Having not attended the Summit, I may be speaking out of turn, but there had been other criticisms on the Internet on the Summit’s exclusivity. Futures also criticizes it for being mainly a techy, academic exercise.

“To put it another way, while its means may be technical and scientific, the ends of Singularitarianism, as disparate and even incoherent as they may be, are rather like those of a spiritual movement. I kept waiting for the presenters to make grand statements about the moral imperatives of the movement and about the awe-inspiring new things we will do and be.

There were a few, but those larger ideas were mostly taken for granted. I thought, in particular, that we might get some of these first principles from Anna Salamon, who gave the opening and closing talks, or from Ray Kurzweil, who presides as the de facto spiritual leader (and head coach) of the movement.

But for a movement that aspires to such revolutionary things, the summit was in fact rather conventional: dry talks, PowerPoint slides, and lectures in rapid succession. (I should note that the organizers kept the whole thing impeccably on schedule, except for allowing Kurzweil to go well over his time at the end of the first day.) It seemed that many of the attendees were most excited during the breaks between presentations. They huddled around the superstar presenters. I heard more than a few conferencegoers ask each other, “Have you seen Ray? Where is he? I want to talk to him.” Many were excited just to be in the presence of fellow-travelers (since, as some of them told me, many of the attendees only knew of the Singularitarian movement through the Internet).”

Futures points out that the Singularity is such a huge concept that it can’t be (honestly) limited to tech talk.

The Futures blogger doesn’t believe that the concept of the Singularity doesn’t grow out of human history or human nature. A good historian of technological development would reveal the opposite to be the truth. Accelerating technology did not begin with the modern computer. It began before the Stone Age.

The blogger was right to suggest more time for interaction between attendees and presenters. As a former organizer for the science track of programming at Minicon, Minnesota’s very large SF convention, I can tell you point blank that some of the most enjoyable and learning intensive times at the con occurred out in the hallway and during semi-organized roundtable discussions.

The blogger also pointed out that a revolutionary development such as the Singularity would impact every aspect of our lives. Economics, the arts, leisure activities, sports, you name it, the Singularity would transform it. This point is well taken.

Perhaps if entrepreneurial organizers created a cross between last year’s “unconference” and the Singularity Summit with lots of cross-disciplinary programming and a number of less structured events, Singulatarians would have the chance to explore far more aspects of what we believe will be the most revolutionary era in human history.

The defensiveness of this post and the majority of comments is more alarming to me than the content of the blog itself.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes/7416/welcome?flow=join&m=4eed35b6

http://flavorwire.com/41891/man-vs-machine-the-singularity-summit-2009

So, when they ask what we’ll do as we live longer and longer and thus are afflicted by more and more dementia, I’ll just have to remind them that the core concept of extreme long life research is to end aging, not merely to extend the average lifespan.

I read most of the blog entries in “Futurisms” and got the feeling of an outsider flailing away at some radically new concepts.

Regular futurists have the same problem. Check out my essay on Cetron and Davies: The Problem with Linear Projections of the Future.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15249383/The-Problem-with-Linear-Projections-of-the-Future

I’m not convinced it’s possible to change the world. If one has enough money and influence, he or she may be able to change an isolated part of it. This isn’t new. Pharaoh knew it, Ghengis khan knew it, the sovereign kings of Europe knew it. These are extreme examples. The robber-barons of the industrial age knew it. Presently the rich & famous are living it…