Living with the Genie

Reminder: Tonight we’ll be webcasting Living with the Genie live from Pimental Hall, featuring Ray Kurzweil via videoconference (original plans were to use some sort of state-of-the-art edge tech to bring Kurzweil in as a holographic projection, but doing so proved too expensive). Among other accomplishments, Kurzweil is the author of one of my favorite books, The Age of Spiritual Machines. The “live” panelists – Denise Caruso, Howard Rheingold, Richard Rhodes, and Mark Schapiro are all respected authors and thinkers on the impact and implications of runaway technology.

Update: Kurzweil is shockingly medieval in his take on current copyright issues and his attitude towards cancer treatment and prevention reeks of “blame the victim.” He views regulation in biological research as more of a threat than a necessary safeguard. He was kind of a broken record on several points. Overall, I think some people watched a hero being torn down, the lesser-known panelists eclipsing Kurzweil’s insights. Of course he was at a disadvantage by the fact that he was the only panelist in via teleconference. I don’t mean to tear him down – he had a lot of fascinating things to say; only that some of his viewpoints were… cold and his delivery was kind of redundant.

Music: Stereolab :: Fiery Yellow

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