Ray Kurzweil's new book "The Singularity Is Near." was published today. At the Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference tonight we had the privilege of hearing Kurzweil outline many of the key concepts from his book and from his work generally on artificial Intelligence. To me the most profound of Kurzweil's many fascinating observations was the idea that despite his assertions that; technology acceleration will result in the emergence of "forms of nonbiolobical intelligence superior to human intelligence" and, that "most of the intelligence of our civilization will ultimately be nonbiological", "the intelligence that will emerge will continue to represent the human civilization, which is already a human-machine civilization."
I thought President Obama's inaugural speech was a little disappointing when read for substance from afar, although I can imagine that it might have seemed more uplifting in person. I think the Wall Street Journal got it right in their pre -inaugural " The Opacity of Hope " editorial as they concluded: "The complicated nature of our world means that every modern Presidency is to some extent a leap into the unknown. Mr. Obama's meteoric rise makes him a bigger leap than most. We don't know if he is a genuine man of the left, or a more traditional pragmatist. The audacity of our hope is that as President he will use his considerable talents to return his party to the policies of growth, opportunity and the vigorous defense of U.S. interests that marked it the last time the country had such great expectations for a Democratic President -- under JFK." To me, Obama didn't start well with his first official act being this rather vague and plainly accusa...
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