Series
Ray Kurzweil: Our Brain Is a Blueprint for the Master Algorithm
Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, thinker, and futurist famous for forecasting the pace of technology and predicting the world of tomorrow. In this video, Kurzweil suggests the blueprint for the master algorithm—or a single,...
How Leaders Can Make Innovation Everyone’s Day Job
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
How All Leaders Can Make the World a Better Place
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
How Leaders Dream Boldly to Bring New Futures to Life
This article is part of a new series exploring the skills leaders must learn to make the most of rapid change in an increasingly disruptive world. The first article in the series, “How the...
How the Most Successful Leaders Will Thrive in an Exponential World
We live in challenging times. Geopolitical turmoil, local and national social unrest, cycles of deadly natural disasters, cyber hacks, rising distrust of media and tech companies—many recent disruptive events have taken us by surprise.
Nearly...
Ask an Expert: How Snowden Can Help SETI
Every week, Singularity University’s YouTube channel debuts a new episode of Ask an Expert, a Twitter-sourced Q&A with experts answering questions about everything from living forever to the unexpected ways blockchain will change humanity.
This week, former director of the NASA...
Ray Kurzweil: We Can Control AI Before It Controls Us
Over time, technology offers solutions to old problems while creating new issues in the process. The more powerful the technology, the greater its potential to do good and harm. Artificial intelligence is no exception,...
Kurzweil Says Passion Projects Are the Best Way to Learn
According to Ray Kurzweil, learning by doing will become the means by which the next generation of children learns to participate in the world. Technology has already revolutionized education by changing how humans access,...
Ray Kurzweil: Accelerating Tech Is Making Old Intellectual Property Laws Obsolete
As technology and innovation move faster and faster, concerns over ownership and access continue to increase. In answer to a question at a Singularity University event, Ray Kurzweil suggested we need to rethink intellectual...
Ray Kurzweil Explores How Self-Driving Cars Will Choose Between Life or Death
Driving a motor vehicle requires making tough choices in the heat of the moment. Whether slamming on the brakes in traffic or speeding up before a light turns red, split-second decisions are often a...
Why Ray Kurzweil Believes We Are Becoming More God-Like [Video]
People tend to ask Ray Kurzweil all manner of questions about technology and the future. But they also want to know about his own personal philosophy. In one session last summer, a questioner asked...
Ray Kurzweil: The Future Offers Meaningful Work, Not Meaningless Jobs
In a future where automation has taken most human “jobs,” will humans stop working? It all depends on how you define work, says Ray Kurzweil. He favors the idea of a universal basic income...
Ray Kurzweil Explains Why Radical Life Extension Will Be Better Than You Think
According to Ray Kurzweil, we’re approaching a time when humans will begin to radically extend their lifespans. This sounds good on the surface, but will we have enough resources to support everyone? And won’t...
Ray Kurzweil: To Merge With Technology Is to Enhance Our Humanity
Technological shifts outpace our awareness of them. While we're busy with our day-to-day lives—getting a new smartphone or downloading the next updates—we often don't notice how these incremental changes shape our relationship with technology....
Ray Kurzweil Outlines the Coming Biomedical Revolution [Video]
Will we live longer lives in the future? According to Ray Kurzweil, it's only a matter of time until technology begins successfully tackling age-related disease—and life expectancy grows longer and longer. At some point,...
Fighting Developing World Disease With AI, Robotics, and Biotech
While CRISPR, nanobots and head transplants are making headlines as medical breakthroughs, a number of new technologies are also making progress tackling some of the toughest age-old diseases still plaguing millions of people in...
These New Technologies Will Be Both Powerful and Planet Friendly
Did you know there is a 25% chance your cause of death will be due to environmental pollution?
According the World Health Organization, some 12.6 million people—or nearly 1 in 4 worldwide—died in 2012 due...
Ray Kurzweil Predicts Three Technologies Will Define Our Future
This is the last in a four-part series looking at the big ideas in Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near. Be sure to read the other articles:
Will the End of Moore’s Law Halt...
How to Think Exponentially and Better Predict the Future
This is the third in a four-part series looking at the big ideas in Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near. Be sure to read the other articles:
Will the End of Moore’s Law Halt Computing’s...
The Next Water Crisis Is Looming—How Can Tech Help?
Have you ever wondered if the water in your house is safe to drink? While many have been angered by the news that children in Flint, Michigan were exposed to abnormally high amounts of...
Technology Feels Like It’s Accelerating — Because It Actually Is
This is the second in a four-part series looking at the big ideas in Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near. Be sure to read the other articles:
Will the End of Moore’s Law Halt Computing’s...
Robot Revolution: These Are the Breakthroughs You Should Watch
Unexpected convergent consequences…this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once. This post (sixth in a series of seven) is a look at robotics. Be sure to read the first five posts if...
Will the End of Moore’s Law Halt Computing’s Exponential Rise?
This is the first in a four-part series looking at the big ideas in Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near. Be sure to read the other articles:
Technology Feels Like It’s Accelerating — Because...
How 3D Printing Is Transforming the Way We Make Things
Unexpected convergent consequences…this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once. This post (five of seven) is a look at 3D printing. Future posts will look at other tech areas, and be...
Drones Have Reached a Tipping Point—Here’s What Happens Next
Unexpected convergent consequences...this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once. This post (four of seven) is a look at drones. Future posts will look at other tech areas, and...
Space and Technology: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Does life exist beyond Earth? Scientists have a few reasons to be optimistic.
For one, there are an estimated 100 billion billion Earth-like planets in our universe. That should get most people’s hopes up. Further, we're...
The Near Future of VR and AR: What You Need to Know
Unexpected convergent consequences…this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once.
This post (the third of seven) is a look at virtual and augmented reality. Future posts will look at...
Space and Technology Review: Asteroid Detection and Mining
Scientists have only catalogued 1% of near-Earth asteroids.
At the current pace, it would take 1,000 years to find all near-Earth asteroids.
New laws make asteroid mining potentially insanely lucrative.
Millions of rocky objects...
Where Artificial Intelligence Is Now and What’s Just Around the Corner
Unexpected convergent consequences…this is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once.
This post (the second of seven) is a look at artificial intelligence. Future posts will look at other tech...
Space and Technology Review: The Race to the Moon and Mars
It’s an exciting time for space exploration. NASA, private companies, and several countries are all racing to colonize space. Soon we hope to become a multi-planetary species. But why?
This post explores why we’re racing...
When the World Is Wired: The Magic of the Internet of Everything
Unexpected convergent consequences: This is what happens when eight different exponential technologies all explode onto the scene at once.
An expert might be reasonably good at predicting the growth of a single exponential technology (e.g.,...
Space and Technology Review: Our Home Among the Stars
At Singularity University, space is one of our Global Grand Challenges (GGCs). The GGCs are defined as billion-person problems. They include, for example, water, food, and energy and serve as targets for the innovation...
How Amnesty International Aims to Bring Technology and Human Rights Together
Technologies will advance and take hold long before our governments and laws are ready for them. To keep up with the needs of billions of people around the world, it’s important to balance technical...
Stay Tuned for the Technological Transformation of Governance
For a decade or more, many people have understood that educational technologies are likely to change how we teach and how our schools work. People can also see how medical technologies will impact the...
Want a Life of Purpose? Find a Career Dedicated to a Cause Beyond Yourself
Isaac Castro: Biomedical Technology, Entrepreneur
Graduate Studies Program 2015 Graduate
Bogotá, Colombia
True passion is tough to fake. Name it a calling or a career, when your life’s work is dedicated to a cause beyond yourself; your...
As Technology Shakes Social Foundations, It Might Also Build New Ones [Video]
Dr. Guy Standing is a distinguished political philosopher and one of the world’s foremost experts on basic income, which he has researched and promoted since the 1980s—long before it began trending in the media.
We...
Future of Learning Series Wrap-Up: 8 Takes on How Tech Is Impacting Education
Over the past several weeks, we have been writing about how technology is impacting education as part of our 'Future of Learning' series. Our contributors explored the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly fast-paced digital...
Why We Need Government to Evolve as Fast as Technology
From deep learning to gene editing, the world of technology is moving fast. But at Singularity University, we believe amazing tech is only half the equation. Equally important is how we use technology. The...
Adaptability: The Entrepreneur’s Way
Einstein Ntim: Entrepreneur
Graduate Studies Program 2015 Graduate
Ghana, United Kingdom
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
―Søren Kierkegaard
Great leaders and entrepreneurs are not born overnight—our lives are ever-unfolding, a welding together...
Argentina’s Plan to Grow a Culture of Innovation From the Classroom Up
Last week, the people of Argentina elected a new president.
Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, billed himself as the candidate of change during his presidential run, even naming the alliance of parties supporting...
Higher Ed Has Failed Students—Here’s How We Plan to Fix It
Higher education, in general, fails students in three ways.
It does not prepare students to succeed in life after college.
The cost is significant and students often go into debt or work to put...
Building the Maker Movement in Baghdad
Ali M. Ismail, Entrepreneur
Graduate Studies Program 2015 Graduate
Baghdad, Iraq
Ali Ismail had been patiently waiting in Baghdad for the arrival of a visa the US embassy was mailing him. However, as the first week of Singularity...
Automation Is Eating Jobs, But These Skills Will Always Be Valued In the Workplace
If you’d asked farmers a few hundred years ago what skills their kids would need to thrive, it wouldn’t have taken long to answer. They’d need to know how to milk a cow or plant...
How Would Today’s Smartest Teens Overhaul Education? We Asked Them
What happens when you gather 14 of the world’s brightest teenagers at Singularity University and ask them to design the future of education? During last summer’s Exponential Youth Camp (XYC) pilot here at SU,...
3 Ways Exponential Technologies Are Impacting the Future of Learning
“Simply put, we can’t keep preparing children for a world that doesn’t exist.”
-Cathy N. Davidson
Exponential technologies have a tendency to move from a deceptively slow pace of development to a disruptively fast pace. We...
Technology Is the Great Amplifier of Our Humanity
Emilia Lahti: M.Sc., MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology), Entrepreneur
Graduate Studies Program 2015 Graduate
Finland and the US
When faced with extreme adversity, why do some people persevere and grow from the challenge, while others call it...
Online Education in 2025: Here’s What to Expect
What will online education look like in 10 years?
That's a good question, and we're about to make some predictions. But first, to keep our perspective, let's talk about a few predictions that in hindsight,...
LIVESTREAM: ‘Future of Learning’ Event Live Tonight at 6pm PST
If you can't join us in person for our Future of Learning event this evening at Singularity University, don't worry. You can watch the livestream from the comfort of your own home or office.
During this fun evening...
The Virtual Reality Renaissance: How Learning in VR Will Inspire Action Like Never Before
Humanity is standing on a precipice. We have never been closer to achieving a world where everyone has the ability to live and thrive. Biotech, nanotech and AI promise to reshape the world and...
Meet the Engineer Bringing Wearable Sensors and AI to Autism Therapy
Andrea Palmer: Mechanical Engineering & Entrepreneur
Graduate Studies Program 2015 Graduate
British Columbia, Canada
We often cannot plan for the transformative moments in our lives. Though we try, these moments tend to occur when we’ve taken...
