Ray Kurzweil
Executives anxious about bridging the gap between business as usual and exponential advances in science and technology have been given a checklist for their attention. These are the technologies recommended by the experts: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Medicine and Human-Machine Interfaces, Networks & Computing Systems, and Energy & Environmental Systems.
These were the subjects at a nine-day seminar for entrepreneurs, CEOs, venture capitalists, and government leaders from around the world. It was held last Summer at Singularity University headquartered at NASA Ames in Mountain View, California.
The organizers, futurist, inventor, scientists Ray Kurzweil and X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, explained that their purpose at this technology boot camp is to provide a sense of where opportunities lie–and the dangers of failing to prepare for them.
Diamandis commented, “If we do our job right, this will affect where companies invest, the types of companies they acquire or don’t acquire, the type of employees they hire, and where they put their research and development dollars.
Kurzweil alerted the attendees to a reality that will affect the entire business world. He said, “We will have plenty of computation as we go through the 21st century. That is not so controversial. The more controversial aspect is really, will we have the software?”