I’ve been at more than a few singles event at the 92nd Street YMHA during my solo period. Just to be clear, the Singularity Summit that’s being held at the Y this weekend will bring together AI researchers, neuroscientists, mathematicians, robotocists, and Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings to share their thoughts and extrapolations on silicon-based computing.
Singularity is not a new form of speed dating, but refers to the possibility that at some point computers will think, dream, and create new technologies, leaving mankind behind and perhaps treating us at best as some kind of vestigial organ.
I’ll be attending this two-day event, and plan on doing some live blogging/tweeting as I listen to an impressive roster of speakers.
Besides Ken Jennings, who will talk on matching wits with IBM’s Watson, there’ll be presentations by the incredible versatile neuroscientist Christof Koch on the mathematics of consciousness, MIT astrophysicist and multi-verse specialist Max Tegmark on the future of life, MIT Media Lab researcher Alexander Wissner-Gross on something called planetary-scale computing, and the Singularity Institute co-founder Eliezer Yudkowsky will be musing on benevolent smarter-than-human machines.
Speaking as a human, I’m totally excited to be a the Summit, which will be a nice break from my usual staple of hackathons and pitches.
Random thought: can some of these Singularity talks get funding?