Singularity Research Challenge

SIAI (where I'm currently voluntary) is another campaign's matching challenge. This time, you get to choose what to fund specific projects. Michael Nicholas has more details.

Here are some reasons to invest in reducing existential risk that you may have not considered before: "religions disperse, kingdoms are apart, works of science would have invented anyway, but exploits of existential risk reduction remain for all ages.»Stories where the world is saved excitingly necessarily depend on the actual situation is recorded less exciting.To make the world a better place, you must you the world a place.Think of it as extreme survivalism: everyone lives.Even if you believe that armageddon is to come, would not embarrassing if we went off before that happened?Just existential risk reduction means save the whales with margins of extremely broad security around the definition of "whale".If we go extinct, the terrorists can win.

Singularity Summit 2009 in New York

SIAI organizes the annual Singularity Summit on October 3rd and 4th 2009. In contrast to the peaks of 2006-2008, which have been in the Bay area, it will be held in New York.

For people who are interested in the side is USA and Europe, in particular, the le sommet Summit seems a unique opportunity to see speakers from various competencies impressive on the kind of topics this blog talks about. Topics are largely based on the idea of the technological singularity, but look like they will understand, improve cognitive performance, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, nanotechnology and prediction of the future. Many speakers are David Chalmers, Ray Kurzweil, Philip Tetlock and Peter Thiel.

The concept of technological Singularity recently obtained coverage from front page of NYT - evidence that it takes off in the media. However, if you come to the Summit or help spread the word, it is still early enough that you get to tell you have been in this kind of things before being dominant.