Singularity Summit Promises to Stimulate Your Brain

The Singularity Summit, held in San Francisco this past weekend, is not new to me since I helped market the very first one, which was held at Stanford in 2006. The goal of the first Summit was to further the understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress.

The idea over time is to improve people’s thinking about the future and increasing public awareness of radical technologies under development today and of the transformative implications of such technologies understood as part of a larger process.

It was founded as a venue for leading thinkers to explore the subject, whether that be as a scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic.

Speaking of skeptics, the last talk of the event was by James Randi, who some think of as a magician, but he is also known as a debunker.

I first learned of Randi's work at TED where he spoke several years ago. The title defunker equates to his strong and very vocal skepticism, which he writes and speaks about extensively. Fascinating as ever, Randi has the ability to draw you into his logic even if you don't necessarily agree with him.

Gregory Stock is a renown biophysicist who I had the pleasure of meeting at PopTech in Maine more than five years ago. What I love about Stock is his ability to move from academic, physicist and author to entrepreneur and philosopher all within a one hour window. He also has a very engaging curiosity about random things outside his world when you talk to him one-on-one that most experts lack. He wrote the book Redesigning Humans, which is considered a transhumanist classic, now eight years ago.

You can't have a Singularity Conference without a bunch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) geeks running around, which at this event, included Eliezer Yudkowsky (also a profilic writer about human rationality), Ben Goertzel, who is Chief Scientist of AI firm Novamente and Ray Kurzweil, who joined us remotely via video and as always, delivered a rivoting and mind-expanding talk.

My favorite line all day was a Kurzweil one: "My feelings about the brain, the mind and AI - If it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. If it seems conscious it is conscious" -- meaning a conscious being.

Below Ben Goertzel on the Singularity Summit Stage

Psychologists Irene Pepperberg and John Tooby (considered a pioneer of evolutionary psychology) also brought their perspective to the table as did neurobiologists Terrence Sejnowski, Brian Litt, Dennis Bray and Demis Hassabis, who is a research fellow at the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at the University College of London.

"Futurists like to predict how genetic engineering and computational implants will allow humans to become a super-species, but few examine the application of similar technologies to nonhumans," says Pepperberg.

David Hanson, who I first met at TED more than six years ago, is a well known roboticist. When I first met him, he was working at Disney Imagineering and while you may not think of a roboticist as an artist, this one is. Formerly a sculptor, he has merged his artistic way of looking at the world with his left brain ability to design and develop a robot with human-like expressive capabilities. He holds a patent on Frubber, a novel material that imitates the look and feel of human skin. I had an opportunity to touch it while I was talking to their very human robot named Zeno. (a video of my experience coming later this month).

Below David Hanson and his very human-like robot Zeno, who has a sexy British accent and has accepted a date with me as soon as he is given 'legs' - I told David I'd fly to Dallas for the occasion.

Also on the agenda was Anita Goel, who works at the intersection of physics, nanotechnology and medicine, Lance Becker, a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Venezuelan born Jose Luis Cordeiro who is the Director of the Venezuela node of the Millenium Project. Jose, who I met at the cocktail party the night before the event, has been working in Asia. Prior to that however, he lived in Ecuador for a year around the time the currency changed over to the dollar.

Engaging and witty on stage, Steve Mann doesn't look like your ordinary professor. A pioneer in the study and practice of virtual reality, he has been dubbed the world's first cyborg. He even published a book with its name in the title: Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer. Together with collaborator Ryan Janzen, a Canadian researcher, scientist and composer, they demoed the very powerful and mesmorizing Hydraulophone, a tonal acoustic musical instrument played by direct physical contact with water where sound is generated or affected hydraulically.

Below Toronto-based Steve Mann is engaging, interactive and wows the audience with his examples of virtual reality and demo of the Hydraulophone on stage.

Other impressive talks from other disciplines included Shane Legg, who won the 2008 Canadian Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research Prize, Ellen Heber-Katz whose research focuses on molecular biology and genetics of healing, and Ramez Naam, who is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement.

Since I'm a right brain, I must admit that my favorite part of the day was playing the Hydraulophone, which I'm doing below with Ryan Janzen's guidance and interacting with Hanson's robot, the very endearing Zeno.

Breaking Through with Tony Robbins on National Network NBC

“Breakthrough” is a new summer reality show on NBC with Tony Robbins, which started last week. Many know Tony from his empowerment seminars and audiotapes, which are marketed worldwide, making Tony Robbins synonymous with motivation and life coaching. He has also written books and for years, held 2 day to week long seminars on getting your life on track and creating empowering choices in your life, whether that be around relationships, finance or your professional 'destiny.'

Given that I have done a number of Tony Robbins seminars myself and have met him personally on more than one occasion, the way he is often portrayed in the press doesn't do him justice, nor is it always accurate. People still respond to old infomercials from twenty years ago - a bit like pigeon-holing Ron Howard into his role as Richie in Happy Days when years later, he has gone on to become producer and director of well-known respected films.

C'mon people, move on - haven't you progressed in your career development and the things you have done in the past two decades? Tony has come a LONG way since the late-night infomercials he did early on in his career. Today, he spends his life work not just running seminars that help change people's lives for the better, but he coaches major luminaries, politicians, sports heroes and Hollywood celebs as well. Additionally, he has a non-profit foundation, which provides assistance to the homeless, elderly and inner-city youth, and feeds more than one million people in nine countries every year through its international holiday "Basket Brigade."

The New York Times article on his NBC debut writes, "Mr. Robbins is well spoken and persuasive, but the series is a reminder of how unusual his looks are for a man in the counseling field. Enormously tall, dark, with big teeth, high cheekbones and the hint of a five o’clock shadow, Mr. Robbins looks more dangerous than safe and more wolfish than shepherdly; he could pass for a Bond villain."

Anyone who knows Tony personally would be in stitches over this description......I still laugh at it re-reading it the fifth time around. Clearly the reporter hasn't met him if they think he could pass as a Bond villain after looking in his eyes or shaking his hand. But yes, Tony is tall and has a powerful presence. But, given her reference, it makes it seem like all counselors should be shepherdly and safe. Egads. Think about it, if you're a type A athlete who is muscular and 6 foot something, might you not want a personal development life coach who can not only get you to deal with where you're stuck emotionally, but also physically match you?

I'm not a professional athlete nor am I over six foot tall and I know I'd opt for someone with Tony's energy and presence than a shepherdly, safe counselor who what, starts the clock, stares at and listens to you from across the couch for 59 minutes until the bell rings? Hell, that's not what I call transformative work even though I'm not discounting that it can be helpful for some people along their life's journey. Bottom line, there are more effective techniques and approaches out there and Tony has mastered them.

It's time to rethink the paradigm and rethink the speed at which we CAN change our lives and break our old patterns. Transformation can be almost immediate. What I mean by this is that change happens the moment you make a DECISION to make change your patterns - really make that decision.

There are countless things that Tony walks people through in his seminars to break your patterns and create a life worth living but the big one is this: Rewrite Your Story.

A rewrite isn't done by seeing a shrink for months or years on end trying to analyze why your story is what it is and slowly migrating from an old you to a new one. It happens the moment you DECIDE to rewrite that story. It's yours to create and his point is a simple one - you're the author, so why not write an incredible life story?

Some kudos for Tony's new show below. And yes, as it may appear from my tone, I am also a fan of his work. More at Breakthrough Insider.

Meet Bob Tasca Jr., Son of Ford Racing Legend Bob Tasca

I was in Detroit last week and bumped into Bob Tasca Jr. at the Dearborn Inn pub one evening. Like everyone else in the pub at the time, I was there to visit Ford's headquarters for a Media Day. Bob is the son of Ford racing legend Bob Tasca Sr. who passed away this past January. He is credited with bringing us the Cobra Jet 428 engine. In the 1960s, he became frustrated at watching potential buyers leave his Rhode Island dealership because they thought the Mustang "just wasn't fast enough." So, he made the car faster by creating their own engine: Cobra Jet 428. Tasca is also credited with helping create the Ford Thunderbolt drag racing car. More about them at Tasca.com and TascaRacing.com.

Below are a few videos I shot -- me directly asking Tasca questions and also observing conversation at the Dearborn Inn pub where other Ford dealers who came in and other car industry folks recognized Tasca. Every industry has their legends. Learn more about this one and Bob's passion for Ford cars - he seemed committed to seeing me in a blue Ford Mustang convertible this year.

TEDxChange to Look at Millenium Goals

TEDx and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have teamed up for a very special TEDx project -- TEDxChange. TEDxChange marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the eight Millennium Development Goals set out by the UN to tackle global issues such as poverty, child mortality and disease.

Convened by Melinda French Gates and featuring talks by some of the world's most inspired thinkers and doers, TEDxChange will look at what changes have taken place in the last decade, and what more needs to be done to ensure the health and well-being of future generations.

On September 20, 2010, leaders around the world will take a look at where we are ten years in: where does the global community stand in the work to save and improve lives around the world? And what does the future hold? They'll be having a live TEDxChange webcast so you can tune in as well.

Linchpins are Everywhere: Dive for Cover!!

Linchpins Everywhere, Linchpins Everywhere -- dive for cover!! Seth Godin's latest book: Linchpin which I am 75% the way through, is one of his best. It is written in Seth's usual free flowing style with conviction and passion throughout but manages to call you to action on every page. I plan to post a book review once I turn the very last page.

As always, he's straight forward. There are chapter subheads like: Where do you hide your brilliance? When did the resistance take over your life? Where do you put the fear? And, who are you trying to please?

He's also funny: Would Shakespeare blog? From Superhero to Mediocreman (and Back Again), The Problem with Bowling, Throwing Yourself Under the Bus, and Why the Lizard Brain Wants You to be Stuck?

Tony Robbins uses a figure eight metaphor to refer to our "stuck-ness". There we are climbing the ladder towards brilliance, creativity and joy and just before we get there, we sabotage yourself because emotionally, it is as much as your 'lizard brain' can handle). In order to feel safe, sabotage sets in and down you go back to the bottom of that figure 8 circle until you're so bored, frustrated, sad and pissed off that you fight your way back up again until lizard brain takes over and the cycle repeats itself.

This week, I decided to go to an unofficial Linchpin meet-up because frankly I love Godin's work, his writing, his thinking and this damn book. It turns out and little did I know, that 819 of these events are scheduled across the world and many have already happened.

Below is a video I shot at the end, where individuals came to the front of San Francisco's Georges' bar and pitched their "linchpin" project in 60 seconds to attendees. By "linchpin" project, I am referring to their passion, the thing that brings out their talent and brilliance, the thing that calls their authentic voice, and the thing that makes their hearts sing. The group was a combination of entrepreneurs, bloggers and non-profit evangelists. Have a listen:

Facebook's Zuckerberg On Privacy, Plug-Ins & Personalization

People were anxious to see Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on the D Conference stage this past Wednesday night, where Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher interviewed him in front of several hundred movers and shakers in the technology industry. The eagerness was no grave surprise given the recent surge of media attention around Facebook's privacy policies.

At the end of the day, it's not just about whether your privacy settings are in place, it's about ensuring consumers know about them and prompting them to proactively set them up in a way where they feel their privacy is protected.

Kara asks Zuckerberg, "is there a level of privacy that applies to everyone?" Far too scripted and programmed, he starts off with a statement that suggests Faceook takes privacy seriously. Hmmmm, starting when you heard you were going to be on stage in front of some pretty influential people?

He dodges the real issue, which again, is not so much whether a policy is in place, but proactively letting consumers know they should check their privacy settings again and again, and proactively letting consumers know where and how their data will be used, again and again. And, making it dead simple to understand what the settings mean for each feature.

Zuckerberg reminds the audience that simple privacy control has always been part of Facebook from the beginning. He throws out a stat to support his claim - "more than 50% of Facebook users has changed a privacy setting at some point while on Facebook. It's a signal that on a whole, we've got it right." Hmmmm, I'd say they've got it right when that 50% number moves to 90% or higher.

Kara asks, "do you think that it's just a backlash? Do you feel that you're violating people's privacy?"

Another dodging of the bullet. "Now," says Zuckerkberg, "we're trying to extend things outside Facebook. We want to build people-centric apps so we're doing more social plug-ins, which means you can easily and quickly insert a single line of code into your site, adding personalization in a matter of minutes." He adds, "over 200,000 sites have started to use social plug-ins and social engagement has gone up two fold. Personalization is the other side - we're trying to make it so that all these sites are designed around people, with people at the core.

At one point, he went back to the original story of how and where Facebook started in his college dorm room, obviously an awkward moment where he felt uncomfortable in his skin, or at least his skin in front of hundreds of eyes and ears who wanted some hard answers. It was out of context and his meandering at times made him sound and look defensive. I wished he did the right PR move in this situation, which was frankly just to address the situation head on, be authentic, talk about what happened and what they plan to do to fix things moving forward.

I was thinking - 'instead of an overly rehearsed script, just engage us Mark.' Perhaps something along the lines of: "you know, we made some mistakes. This is where we went wrong, this is what we did wrong, this is what we learned and what we could have done differently. That said, we care about our customers, we're listening to them, we made a mistake, we're addressing it, turning the boat 180 degrees and we're on board. We understand that privacy is an important issue and that people view it differently in various parts of the world. As our user base grows around the world, we recognize that everyone has a different view of what privacy is, what content they want to show, to who and when. We get that, are learning from our customers along the way and will continue to adapt and adopt as we learn more. We heard you! Onward team of Facebook loyalists and fans. Together, let's move forward."

Perhaps a tad dramatic, but you get my point. Be AUTHENTIC, be honest and show your true colors so we can get a sense of whether we can trust you as the man leading the charge. I'd also add, unveil what's under the hood, and I don't mean his infamous hoodie, I mean the soul of his hood. On that note, he began to sweat and took off his hoodie while people snapped photos (as if he was George Clooney). Did I miss something?

The hoodie comes off

All that said, his voice had strength despite the meandering throughout and he did manage to get one rehearsed mantra right - one of their core values, which is that they are focused on people and that they're building things that will continue to put people at the core. He says, "when you go to a site like Pandora or Yelp, it's not immediately clear what you're going to get. We're doing a push around plug-ins and personalization - we think all these apps should have people central at the core.

"But," Walt pipes in and pushes back, "shouldn't people have a choice. Shouldn't they be making the decision?"

Zuckerberg returns to their core offering and value-add. "The direction that we're going is to build and drive apps around people. Yelp is an interesting example - there, what you really want is to see is what the friends you trust and like suggest, what they're connected to and why and what they give a thumbs up to."

Walt asks - "what is the social graph and how can it be monetized in a way that is fair so people can be included in it?" Says Zuckerberg, "it was our way of explaining what was happening in the world. We were just trying to map out the connections that people were having. We wanted to enable this broader platform so people can build games, and personalize things for them."

Kara asks, "how do you view your role in the graph? What kind of power are you in the graph?" Zuckerberg responds, "I think people rely on us to stay connected to their friends and people see us as the leader in that space. Having a half a billion users is certainly a milestone we're proud of - we're actually at the beginning not at the end. We grow because people refer their friends to the site. Everyone who signs up does so because a friend has referred them to the site. We'll continue to do what we think are the right changes, even if some are controversal."

They dive into the social graph a bit more. Walt asks, "how does the social graph become monetized?" Zuckerberg says, "the advertising will get much more relevant than in a lot of other systems really quickly. There are a lot of ads in the system so there's more to draw from. The other piece is around engagement and ads reflect that as well. A good example is what we're doing with Starbucks. The ad was designed to give free stuff away and people invited their friends to the Starbucks event." It turns out, at least in this case, that people are getting their friends involved in a company's events on the site which is really great for the brand.

Karas asks Zuckerberg whether he'll be the CEO when they go public. "YES," he says, and adds "the next two years will be more transformative than last two. There's so much we're doing around personalization and plug-ins and we're only at the beginning. There's so much still to do."

He wraps up by talking about the importance and growth of SMS, which he says is much more interesting than email. Insight into other things they're working on? He emphasizes how more and more people are posting status updates than blog posts."There's a huge opportunity to work on services that fuse shorter forms of communication and less formal stuff together." A valid point Mark and despite my earlier rant, he had a few good ones. He's no dummy - and clearly the man has passion. He just needs to loosen up a bit more and FEEL his audience rather than go on the defense, even when things heat up.

Zuckerberg's lack of experience and youth may be a detriment at times like this but hey, as as they say from a place of wisdom about the long road of life -it's all but a journey my friend. And let's face it, it's all about the journey; that dramatic, joyous and often bumpy journey of growth is the reward. Once you realize that, the wanna, shoulda, coulda, whata just fades away into the background like the unimportant noise it really is.

Steve Jobs on Flash, Mobile, Platforms, Sex & Developers

Steve Jobs is not only entertaining when he's front of a live audience, but he's engaging, passionate and you feel what he feels 'in the moment' when he speaks - at least that's how it is for me. For someone who cares more about delivering amazing products than quite possibly anyone in the technology industry, you can't help but have deep admiration and respect for the man, even if you disagree with his policies at times. For those who have attempted partnerships with Apple in the past, you know that it's not an easy place to navigate through from the outside, yet one point where it's hard not to agree - Steve Jobs has high standards and he doesn't deviate.

Last night, he was the opening act at the 8th annual D Conference (D: All Things Digital), a sold out event being held at a new venue this year, the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

You can't help but worry about his health given what he's been through in the last few years, and yet, while his body frame was thin as he walked onto the main stage, his presence was as powerful and present as ever. When asked about their market cap surpassing Microsoft, he only had one thing to say - "it's surreal." That said, he reminds us that it's not what matters at the end of day. It's not what keeps us coming to work everyday and continuing to build great products for people.

Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher interview Jobs together, starting with the flash controversy.

Steve uses the seasons as a useful analogy to explain why the decision they made isn't 'personal.' When you have limited resources, you need to pick technologies that are in the 'Spring Season,' he says. "Pick wisely and choose technologies that perform really well on your platform." In other words, you can't always choose all the horses to ride, sometimes you have to just pick the horse that perform the best on your platform. He speaks of HTML 5's growth, and the fact that there's been an avalanche of people using it.

Walt asks - "what about the consumers who go to a site on an iPad and see a big hole because it doesn't support Flash?" Steve says "those HOLES will be filled really quickly." Several companies I advise to and have talked to about HTML 5 in the last couple of months say their support for it is coming within six months, SO if the wait is really only six months or less, and consumers have a beautifully designed device to play with between now and then, support will be there well before the novelty of the iPad has worn off. At least that's the theory.

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash," says Steve. "We just made a technical decision not to use one of Adobe's products. We were getting tired of getting trashed in the press, so we decided to get our thoughts out there about the technical pros and cons of Flash. That was it. We at least have the conviction to say it's not the best technology to incorporate into our product. Our customers expect us to make those choices. We need to bank on ascending technologies not ones don't perform the best on our platform." He then reminds the audience that they must be doing something right given that they've been selling one iPad every three seconds. The audience laughs.

It's all about conviction with Jobs - again and again. He always returns to the simple reason they exist and what gets him pumped up to design amazing products again and again. This conviction came out again in his response to a question about platform wars. Walt asked Jobs whether he sees a platform war happening right now and specifically references Facebook. "NO," says Jobs.

On platform wars between Apple and Microsoft - "We actually never really saw it as a platform war with Microsoft. We were always focused on making the best products for consumers. And we still think that way." I got the feeling he was trying to convey - you're missing the point - it's not about getting into a war with another player, it's about sticking with your core values and getting aligned with them in a way that is authentic and makes your customers sing.

I love it when Jobs does the 'knee on chair thing'

Next topic? Google because they're not on Apple's radar. Walt and Kara want to know whether he felt betrayed and whether he knew Google was going to get into the smart phone space in advance. Jobs doesn't go down that path - he simply says - "they decided to compete with us, that's it." So, does he see them as a competitor? "Sure," he says, "but everyone defines the smart phone market differently." At the end of the day, rather than worry about all your competitors, he says "we're going to just keep working hard at making better products."

He continues, "People vote with their pockets about what they want and don't want. It's one of the things I really love about the consumer market. It's not that way in the Enterprise market. People can't just vote, IT people make those decisions and sometimes they just get confused." (loudest laugh from the audience).

He then launched into his feelings about the value of "news gathering organizations," and what emerged after that was one of the better quotes all night - "I don't want to see us descend to a nation of bloggers." It must have gotten tweeted and retweeted in the subsequent hour although I still haven't checked.

They move into online content. On pricing, Jobs says, "one of the things we've learned is to price aggressively and go for volume. This is what has consistently worked for us." He feels that people are willing to pay for good content on the web if its priced aggressively.

Jobs brings up an interesting analogy to talk about the future fate of PCs (both platforms - laptops and desktops). "When we were a nation of farmers, trucks were really important and we used them because that's what we needed at the time. Then we moved into urban areas and cars became more important. PCs will be like trucks," he says. "They'll still be around, but there will be a migration." Was he telling us all indirectly to start the mourning process now since it's only a matter of time before tablets and mobile will be our only form factors? Our only productivity tools? This change he says, will obviously "make the PC world uneasy."

They move onto retail and iPhone apps. His tone is strong and firm when he talks about their two main platforms. "There are two platforms we support. HTML 5, which is open. Java Script is also open he adds....and then we have the app store. For apps, we have three main rules:

*it cannot crash

*it cannot use unsupported APIs

*the app must perform the way it says it will

As he gets drilled on this issue, he repeats three times - "We approve 95% of apps of the 10K+ apps we get within 7 days of receiving them. People try to submit apps that say they do one thing when in fact they do something else, so we don't approve those."

Kara asks him what is his typical day like.....in other words, 'what's it like to be you Steve?' More than one person in the room inevitably wants to know. I have to admit, it's a question that has gone through my mind on more than one occasion.

"We don't have any committees," says Steve. He half jokes that they are the largest start-up in the world......"we're organized like a start-up. We meet for three hours every week and just talk about everything that is going on. We also have a policy that you need to trust that people on your team will come through with the parts they're working on."

Back to core values and conviction again for the third time in the interview, he says, "the worst thing we can do as we get bigger is to let our core values slide. We have the same core values when we started that we have now. We still want to make the best products in the world - it's what kept me going ten years ago, five years ago and still keeps us going today."

Walt asks him why they're going into the ad business. Jobs says that it's all about their developers. "We think we'll be able to make more money for our developers than other people." Then he adds - "we have the stats," he says passionately. People are not spending that much time on search on their mobile devices - they're spending their time on apps. If you want to make developers more money, put ads in mobile apps, ads that will keep people in the app rather than taking them out of it to a web page."

Walt then brings up privacy. "We take privacy extremely seriously. We worry about location in phones for example. We worry about a 14 year old getting stalked because of our phone. It's one of the reasons we have the app store - we have rejected a lot of apps that just want to take your data and suck it up in the clouds. Privacy means that consumers know what they're signing up for and repeatedly." He says with strength - "ASK THEM EVERY TIME. Let them know precisely what you're going to do with their data." Hear hear Steve. Privacy may be going away but it doesn't mean that consumers don't deserve to know where their data is going and have the option to make a choice. Their own choice.

Jobs was ON last night and as passionate as ever. He was also authentic, deliberate and pensive. One very touching and remarkable comment that he made, sharing some insight into the past few years fighting his illness: he says he has learned just how fragile life is. Despite all of it, he says his sex life is pretty good.

Thanks for the share Steve and for showing up. Long live focusing on making kick-ass products and giving consumers an incredible experience. If only more people would step up to the plate to deliver.

Sustaining Happiness: Part IV (Be part of something bigger than yourself)

Part IV of Zappos' Tony Hsieh on sustaining happiness. Here are links to Part III, part I here and part II here.

Sustaining Happiness: Part III (Don't chase the paper, chase the dream)

Below is Part III of the video I shot of Zappos' Tony Hsieh's talk on sustainable happiness in San Francisco earlier this week. Part I of the video here and Part II can be found here.

Sustaining Happiness: Part II (Align your company with your values)

Below is part II of Zappos' Tony Hsieh's talk on Sustainable Happiness from the VatorSplash event in San Francisco Thursday night. Part I can be found here.