Thursday, July 30, 2009

Singularity University? What about a Singularity Community College, with a mobile/distance learning option?

After I posted David Orban's presentation about the Internet of Things and Spime Design, which was part of the 2009 Singularity University, I took a deeper look at the Singularity University website. There are 3-day and 10-day programs geared for executives, and a 9-week Graduate Studies Program.

The Singularity University, held at the NASA Ames Research Center, "aims to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges."

The tuition for the 9-week program of study at the Singularity University is $25,000.00. It is not an inclusive environment, from what I can tell from the description of the ideal Singularity University student:

1. "We are looking for students who are creative, intelligent, and driven-for-excellence from around the world."
2. "Experts in one of the 10 track areas, and have a passion to learn about other tracks."
3. "They are proven leaders and entrepreneurs. We are looking for the next generation of CEPs, University Deans/Presidents and Government leaders."
4. "We are looking for internationalists: people who are bilingual or multilingual with a strong command of English (the language used to teach SU courses) and people who have traveled widely.
5. "They are interested in understanding and addressing the world's grand challenges."

The following tracks offered by the Singularity University include the following:


What the world REALLY needs is a Singularity Community College, with the same faculty as the University version. The community college version would also provide a ubiquitous learning option for those of us too busy to attend courses in person.

Nine weeks, $250.00 a student. Transformation? Priceless.

For your convenience, below is some information about the movers and shakers affiliated with the Singularity University . The information is from the Singularity University website.

Faculty & Advisors


Here is the list of the 2009 Singularity University students:


More from the Singularity University website:

"The following companies and organizations are working in partnership with Singularity University. Their contributions and credibility are critical to the growth of this institution"

Corporate

  • 23andMe
  • AppJet Inc.
  • ePlanet Ventures
  • Corporate Games
  • Google
  • IDEO
  • LinkedIn
  • Wordpress.com
  • X-Prize

Academic

  • Cushing Academy
  • International Space University

Media

  • KurzweilAI
  • Singularity Hub
  • The Conversation Group

More:

Founders’ Circle

"The Founders Circle is composed of those individuals and companies who provided the start-up capital to establish Singularity University. Their contributions and credibility are critical to the Founding of this institution."

Corporate Founders ($250K+)

Associate Founders ($100K+)

Supporters ($5K – $100K)

The Singularity University is a non-profit organization. The term "Singularity" was adopted from Ray Kurzweil's book, "The Singularity is Near". According to information on Ray Kurzweil's website,

"The Singularity" is a phrase borrowed from the astrophysics of black holes. The phrase has varied meanings; as used by Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil, it refers to the idea that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the year 2030. The results on the other side of the "event horizon," they say, are unpredictable. We'll try anyway."

Posted by Lynn Marentette at 5:15 PM
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