The School Of Future Knocks

摘要

Bill Gates calls him "the best person Irnknow at predicting the future of artificialrnintelligence." Computer scientist Doug-rnlas Hofstadter classifies his ideas as "therncraziest sort of dog excrement."rnRay Kurzweil is no stranger to contro -rnversy. For more than a decade, the inventor-turned-author has been issuingrnpredictions about superhuman cyborgs and biotech-based immortality that border on science fiction. Yet Kurzweil's theories continue to gain traction among mainstream techies, and they are also making their presence felt in corporate boardrooms. The latest vindication: Google and NASA are backing a new university modeled on his ideas, with additional funding from X Prize creator Peter H. Diamandis. Dubbed "Singularity University" and housed at NASArnAmes Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., the institute will feature intense 3- and 10-day workshops to help senior executives steer their companies into the future. Announced at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference in February, the school has recruited top-tier faculty, including Vint Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist, and Jim Karkanias, a research director at Microsoft. And among the students inquiring about the first executive classes this fall are venture capitalist Heidi Roizen and Judy Es-trin, former chief technology officer of Cisco Systems.