Origin > The Singularity > The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
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    The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
by   Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil presents his law of accelerating returns at EXTRO-5.


Keynote talk at Extropy Institute's EXTRO-5 conference in San Jose, June 15, 2001. Published on KurzweilAI.net July 30, 2001.

EXTRO-5 Keynote video Part 1 (total time 29:51)

Part 1

EXTRO-5 Keynote video Part 2 (total time 29:48)

Part 2

EXTRO-5 Keynote video Part 3 (total time 31:08)

Part 3

EXTRO-5 Keynote video Part 4 (total time 30:48)

Part 4

EXTRO-5 Keynote video Part 5 (total time 31:30)

Part 5

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Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 07/31/2001 2:31 PM by randy@erandycox.com

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I found this to be a great overview of Ray's latest writings (at least those intended for the public) as well as interesting (albeit brief) commentaries on:

- the A.I. movie;
- some hints at what motivated him to begin his area of research; and
- his position on the "Bill Joy issue"

Randy

The Singularity is Near Extro5 Video
posted on 08/03/2001 3:24 PM by dreese@ehelp.com

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What is the price of each of the videos?

Re: The Singularity is Near Extro5 Video
posted on 08/07/2001 1:02 PM by randy@erandycox.com

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I viewed the seminar as a series of online downloads.

Randy

Re: Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 08/10/2001 7:44 PM by nj@dof.se

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I agree, the clips are great! There's a lot of information on Ray's new book and he answers to many different (and important!) questions from the intelligent Extropy audience.

PS. Smart move by Ray to make sure that the batteries in his laptop went dead just when he was going to read his A.I. review out loud to the audience. Now they had to visit this site instead ;) DS.

Re: Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 08/10/2001 8:39 PM by randy@erandycox.com

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I have to admit the Microsoft comment was one of the more entertaining parts of the clip.

Randy

Re: Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 08/24/2001 1:36 PM by Could you post these as MPG downloads??

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Realplayer sucks. You can get much better quality in an MPG download.

Re: Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 09/05/2001 9:28 PM by goethean@yahoo.com

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Or a mp3. Who wants to see him, anyway? ;-\

Re: Video clips of Extro-5 keynote address
posted on 11/16/2003 12:55 PM by hans123

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Very informative. And realplayer is very good at the moment (2003).
Did Kurzweil made some other videos about his idea's?

Re: The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
posted on 07/29/2006 5:02 PM by layszzz

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A matter to consider
By Liezhao Xie
I agree with the predictions envisioned by Kurzwell. After all, technology moves at a tremendous pace but there's something that I want to bring to attention that I believe has been overlooked by technologists and futurists. That is the emerging problem of oil. If things are the way it is now for the next 50 years, I would be convinced at all the estimations and predictions about the singularity, nanotechnology and etc. What if, the world goes into recession after recession until another Great Depression occurs [4]? What if we have a war not about land, ethnicity or ideology but one about the most important natural resource, oil? I believe this problem should be put into account in your predictions.
As you must have realized oil prices are soaring [1]. I will briefly explain how oil extraction works and why we will never have cheap oil again. Oil productivity is believed to work in a bell curve shape where extraction starts very unproductive. As time goes by it becomes more and more productive until it reaches the peak and productivity will drop, never to return [2]. A group of scientist in an organization known as ASPO have banded together to raise awareness and address the issue of the end of cheap oil and the consequences that may occur [3]. Their predictions on exactly when oil production will peak, if it has not already, are sketchy. It is widely believed to either be now or within the next 5 years [5]. This means as we continue exhausting our oil resources at the current rate, oil prices will continue to soar.
As technologists, we do not focus on topics outside our fields. We look at only the fields related to our work. In the last ASPO conference in July of 2006, every geologist foreworn impending doom in the oil industry so what does that mean to us? Our economy, as well as our standard living is very dependent on the health of the oil industry. We rely on oil to transport ourselves to work, transport goods across the continent and oceans, fertilizers, heating and in so many parts of our lives we do not even think about. With the increase of oil prices, our economy will suffer substantially [2]. Unfortunately, we are not the only ones who overlook at the seriousness of this problem. The whole public is. The general populace do not want to hear about the bad news nor do they want to change their way of living. This is the reason why many people, even educated ones believe the Americans did not start a war in Iraq for 'weapons of mass destruction' but to set a foothold on the last major cache of precious oil in the world [6].
I am not saying the major oil scarcity problem we face in the near future will stop technological advance. We will still have paradigm's shift, Moore's Law and we will still approach singularity. All I am implying is in these years of economic slump; these laws and formulas will merely deviate from the current rate of progression. Research and development is influenced greatly on investments and funding. If economic recessions do occur and if a Second Great Depression does occur, the amount of funding going to developing the next computer chip, advancement in AI, nanotechnology and the like will be greatly reduced. Investors, government and scientists will be focused on solving the crisis at hand. Since we are such an oil dependent civilization and with the depletion of this resource, serious issues will arise that I believe will set back your calculations of Singularity by several years.

References:
[1] CNN, Bush takes aim at rising gasoline prices, available at http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/25/bush.energy /
[2] Life After the Oil Crash, available at http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
[3] The Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, available at http://www.peakoil.net/
[4] The Second Great Depression : Causes & Responses by John Campbell, available at http://www.energybulletin.net/5944.html
[5] Wikipedia, Peak Oil, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
[6] Wikipedia, The End of Suburbia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Suburbia

Re: The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
posted on 07/29/2006 5:05 PM by B-Punk

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Just imagine if we stopped fighting over oil and used all that money to fund research instead of weapons - It would take a great nation and a great people to do that...

Re: The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
posted on 07/29/2006 5:16 PM by B-Punk

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Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon...

Re: The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
posted on 07/29/2006 7:27 PM by ~MysticMonkeyGuru~

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Rev. K doesn't know about peak oil. That will put a damper on his estimates for real.

Re: The Singularity Is Near - Ray Kurzweil at Extro5 (Video)
posted on 09/12/2006 4:00 PM by mindx back-on-track

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back-on-track