Visualizing the Future

Visualizing the Future #15: "What Happens Next?"

I said in the last post that this post would be a continuation of my thoughts on the Singularity.  I've changed my mind for a few reasons:

1. The topic has humbled me. When I signed up to do a series of 23 daily posts called "Visualizing the Future" 11/11/11 , I had no idea what I was getting myself into.    
2. I promised my wife not to stay up all night tonight. ;-)
3. I've been making these up as I go along.  
4. I'm starting to appreciate just how interesting the Future is.  
5. It's become clear to me that by definition, none of us has a clue what will happen in the Future, least of all me.  It's why we talk, wonder, gamble, imagine and dream.  It's what keeps life interesting and magical.

So here's what I'm going to do:

Visualizing the Future #14: What's Ray Kurzweil Smoking?

Depending on who you ask, Ray Kurzweil is either a genius or a madman.  I believe both.

He's a prolific inventor, futurist and the leading proponent of the idea of the Technological Singularity.  Often referred to simply as "The Singularity", this refers to a time in the future when the sum of computer intelligence exceeds human intelligence.  While estimates for when such an event might occur range from 2020 to 2045 (Kurzweil is on the "conservative" end of the spectrum) the implications of such an event are profound.

From this year's prestigious Google Zeitgeist, I give you 12 minutes of Ray K at his most epic.  He starts with a mellow,  laid back delivery, but start paying attention around the 2 minute mark.  Just give a frightened squeak at the end and I'll peel you up off the floor and read the rest of the blog to you, petting your hair whilst curl up in a fetal position and suck your thumb.

   

Visualizing the Future #12: Ponzi Schemes or Financial Progress?

Tonight's post involves some sleight of hand.  If you've ever watch a shell game or 3 card monty, you know that being told you're going to be tricked doesn't help at all.  You're still the shill and you always pick the wrong shell.

So I'll explain the trick quickly.  Tonight, I will give you a brief introduction to the topic and hopefully, arouse your curiosity.  The rest of the trick will wait until tomorrow.  Here goes.

Visualizing the Future #3 : The Future Ain't What it Used to Be

So said the sage Yogi Berra.  Like all "Yogi-isms" , we know what he meant to say.  But the subject of today's post goes a little deeper than that.  Quite literally, humans have not always had a conception of the "Future".   It required great thought and sophistication to produce enough food to last beyond the next day.  Clearing this granted us the luxury tothink about the future beyond our next meal.  Over the next few days, I plan to explore the relationship between  surplus and future planning.  Suffice to say, excess has many obvious benefits and some not-so-obvious perils.

Tonight I'll keep things relatively brief (both because it's late and also because I know that I'm going to touch on the subject of human evolution and will be scolded for glibness tomorrow  by my mother, the archaeologist - corrections will follow).  Tonight I'd like to make a simple, though interesting point - that the transition from hunting to farming transformed mankind's ability to think about the future.  If we are interested improving our next 50 or 5000 years, we need to think hard about hunting, farming and our ability to create, manage and share our surpluses.