Singularity University graduation has rapidly become one of my favorite times of the year. When else can I hear dozens of stellar presentations about how the world is going to change and what humanity can do to make that change a positive one? (Besides on Singularity Hub, of course.) This year’s Graduate Studies Program closing ceremony was top notch and I wanted to share two talks that I thought were particularly worthy of watching. Vinod Khosla was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, is a daring venture capitalist, and is one of the more influential players in Silicon Valley. He discussed the failure of experts to predict the future and the importance of the long tail when it comes to solving the energy crisis. Salim Ismail is Singularity University’s global ambassador, and he gave the graduation crowd a great overview on how SU is generating global entrepreneurship and innovation starting with the way they handle applications to the summer program. Check out both talks in full in the videos below.
Vinod Khosla, through Khosla Ventures, handles $1.3 billion+ of venture money and has a penchant for clean energy technology. He’s spent years thinking about the problems of energy, expert projections, and everything surrounding the “green movement”. When he talks about energy, people listen…even if most of what he is saying amounts to: “we’re mostly wrong”. There’s 40 minutes of presentation here, folks, but it’s well worth your time.
*Note: I’m currently upgrading my rig for taking videos at events. For now, the quality here is mediocre. I apologize, but things will get better soon, I promise.
As we’ve discussed before, Salim Ismail has been tireless in his efforts to bring SU to the world, and to change the world in the process. He’s secured a partnership with the upcoming World Expo in Milan, he’s help develop franchise programs in Brazil, and he’s brought the SU mantra (leveraging exponential trends in technology for the benefit of billions of humans) everywhere he’s gone. In the following talk he gives an overview of Singularity University’s recent successes and, more importantly, showcases how application contests are actively encouraging innovation before GSP students even walk in the door.
Khosla and Ismail give us a great demonstration of what SU is all about: the exchange of ideas, the encouragement of entrepreneurship, and the radical notion that success can come from planning your ventures to take advantage of technology that hasn’t arrived yet. Stay tuned for more on GSP graduation 2011, Singularity University, and all the people helping to make a better future one crazy idea at a time.
*Note: To SU students who inquired during graduation about video recordings of their presentations: I’ll be making those available as soon as humanly possible. There have been some major technical difficulties (again, the video rig, she is in need of an upgrade) but as soon as I can I will show everyone what a wonderful job you did in your end of summer presentations.
[image credit: James Duncan Davidson/O’Reilly Media, Inc via Wikicommons, David Sifry via Flickr]
