Thinking about the fate of mankind.
In the high-rise Silicon Valley area of the United States, a slightly old building is unremarkable. If you don't look carefully, it's hard to get interested in this ordinary white building.
But it is also here that the elites in Silicon Valley are planning an unprecedented university reform-using 10 week to cultivate students' index consciousness, and then using index technology to influence one billion people on the earth.
There are no entrance exams and no annoying papers, but on the first day of school, freshmen shoulder the mission of saving mankind. Under the guidance of school logistics staff, according to their own interests, they will receive a form, which is classified according to the most intractable problems of mankind today: energy problems, pollution problems, human health problems and so on.
"Students, your task this semester is to pick a major human challenge, such as the lack of clean drinking water, and then put forward a positive idea that can affect the lives of one billion people." On the first day of the opening of Singularity University 20 10, the president's speech just came by holographic technology. Craig venter, the first scientist to test the human genome, sat next to him; Two people paralyzed from the waist down are walking on the platform with robot exoskeletons.
In the following lunch time, a group to solve the global food problem will get together soon, and they will discuss how to feed 7 billion people in the world.
"What about artificial meat?" A slightly overweight person suggested. "What we can do now is steak," replied a doctor-like man, "but it will cost you 20 thousand dollars." A beautiful Latino man across the table smiled at two people.
If you think this is an unrealistic daydream of some people who talk about God, you are wrong. This chubby man owns his own company. This doctor-like man is named robert harley. He founded a biotechnology company, specializing in pioneering stem cell therapy. This beautiful Latino man is the second richest man in Mexico, and he is the 37th richest man in Forbes' global rich list in 20 12. His name is Ricardo Salinas Prigo.
Half of the 50 people in this classroom have actually done something that has a positive impact on 654.38 billion people. For example, Vinton Cerf, the father of Internet, is one of the co-designers of TCP/IP protocol and Internet architecture, and now he is the vice president and chief Internet consultant of Google. And elon musk, who invested and founded the world's first electric sports car that can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles in 3 seconds. 20 15 At 9: 29 on February 22nd, Space Exploration Technology Company successfully launched Falcon 9 rocket. 10 minutes later, the first-class rocket was recovered perfectly, making history. He is the CEO and chief technology officer of Space Exploration Technology Company.
Prophecy in 2045
The smartest minds in the world gather here to do a great thing and greet the arrival of the singularity era with the latest technology.
"Singularity" refers to "a point in a black hole" in physics, at which all physical laws fail. But in the guiding spirit of Singularity University, "Singularity" refers to the moment when AI surpasses human intelligence. Humans will also be able to integrate with computers, unload ideas on a computer, realize eternal life, and produce a new human species-Singularity Man. And this time is not far away. The president of Singularity University predicted that in 2045, the era of Singularity would come.
Earlier, President ray kurzweil successfully predicted in 1980s that the Soviet Union would disintegrate, the Internet would beat the best human chess players, and dozens of softwares such as e-readers and online education would be launched. 1999, he made 108 predictions about the world in ten years, of which 89 were correct and 13 were "basically correct".
Today, the concept of singularity has won the favor of the richest and smartest people in Silicon Valley. NASA provided Singularity University with its own research center as campus space. At the beginning of Singularity University, Google donated $250,000, and the early founders of the company donated $654.38 million+each. Six Silicon Valley companies, including Microsoft, Cisco and Intel, have invested in the school. The famous words of Google co-founder Larry Page are scrolled on the official website of Singularity University: "If I am a student, this is what I want."
At Singularity University, teachers and speakers are top experts in various fields. The people who boarded the platform of Singularity University included Craig Venter who participated in sequencing the human genome and synthesizing the first artificial cell, astronaut buzz aldrin who landed on the moon, and Vinton Cerf, the "father of the Internet". Teachers include researchers from famous universities such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University, and executives from famous companies such as Google, Cisco, Deloitte, Kaufman Foundation and Nokia will also attend the lecture.
Different universities
It is precisely because of focusing on the future that Singularity University does not have the basic courses of ordinary universities, and the courses are not authorized by the US authorities, so Singularity University will not award degrees and academic qualifications. Strictly speaking, it is just an education and training institution. But the enrollment threshold of this educational institution is higher than that of Harvard University. They only recruit the brightest students, with an annual rate of 2%, which is much higher than the most difficult school, Stanford University (5%). The tuition fee for the first course is as high as $25,000.
Despite such harsh conditions, Singularity University will accept about 4,000 people from all over the world to register for its annual quota of 80 students. 20 10 Singularity University has enrolled 80 students from 35 countries around the world, 60% of whom have their own companies, and the rest are academic elites who study ethics and AI. For example, when David dalrymple was recruited, he was studying for a doctorate in artificial intelligence at MIT.
It is no exaggeration to say that David is a genius. When he 18 months old, his family doctor noticed that he could already remember the capitals of all 50 states in the United States, so he advised him to study at home. His father taught him procedures, and his mother taught him ethical wisdom and taught him things that books could not learn. He also learned a lot from himself on the computer. David became the youngest undergraduate at MIT at the age of 14. 19 years old, and plans to complete the doctoral degree in two years.
People like David can be found everywhere in Singularity University. These people will more or less have heroic plots in Hollywood science fiction movies. For them, degrees and academic qualifications are not important. It is more important to find a place where their wisdom can really benefit mankind.
A gathering of the smartest people in the world.
In order to create a world-class teaching environment and show the latest scientific and technological achievements, the annual opening ceremony will be unique. For example, at the opening ceremony of 20 12, the headmaster became a robot, a robot with a round top and a round bottom, rolling back and forth among the guests and talking to them, while the headmaster sat in front of the computer a few meters away to direct the operation.
Students can always feel the cutting-edge technology. Every student can enter the "Innovation Lab", which provides cutting-edge technologies, from 3D gypsum powder color printing to drones, to virtual reality glasses, and experience weightlessness in space. All these technologies will help to inspire students. In order to get the first-hand information about the wind direction and space logistics, teachers will even take 10 students around the nearby waters in an airship all morning.
More importantly, when students think of feasible solutions to human problems, they will wait for the investment of the world's most famous venture capital companies and well-known enterprises and get the opportunity to land the project. For example, a student in grade 20 12 got a venture capital of 500,000 dollars from a famous venture capital company to develop his drone project, which can airdrop relief supplies in areas that are hard to reach in developing countries. A "Space Manufacturing" company founded by several students in grade 20 10 has developed a 3D printer that allows astronauts to build their own tools and parts on the International Space Station. The company not only received a grant of US$ 654.38+GBP 250,000 from NASA, but also was allowed to send the printer to the International Space Station through the CRS-4 rocket of Space Exploration Technologies.
Today, Singularity University, founded in 2008, has students in more than 100 countries around the world, and they have established more than 49 companies. Regardless of whether the singularity era that Singularity University believes in will come in 2045, the students of this school are already changing the world with technology as they expect.
This article comes from the sixth issue of the encyclopedia of big science and technology 0 16. Readers are welcome to pay attention to the micro signal of our big technology: hdkj 1997.