related articles by Zemanta Singularity Podcast: George Dvorsky on Transhumanism and the Singularity (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Aubrey de Grey's Singularity Podcast: Longevity Escape Velocity Maybe Closer Than We Think (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Michael Anissimov's Podcast: Singularity Without Compromise (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: Vernor Vinge and Cory Doctorow on NPR (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) James Harvey's Singularity Podcast: We are Singularia (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Kevin Warwick: The First Cyborg (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Kevin Warwick's Cyborg Experiments (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com)

In today’s edition of Singularity Podcast I had the privilege of doing an hour long interview with the first cyborg — Prof. Kevin Warwick. I enjoyed talking to Prof. Warwick immensely and got him to share his views on a wide variety of topics such as human and artificial intelligence, […]

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Aubrey de Grey. He is a world famous and controversial author and theoretician in the field of gerontology and is currently serving as a chief science officer at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) foundation. During his interview for singularity podcast, Dr. de Grey shared his views on a wide spectrum of topics such as his concept of longevity escape velocity as well as aging, religion, artificial intelligence, the technological singularity, Ray Kurzweil, human uploading and others. You can listen to or download the full interview above. To find out more about Dr. Aubrey de Grey click here. To see Christopher Syke's full documentary about the controversial gerontologist watch Do You Want to Live Forever? To find out more about the SENS foundation click the banner below. So, do you want to live forever? Related articles by Zemanta Singularity Podcast: Barry Ptolemy on Transcendent Man (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Michael Anissimov's Podcast: Singularity Without Compromise (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) James Harvey's Singularity Podcast: We are Singularia (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Singularity Podcast: Vernor Vinge and Cory Doctorow on NPR (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Aubrey de Grey at TEDMED (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com) Jason Silva on Singularity Podcast: Let Your Ideas Be Noble, Poetic and Beautiful (singularityblog.singularitysymposium.com)

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Aubrey de Grey. He is a world famous and controversial author and theoretician in the field of gerontology and is currently serving as a chief science officer at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) foundation. During his interview for singularity […]

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Aubrey de Grey. He is a world famous and controversial author and theoretician in the field of gerontology and is currently serving as a chief science officer at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) foundation. During his interview for singularity podcast, Dr. de Grey shared […]

In today’s podcast episode I had the privilege of doing an hour-long interview with the first cyborg — Prof. Kevin Warwick. I enjoyed talking to Prof. Warwick immensely and got him to share his views on a wide variety of topics such as human and artificial intelligence, robotics, the technological singularity, God, the beginning of […]