San Francisco's Singularity Summit: August 14-15

The Singularity Summit, the premier dialog on the Singularity is coming to San Francisco August 14-15, 2010. Now in its fourth year, it started in 2006 with a mission to further the understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress.

With growing interest, attendees and speakers, the once day long event is now a full weekend with lots of stimulating content for those interested in innovation, humanity, technology and the future.

The first day starts with a discussion of the past theory of human evolution, its relationship to scientific method and the analogy between the thinking process that generated evolution and the one that led to specific expectations of Singularity.

Dr. Gregory Stock will talk about critical considerations regarding mankind’s evolutionary trajectory and destination, followed by Ray Kurzweil sharing his vision of the future of artificial intelligence and of mankind’s fusion with machines. Other speakers include: Dr. Srinivasan, Dr. Litt, Demis Hassabis, Dr. Sejnowski and Dr. Bray, who will discuss how close we are to understanding the brain. Dr. Sejnowski argues that we are very close to doing so while Dr. Bray believes that we are still far from fully understanding biological systems, not to mention the brain.

The second day will focus on how information and biotechnologies can be used to overcome the major health and environmental problems we face today, defeat many kinds of scarcity and generally heal the world. Eliezer Yudkowsky will discuss how the ethical philosophy supports the common sense conclusion that ‘of course we should make life better’ against the unconsidered protests of capricious moralists. Ramez Naam will share a vision for overcoming social and ecological problems with very conservative biotechnological capabilities.

Dr. Becker, Dr. Heber-Katz and Dr. Goel will share their research on fixing medical problems: death, injury and pathology respectively. Evolutionary psychology founder Dr. John Tooby will explore the idea of general intelligence through the lens of understanding narrow evolved intelligences, and a panel will explore how narrow and general intelligences relate. Among many others, they also have James Randi lined up who will address the practical need to rely on your own intelligence and critical thinking abilities in order to make sense of expert consensus and to build a realistic understanding of the world.

If on the west coast or looking for an excuse to jump on a plane for this exciting two day event, here are the details: It's in San Francisco on August 14-15th and you can register here.