Motus Mentis

I’m back from my trip to Singularity University, and I’ll just say it was one of the more remarkable experiences I’ve ever had — something like a futurist’s boot-camp, in the company of a hundred or so very smart people. The days’ events began at about 8 a.m., typically didn’t let up until midnight or so, and consisted of a half-dozen or so lectures each day from global leaders in rapidly advancing areas of technology — AI, robotics, nanotech, genetics, biology, medicine, neuroscience, forecasting, computers and networking, and so on — interspersed with interactive workshops, group discussions, technology demos, and at the end of each day a gathering in the main building for people just to hang out and talk (lubricated with plenty of alcohol). The idea behind SU is to break apart the “silos” in these developing fields by assembling everyone in the same room and sort of banging their heads together. It’s a very good idea.

Because SU is in the heart of Silicon Valley, the idea that visionary entrepreneurship is the most effective way to get things done in this world is front and center throughout. The faculty are not people who talk about what folks are creating at the leading edge of all these fields: they are the people who are actually doing it — most of them, in addition to being academically prominent, are founders of edgy startups, or project leaders at places like Google — and you begin to feel that you are standing right at the growing tip of human endeavor. It’s intoxicating.

I’m still digesting it all, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say as the days go by. One thing I will say right now, though: over the past few years the tone of this blog has become increasingly dark, and increasingly centered on partisan politics and civilization’s decline, and that may change a bit. That isn’t to say that my opinions have changed about any of those topics — you certainly will not be seeing me issuing any calls for a bigger Federal government, or more Islamic immigration, or tighter gun laws, and God knows we still desperately need a regime change in November — but the content here will probably be a lot less likely just to swirl around and around in those gloomy vortices. That way madness lies, and I think I had begun to lose sight of that.