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FourthBase wrote: (At the risk of seeming like some kind of anti-chameleon Zelig character, I also have a heartbreaking personal connection to Wilkinson. For a lowly Southie punk, I sure do get around. Another story for another day, someday.)
http://edge.org/response-detail/23784
Bruce Sterling
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
"The Singularity": There's No There There
Since it's 2013, twenty years have passed since Vernor Vinge wrote his remarkably interesting essay about "the Singularity."
This aging sci-fi notion has lost its conceptual teeth. Plus, its chief evangelist, visionary Ray Kurzweil, just got a straight
engineering job with Google. Despite its weird fondness for AR goggles and self-driving cars, Google is not going to finance any
eschatological cataclysm in which superhuman intelligence abruptly ends the human era. Google is a firmly commercial
enterprise.
It's just not happening. All the symptoms are absent. Computer hardware is not accelerating on any exponential runway beyond
all hope of control. We're no closer to "self-aware" machines than we were in the remote 1960s. Modern wireless devices in a
modern Cloud are an entirely different cyber-paradigm than imaginary 1990s "minds on nonbiological substrates" that might
allegedly have the "computational power of a human brain." A Singularity has no business model, no major power group in our
society is interested in provoking one, nobody who matters sees any reason to create one, there's no there there.
So, as a Pope once remarked, "Be not afraid." We're getting what Vinge predicted would happen without a Singularity, which is
"a glut of technical riches never properly absorbed." There's all kinds of mayhem in that junkyard, but the AI Rapture isn't
lurking in there. It's no more to be fretted about than a landing of Martian tripods
MayDay » 28 Aug 2013 19:00 wrote:http://edge.org/response-detail/23784
Bruce Sterling
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
"The Singularity": There's No There There
Skynet vs. Mad Max: Battle for the Future
http://audio.sxsw.com/2012/podcasts/11-INT%20-%20Skynet%20Vs.output.%20Mad%20Max.mp3
#sxsw #battle
Forget the hype surrounding the social web for a moment, what about something a little further out? This talk will paint a picture of two possible futures, along the way asking the audience to help decide in 2012 if either has a snowball's chance in hell of becoming a reality. Choose between:
1. Brands and users operate in a future-perfect environment of algorithm-driven, sublime relevance, where no nanobyte of data is wasted. Brands display artificial intelligence - becoming, in effect, self-aware - able to determine without human intervention how best to serve their customers. This leads to a glorious future of zero spam and delightful indolence amongst humanity as AI machines do all the work.. for now.
OR
2. Brands and their users seek to fight for discovery and serendipity. Attempting at every juncture to circumvent the algorithmic tramlines laid down for their own good. Co-creating an open web with benevolent, politically neutral technology partners and real-world spaces where tech simply does not penetrate, this is the Wild West, 2050.
Listen
Presenters
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Mel Exon Founder BBH Labs
Mel Exon is co-founder and Managing Partner of BBH Labs, Bartle Bogle Hegarty's global innovation unit. BBH is an independently owned, global creative ad agency with six regional hubs worldwide. BBH Labs is the agency's outwardly-focused, technology-driven innovation arm focused on ensuring the company is as smart as possible when it comes to change and the embracing of emerging platforms, processes and partners. She writes about this and more at http://bbh-labs.com and tweets @bbhlabs and @melex.
Mel is a shareholder of BBH and has been a partner of the company since 2001.
48481
Tom Uglow Creative Lead, Google Creative Lab Google Inc
Tom Uglow leads Google's Creative Lab in Asia, working on new ideas and global brand projects for Google, Android and YouTube. This includes launches for Chrome, Maps, Mobile, Google+ and campaigns such as Art Project, Life in a Day, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, Space Lab, StreetView, and more... He tweets as @tomux, writes two blogs, has appeared on the BBC's Culture Show, is a member of the D&AD exec, the European Internet Week Council, and has judged, presented, and enthused globally. He is a Sunday-coder, a traditional creative, a strategist and a book-artist.
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP13531
“STOP TARP ARG” – A hilarious ARG within an ARG played out at this year’s SXSW media festival. This “Stop the Troubled Assets Relief Program Alternate Reality Game” featured mock protesters and activists at the SXSW ARG panel discussion “protesting” against the money wasting of an ARG using TARP bail-out money. You’ve got to check out the http://www.TARParg2009forthekids.org website.
Here’s a quote from the SXSW website:
"According to Cain, working on the T.A.R.P. Bailout has been very productive: “I’m happy to work hand-in-hand with the United States government and the Treasury Department in particular to bring the next level of alternate reality gaming to the youth of our great country. This ARG will bring users in the 12 to 18-year-old demographic range the facts about the U.S. banking system in a fun way while enforcing in them the belief that the United States economy is growing stronger with each passing day. Plus we plan to work with a major candy company to give out treats.”
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