People think linearly, but our world is developing exponentially. We need to change the way we think. That’s one of the basic tenets of Singularity University, the startup educational institution looking to teach students how to take advantage of and guide accelerating technologies. For the past two years SU students have learned about the promises of AI, nanotechnology, genetics, etc and worked to leverage the changes these sciences will produce to help billions of people around the world. Now, SU has brought its perspective to France. The LeWeb conference in Paris is a two day gathering of 2500+ entrepreneurs, writers, and innovators discussing the future of the internet. Singularity University’s Executive Director Salim Ismail was on hand to explain SU’s vision and bring more people into the fold. Watch his 15+ minute talk in which Ismail gives a great overview of the university…though his jokes don’t seem to land with the European audience.
Singularity University has been growing considerably since its inception. Not only was their second summer session Graduate Studies Program twice the size of the first (80 students versus 40) they’ve also expanded geographically. 73% of the student body for GSP ’10 was from outside the US, with 35+ countries represented. Earlier this fall they taught a six day Executive Program in Brazil, the first such seminar offered outside of the NASA AMES campus in Silicon Valley. Now Salim Ismail is bringing the SU message to internet moguls in Europe. True, founders Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis routinely make presentations outside of the US about their own work, but Ismail’s talk was expressly about Singularity University and the vision it promotes. It wouldn’t surprise me if SU was looking to provide Executive Programs on the continent similar to its successful work in Brazil. The cultural paradigms may shift as you travel around the world, but the potential of accelerating technologies stays the same.
You know what they call the Singularity in Paris?
They don’t call it the Singularity?
No, they have the metric system.
What do they call it then?
LeRoyale with cheese.
…weird.
[screen capture and video credit: LeWeb via UStream]
