Silicon Palms

Tag: Ray Kurzweil

  • Revolution of the Mind

    Revolution of the Mind

    Have you ever wondered about singularity? The reason I ask is because I personally believe that singularity is what will save humanity and our planet from self-destruction. Perhaps even; a “singularity event” will trigger the truth to take-over, and all at the same time, the majority of inhabitants on earth, will come to the same conclusion, that we need to work together. Until that moment happens, we live in a multipolar world, however the good news is that the incredible rate of awakening, like a mass raising of consciousness, from the people’s exposure to truth via word-of-mouth and the Internet. We’re experiencing a collective “Revolution of the Mind”.

    Consciousness and truth and closely connected. Learning the truth can be a time-consuming and painful process but for collective consciousness to rise and move the human race closer to our rendezvous with singularity we need more truth tellers. Unless of course, an event of Biblical proportions were to cause an instant revolution of the mind of mankind.

    Imagine there’s no countries
    It isn’t hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no religion too
    Imagine all the people
    Living life in peace…

    ~ John Lennon

    Peace on earth would be the end result of singularity. Revolution by definition, happens very rapidly and is triggered by words of truth, spoken directly to the source of power, then just like a light-switch, the minds of the masses, almost all at the same time, like a massive flock of birds, or school of fish, reach profound new conclusions, instantly, which immediately cause the entire populace to change direction at the same time.

    Singularity in Literature

    Futurology

    Literary studies

    • Temporal singularity, otherwise knows as a point of divergence, a concept in speculative fiction, usually an item or event triggered by an item that results in divergent narratives, in which the singularity alters the new timeline away from a prior “default” state, leaving behind a parallel universe in which the singularity did not occur; this is the basis of much of the “Alternate history” genre and may involve technology in “hard” science fiction, or may involve anything up to or including magic as the basis of the “what if?” scenario

    Multipolarity

    Multipolarity is a distribution of power in which more than two nation-states have nearly equal amounts of military, cultural, and economic influence.

    Empires of the world in 1910

    Empires of the world in 1910 - Revolution of the Mind

    Opinions on the stability of multipolarity differ. Classical realist theorists, such as Hans Morgenthau and E. H. Carr, hold that multipolar systems are more stable than bipolar systems, as great powers can gain power through alliances and petty wars that do not directly challenge other powers; in bipolar systems, classical realists argue, this is not possible. On the other hand, the neorealist focuses on security and inverts the formula: states in a multipolar system can focus their fears on any number of other powers and, misjudging the intentions of other states, unnecessarily compromise their security, while states in a bipolar system always focus their fears on one other power, meaning that at worst the powers will miscalculate the force required to counter threats and spend slightly too much on the operation. However, due to the complexity of mutually assured destruction scenarios, with nuclear weapons, multipolar systems may be more stable than bipolar systems even in the neorealist analysis.
    This system tends to have many shifting alliances until one of two things happens. Either a balance of power is struck, and neither side wants to attack the other, or one side will attack the other because it either fears the potential of the new alliance, or it feels that it can defeat the other side. One of the major implications of an international system with any number of poles, including a multipolar system, is that international decisions will often be made for strategic reasons to maintain a balance of power rather than out of ideological or historical reasons.

    Bob Marley, a Prophet of Singularity

    Bob Marley played an important role in starting the revolution of mind and to this very day his message and music are used as the anthems and inspiration for millions of activists, for a multitude of different causes, everywhere. His image, his logos, his colors and his words, empower people to work together against oppression and tyranny. His idea was one love, that idea has never stopped raising consciousness.

    Bob Marley, and the secret CIA war in Jamaica that may have cost the reggae legend his life is explored with Casey Gane-McCalla. How the socialist politics of Castro and Michael Manley were a threat to the cocaine market being orchestrated by far-right Jamaicans, Edward Seaga, George Bush Sr. and the CIA leadership is revealed. The flash point events of the Smile Jamaica and One Love concerts, and theories of how the CIA poisoned Bob Marley with cancer that would eventually end his life is explored in this Buzzsaw interview, hosted by Sean Stone.

    [box type=”info”]Casey Gane-McCalla is a journalist and rapper, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born to a South African mother and Jamaican father, he quickly became interested in global politics and history, which he studied at Columbia University. The former staff writer for NewsOne has covered a wide variety of subjects from music to politics to drugs and organized crime. “Inside The CIA’s Secret War In Jamaica” is his first book, after researching its subject matter for three years.

    Besides writing, Casey is also involved in the fields of music, technology, and filmmaking, as a founding partner in the GIF based music video generator StartUp, MVGEN, and the owner of Phoenix Rising Records (distributed by Sony), and the creator of the pioneering hip-hop comedy web series, “That’s Whats Up.”[/box]

    EPISODE BREAKDOWN:
    00:01 Welcoming Casey Gane-McCalla to Buzzsaw.
    00:49 Exploring the CIA secret war in Jamaica.
    03:48 CIA intercession in Chile, economic sabotage, and political interest
    06:50 Bob Marley’s support Michael Manley, and the political connections turned lethal.
    08:47 The One Love Peace concert, and the suspicions of cancer poisoning.
    11:28 The success of Michael Manley–a victory for the counter-CIA campaign that became very violent.
    12:45 The 1980s, weapons and cocaine trafficking courtesy of the Jamaican elite and CIA.
    17:28 The cocaine vs the marijuana economy in Jamaica, and parallels with the contemporary heroin boom.
    22:00 Bob Marley’s legacy today.
    24:44 The next project: Truth about the Tsarnaev brothers.
    28:57 Speculation about murder and conspiracy around the Tsarnaevs.
    31:07 Where to find more–music, video generation, and more.
    32:28 Thanks and goodbye!

    Photo credit: melfoody via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-ND

  • Wikimedia Commons and Visual Hunt

    Wikimedia Commons and Visual Hunt

    We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Aaron Swartz for the whole “creative commons” movement. I feel that he was somewhat unsung for his part in Wikipedia, so we must strive to always remember him for Wikimedia Commons. Imagine how much music, art, content, media and photography has been licensed and protected for the public to use, all because of Aaron Swartz’s great idea – create a license and make it free!

    Often times the media has a license calling for “Attribution” but who would care about that, if someone has created a great image or sound-track (for example) and they license it creative commons, then it’s “fair use” to add value to what your own creative efforts, for free, just attribute the licensor, many of whom are professionals and want to give-away their media and ideas. This platform promotes collaboration in the most subtle and yet obvious way, people working over great distances and yet with instant communication, is creating a new renaissance of sorts. New ground is being broken in every imaginable direction, just like Ray Kurzweil describes in his future trends forecast; we’re expanding exponentially because our minds are connected through devices that enable us tremendous access to ideas and knowledge.

    Before Wikimedia Commons private image archives and news media would employ teams of IP (intellectual property) experts and copyright cops yo seek-out web publishers like me, that would often borrow maps, charts, content and images that clearly belonged to someone other than me, someone who had undoubtedly paid some other person to create such media. In others words, it had obvious value and I, in some cases, did not have the express written consent from the owner of said media. One day I learned better….

    For years now it’s not been necessary to go anywhere but to huge royalty free archives, none though, came anywhere close to the home page for the Creative Commons, and the doorway into some of the best images and media anywhere. Several months ago I was tipped-off by Robin Good, he’s the guru of good ideas for content collaboration and web marketing, about VisualHunt.com which is the absolute most exciting thing for me, since Yahoo was launched because it’s a search engine of 354,191,553 Creative Commons Photos. Yep, that’s right… if you can’t find an image to express your vision, from amongst 350 million, then maybe it doesn’t exist and you need to create, so you can upload it and give a “creative commons” license. Let’s all put our best something good there.

  • Dealing with Dystopia

    Dealing with Dystopia

    tyranny and dystopia
    The reason for reading the Ultimate Thinking Machine is to understand that there is an optimistic future, according to the world’s foremost futurist, Ray Kurzweil and he’s in good company amongst academics and tech mavens from Silicon Valley. They all share a consensus that our world will be better in the future. There are plenty of reasons to believe that we’re just going through some challenging times at present.

    Let’s try to be clear about where we’re currently at. It’s my contention, based on all the available information, that our world first contracted chronic Dystopia in 1963 from what was a coup d’etat but more well known as the Kennedy assassination (unless you believe the magic bullet theory). This act was followed by four decades of nefarious skulduggery, tyranny and global domination, pillaging and looting, leading up to the greatest act of psychological warfare ever enacted on NYC to the world, then broadcast to every inhabitant on earth, repeatedly, with the greatest amount of deep emotional programming.

    [box]Every one of us, has been affected permanently, by powerful psychological programming.[/box]

    The first step in curing any malady is to recognize that there is a Dis-ease. Let’s call a spade a spade, dystopia is a disease. Next, identify the symptoms, for example; lethargy, depression, resentment of authority, pessimism, lack of trust in financial systems, and loss of ambition, just to name a few. Plus, fast-forward to today and add to our diagnosis additional mitigating factors such as chemtrails, Fukishima, the end of Europe (as we knew it), imminent and unavoidable economic collapse, Trump or Hitlery for President in 2016 and WW3 in Syria. Now, to suggest that we’re in stage 3 terminal dystopia sounds like an understatement.

    To deny or ignore the dire straights that we currently find our world in, a person would need to be either brain-dead or completely ignorant. It’s really easy to understand how a person can catch this curse.

    [box]The sixty four thousand dollar question is; how do we get rid of this sickening dis-ease?[/box]

    So what’s a person suffering from too much truth supposed to do? Treatment: Get over it. Recommendation: Move on, there’s nothing to see here….

    Photo credit: Tortured Mind via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

  • The Ultimate Thinking Machine

    The Ultimate Thinking Machine

    ultimate thinking machine
    Raymond “Ray” Kurzweil; (born February 12, 1948) is an American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist. Kurzweil received the 1999 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the United States’ highest honor in technology, from President Clinton in a White House ceremony. He was the recipient of the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for 2001, the world’s largest for innovation. And in 2002 he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, established by the U.S. Patent Office. He has received twenty honorary doctorates, and honors from three U.S. presidents.

    [box type=”note”]For the past several decades, Kurzweil’s most effective and common approach to doing creative work has been conducted during his lucid dreamlike state which immediately precedes his awakening state. He claims to have constructed inventions, solved difficult problems, such as algorithmic, business strategy, organizational, and interpersonal problems, and written speeches in this state.[/box]

    Kurzweil has been described as a “restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. PBS included Kurzweil as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America” along with other inventors of the past two centuries. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among the “most fascinating” entrepreneurs in the United States and called him “Edison’s rightful heir”.

    Kurzweil – the thinking machine quote;

    “I realize that most inventions fail not because the R&D department can’t get them to work, but because the timing is wrong‍—‌not all of the enabling factors are at play where they are needed. Inventing is a lot like surfing: you have to anticipate and catch the wave at just the right moment.”

    Kurzweil has authored seven books, five of which have been national bestsellers. The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into 9 languages and was the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in science. Kurzweil’s book The Singularity Is Near was a The New York Times bestseller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy. Kurzweil speaks widely to audiences public and private and regularly delivers keynote speeches at industry conferences like DEMO, SXSW and TED. He maintains the news website KurzweilAI.net, which has over three million readers annually.

    Future predictions by the Ultimate Thinking Machine Ray Kurzweil

    In 1999, Kurzweil published a second book titled The Age of Spiritual Machines, which goes into more depth explaining his futurist ideas. The third and final part of the book is devoted to predictions over the coming century, from 2009 through 2099. In The Singularity Is Near he makes fewer concrete short-term predictions, but includes many longer-term visions.

    He states that with radical life extension will come radical life enhancement. He says he is confident that within 10 years we will have the option to spend some of our time in 3D virtual environments that appear just as real as real reality, but these will not yet be made possible via direct interaction with our nervous system. “If you look at video games and how we went from pong to the virtual reality we have available today, it is highly likely that immortality in essence will be possible.” He claims to know that 20 to 25 years from now, we will have millions of blood-cell sized devices, known as nanobots, inside our bodies fighting against diseases, improving our memory, and cognitive abilities.

    Kurzweil claims to know that a machine will pass the Turing test by 2029, and that around 2045, “the pace of change will be so astonishingly quick that we won’t be able to keep up, unless we enhance our own intelligence by merging with the intelligent machines we are creating”. Shortly after, Kurzweil claims to know that humans will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological intelligence that becomes increasingly dominated by its non-biological component. He stresses that “AI is not an intelligent invasion from Mars. These are brain extenders that we have created to expand our own mental reach. They are part of our civilization. They are part of who we are.

    So over the next few decades our human-machine civilization will become increasingly dominated by its non-biological component. In Transcendent Man Kurzweil states “We humans are going to start linking with each other and become a metaconnection we will all be connected and all be omnipresent, plugged into this global network that is connected to billions of people, and filled with data.” Kurzweil states in a press conference that we are the only species that goes beyond our limitations- “we didn’t stay in the caves, we didn’t stay on the planet, and we’re not going to stay with the limitations of our biology”. In his singularity based documentary he is quoted saying “I think people are fooling themselves when they say they have accepted death”.

    In 2008, Kurzweil said in an expert panel in the National Academy of Engineering that solar power will scale up to produce all the energy needs of Earth’s people in 20 years. According to Kurzweil, we only need to capture 1 part in 10,000 of the energy from the Sun that hits Earth’s surface to meet all of humanity’s energy needs.

    Photo credit: Thomas Hawk via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC