Singularity University
When discussing the evolution of technology and more specifically the technological advancements and progression throughout the recent years, one of the highly recommended books is The Singularity is Near by Dr. Ray Kurzweil. In his book, Kurzweil attempts to “give a glimpse of what awaits us in the near future”. Ray has made some very accurate predictions while anticipating complete technological singularity by the year 2045 . However for his conclusion to be true, the following four postulates must be correct.
- Acceptance and striving for the idea of living forever
- The law of accelerating returns
- An objective measurement of cerebral processing power
- Sufficient medical advancements
In February 2009, Kurzweil, in cooperation with Google and the NASA Ames Research Center, announced the creation of Singularity University. The University’s self-described mission is to “assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges”.
Singularity University (SU) is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, SU hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. SU is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley.
Although Singularity University is not an accredited four-year university, it intended to supplement traditional educational institutions. The University offers 10 different academic tracks:
- Futures Studies and Forecasting
- Policy, Law and Ethics
- Finance and Entrepreneurship
- Networks and Computing Systems
- Biotechnology and Bioinformatics
- Nanotechnology
- Medicine, Neuroscience and Human Enhancement
- AI, Robotics, and Cognitive Computing
- Energy and Ecological Systems
- Space and Physical Sciences
The Universities mission to achieve academic success is through collaboration of students with each other. ”The biggest breakthroughs always come in the boundaries between the disciplines”, says Peter Diamandis.
Ray Kurzweil,Chancellor, Singularity University
We are now in the steep part of the exponential trajectory of information technologies in a broad variety of fields, including health, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. It is only these accelerating technologies that have the scale to address the major challenges of humanity ranging from energy and the environment to disease and poverty. With its strong focus on interdisciplinary learning, Singularity University is poised to foster the leaders who will create a uniquely creative and productive future world.”
