Category Archives: Transhuman News

Google's Director of Engineering Ray Kurzweil believes a technological singularity will turn some people into super humans by 2029

(VERO BEACH, FLA) During an interview on March 13th at the 2017 SXSW tech conference self described futurist Ray Kurzweil said he believes a singularity, where carbon and silicon-based intelligence will merge to form a single global consciousness, will occur in the next 12 years.

Kurzweil said this singularity would create a cybernetic society including humans with computers in their brains and machines smarter than their creators.

'By 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence,' Kurzweil said. That leads to computers having human intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding who we are.

Today, that's not just a future scenario, Kurzweil continued. It's here, in part, and it's going to accelerate.

Kurzweil said that machines are already enhancing humans and by connecting chips to the neocortex in our brains this effect will exponentially increase.

We're going to get more neocortex, we're going to be funnier, we're going to be better at music, we're going to be sexier, Kurzweil said. We're going to really exemplify all the attributes we value in humans to a greater degree.

Kurzweil, who has long been active in the tech sector and is the author toeight books on the subject of trans-humanism including, The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999); The Singularity is Near (2005); and Visions of the Future (2015), has previously made147 predictions with 86 percent of them coming true.

In the same realm of techno-philosophy, the US National Science Foundation predicted in the early 2000s that network-enhanced telepathy the process of sending thoughts over the internet would be practical and implementable by the 2020s.

The term singularity was first used in the 1950s by a Manhattan-project mathematician named John von Neumann.

Ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue, Von Neumann wrote.

Kurzweil cited von Neumann's term in a foreword to von Neumann's classic The Computer and the Brain. Neumann was also part of the inspiration for the maniacal former Nazi scientistdepicted in Stanley Kubricks 1964 dark-humored apocalypticfilm, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

In 2015, Alt-media commentator and author Mark Dice, who has accumulated over 315 million views on his YouTube videos, said Transhumanists are dangerous psychopaths.

Dice was referencing a 2014 quote from a self affirming Transhumanist named Richard Seed, who previously won a noble peace prize in 1998 for his work in economics and gained global notoriety on December 5, 1997 when he announced that he planned to clone a human being before any federal laws could be enacted to ban the process.

We are going to become Gods, period, Seed said. If you dont like it, get off.You dont have to contribute, you dont have to participate, but if you are going to interfere with me becoming a God, youre going to have trouble. Therell be warfare."

At the 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain, TRUNEWS host Rick Wiles was told by keynote speakers that the integration of computers into human beings is a goal being pursed by the same architects behind the implementation of an Artificially Intelligent (AI) ubiquitously connectedGlobal Brain.

TRUNEWS copy, TRUNEWS analysis

Donate Today!

We believe Christians need and deserve their own global news network to keep the worldwide Church informed, and to offer Christians a positive alternative to the anti-Christian bigotry of the mainstream news media

View post:
Futurist Ray Kurzweil: AI-human merger only 12 yrs away - TRUNEWS

Come work with us! Discovery World is in search of exceptionally talented and hardworking team members to join the Discovery World family and help us meet our mission of expanding learning to our communitys youth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Our jobs span a broad range of careers from entry-level to professional in areas that include guest services, education, exhibits, membership, design, and more.

In addition to a Membership, being a Discovery World employee means you could get access to a quality benefits package including health coverage, a 401(k), paid time off, discounts on summer classes for your children, and more!

Discovery World is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and to administer all aspects and conditions of employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, severe/morbid obesity, medical condition, military or veteran status, genetic information, marital status, ethnicity, alienage or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. All job offers are contingent upon the applicant providing proof of legal authorization to work at Discovery World and completing a background screening.

Follow this link:
Job Opportunities Discovery World

Each spring in the United States youll find a flock of futurists from myriad disciplines migrating to North Carolina for discussions and celebrations surrounding boundary-pushing technologies. The gathering officially began in New York in 2004, when Moog Music created a one-night tribute to namesake synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog. After growing in popularity and with a desire to expand the platform, Moogfest moved south in 2010; today the four-day affair takes place in Durham and is wildly revered for its awesomely nerdy program that fuses engineering with artistry across exploratory workshops, keynote speakers and experimental music performances.

This year Moogfest has tapped particle physicist Dr Kate Shaw of ATLAS @ CERN and artist-scientist Joe Davis of MIT Media Lab to lead conversations about how technology will be used to change the future alongside creative thought provokers like Marc Fleury, Zoltan Istvan and Michael Bierylo. Additionally, this year sees musician Michael Stipe release a never-before-seen art installation comprised of years of video footage shot in NYC, which he uses to explore desire and movement. Stipe used Moog gear to score the piece, and it's his first-ever solo composition.

With such an enlightened line-up, we caught up with Moogfest creative director Emmy Parker to learn more about the 2017 program.

Moogfest is a concentrated experience in exploring how technology enhances the way we create art, music and how we design our future communities. We bring together creative technologists like musicians, coders, scientists, filmmakers and inventors to present their unique perspectives through workshops, keynotes, conversations and performances. We try to build an experience that exposes both participants and attendees to new ideas, and empowers them to take those ideas back to their communities to create something new.

Each year, we try to expand on the impact Moogfest programming has on equipping participants and attendees with tools to design the future they want to create. This years program more strongly reflects recent sociopolitical events. As announced in February, we will have a dedicated Protest Stage at this years festival in response to discriminatory policies in our home state of North Carolina and around the world. In keeping with Moogfests essence, well look at how technology will enhance the way we resist, organize and protest.

Absolutely. The beauty of Moogfest is that the understanding of the "Future" has no limits. Spirituality is a pillar of human experienceit, along with science, plays a fundamental role in how people understand what this life is all about. Plus, scientists and artists are using technology to enhance their spiritual lives which makes it a fascinating point of exploration for us.

We know Michael Stipe as an accomplished musician, but this installation is a platform for his long-time work as a multimedia artist.The sound and visual piece is a unique presentation of film shot by Stipe and projected on storefront windows along a main street in downtown Durham, scored with a never-before-heard solo composition by Stipe featuring analog synthesizers. The installation can be seen and heard from both the inside and outside of the space, and beautifully explores movement and desire by an integral member and supporter of the south easts music and art communityMoogfest is a celebration of beautiful minds like his.

A futurist is a person that actively seeks to know the unknown, and who shares their findings so that we can collectively enhance how we design the future. Musicians, artists, comedians, scientists, sound designers, inventors, researchers, coders, teachers and even pre-schoolers engage in showing us the way to design a more equitable future. We are all seeking answers for what tomorrow will bring, not just technologists.

Images courtesy of Moogfest

See original here:
Moogfest 2017's Futurist Line-Up - Cool Hunting

The SXSW festival here in Austin has always contained strands of futurism. Beyond the brands and the parties and the barbecue, its a place where people come and prognosticate about technology and what itll look like years from now. But in recent years, attendees of SXSW have taken on the bolder, weirder, and longer-term mission of trying to imagine what the world will look like when we have human-level artificial intelligence and science fiction-grade human augmentation. Because when theres no new apps to talk about, the thing only left is mining The Matrix, apparently.

Case in point: the audience polling service Slido, which is used to crowdsource questions for panelists, is being used to ask futurists whether they think humans will one day swim as fast as sharks.

Best ever audience q - To director of pentagon "if you could make soldiers who can swim as fast as sharks, would you" #sxsw

The question was seemingly first posed to Will Roper, the director of the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office, in a conversation about advanced weaponry and supersoldiers. It was then posed again, perhaps even by the same person, in a different panel discussion with Ray Kurzweil, one of the best known futurists and author of the book The Singularity is Near.

Theres a lot to unpack here. Lets start with what this question is actually asking. A common theme in the futurist and transhumanism movements is that humanity is destined to one day augment and improve itself. In other words, we just might one day have genetically engineered superhumans, brain-computer interfaces that make us smarter, merged AI-human consciousness, and the ability to live forever you know, that sort of thing.

The shark question is the new simulation hypothesis

In this case, we have people wondering about a very specific and very peculiar use case of human augmentation to create very fast swimmers, as if humanitys gravest threat right now is not being to outrun an amphibian apex predator. Think of it a bit like the are we living in a simulation? debate that was all the rage in Silicon Valley last summer.

While the simulation hypothesis is all good fun, the shark question is bit more stupid, if that wasnt abundantly clear. Humans at their peak athleticism can swim at best around 6 mph Michael Phelps topped out around there in 2010, according to ESPN, and thats still about three times faster than the average human swimmer. A shortfin mako shark, on other hand, can hit top speeds of about 60 mph. Besides being nightmare fuel, that a mako shark can swim 10 times faster than Phelps likely means its probably not worth the resources it would take to reach out-swim a fish at the top of the food chain.

Still, both Roper and Kurzweil were good sports about it. Roper said that he wasnt aware of any active Pentagon research trying to augment humans with fins or gills, but said he would happily sign up to be made a faster swimmer if the opportunity arose. Kurzweil was a little more confused, choosing to comment about medical devices that help people restore lost limb functions and whatnot.

I dont know about the shark application, he added. Neither we do, Ray, neither do we.

Here is the original post:
People are asking futurists if humans will one day swim as fast as sharks - The Verge

Predicting the future of marketing is a near impossible task, given the fast changing technologies and often at times unpredictable nature of consumer behaviour. All I know is that there will be more and more marketing in so many fields as the abundance of resources means more will be commoditised, and messages drowned out, and consumers alienated.

Brands with clear direct messages, and which project strong values that capture the Human spirit continue to win through. Think of the John Lewis Christmas ads, which British consumers longingly wait for every November. This year it stars bouncing dogs, foxes, badgers, squirrels and hedgehogs. The questions faced by every marketer is how can we create smart cut through marketing in a world constantly bombarded by information, news, social, paid and earned media. Iconography, for example, one of the oldest marketing tools in the world, could make a comeback. How do you measure ROI to ensure the biggest bang for your buck?

More importantly is ROI the right, or only, measure? Ask our Singapore customers this year whether they remember Caltexs flash gif file Facebook post, or special card discount, or even our new loyalty programme, and the answer will probably be No, but I really liked your blow up Pump attendant waving us into your stations. The problem for a marketer is how do you measure ROI, on an inflatable doll?

We have become ROI and KPI dominant, wanting to measure everything. We show all kinds of measures that highlight how our new Facebook campaign, or programmatic buy, or price discount, or new AR game achieve good numbers; but are these enough to change consumers hearts and habits? Good marketers will step back and realise people follow their heart when selecting brands. People want to choose useful brands they like. David Ogilvys dictum was right after all: The consumer isnt a moron; she is your wife. Marketers need to think more about the relationships their brands should have with their customers.

Trust is a key part to this relationship. As brands go data-centric, collecting data with every customer interaction, consumers know that they are being monitored but expect more things in return. This data can be used two ways; one to destroy trust, or best, builds more trust by closer matching and anticipating human needs. Data capture, protection and encryption, usage and dissemination will be a minefield to marketers which needs Brand guardians to tread carefully.

The plethora of new technology will help marketers hone in on their audiences with the right offer, at the right time at the right place, but the right emotion will always be the secret sauce that builds bonds better.

The smart marketers will be focusing on behavioural psychology as the future of marketing. To successfully influence customers, its best to understand their behaviour at a deeper level. You need a clear and candid understanding of how people arrive at their decisions at the foundational level. Evolving research approaches will become an even more important tool in managing this. We know, for example, that consumers are twice as likely to buy from a brand if the message is aligned with their personality.

Whilst most marketers are looking at tech industry to give themselves an advantage, we could see a swing back to exploring the human mind and condition more first. We have to embrace the human elements and complications to see what makes us tick in the fast changing world and apply to technology to get our message out and resonating. If we want to create the best tech innovations then we have to place the human condition at its centre first.

The marketing space is littered with more and more fads, fashions and new shiny tools that trendy ROI focused marketers will grab onto and use. But unless you are connecting with the heart, all marketing will become more transactional and transient; and ultimately forgettable. The need to be human will make us better marketers, rather than mere sellers.

The writer is Brian Fisher, brand manager at Caltex.

Read the rest here:
The Futurist: Putting the human heart back at the centre | Marketing ... - Marketing Interactive