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Technology futurists love to talk about the Singularity as the point in time when technology progresses so rapidly that machine intelligence melds with and surpasses human intelligence. In early October, more than 800 technology- and future-focused attendees gathered at the historic 92nd Street YMCA in New York City for the fourth annual Singularity Summit. For $498 (the cost of a weekend ticket) the audience wrapped its mental arms around presentations by well-known tech soothsayers, including author and programmer Ray Kurzweil; Steve Wolfram, the founder of the novel search engine Alpha; Aubrey de Grey, an expert on anti-aging science; Australian philosopher David Chalmers, who advised the Matrix film series; and Pay-Pal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel , who has donated more than $100,000 to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI), the organization putting on the event.
The Transhumanists Arrive - Forbes.com
Google and Nasa back 'singularity' school for when technology overtakes humans - Telegraph
Singularity University will accept 30 graduate students in its first intake this summer, increasing to 120 next year. Despite its name, the college is not an accredited university but will offer nine-week courses exploring ways to ensure technology improves mankind's plight instead of harming it. Courses are designed to see how the students can use technology to solve global issues such as poverty, famine, disease, global warming and dwindling energy supplies.