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Rod Furlan 2:09 pm on February 3, 2012 Permalink | Reply

Will Artificial Intelligence be America’s Next Big Thing?

I was just mentioned on an article published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

“In economic terms, automation in general should be seen as a leveraging factor that amplifies the output of workers,” says Rod Furlan, an AI researcher and machine-learning expert based in Vancouver.

“Thanks to the availability of legal software, one lawyer can do today work that required a team of assistants 10 years ago. Ten years from now, an individual lawyer may be able to service as many cases as a small firm does today, all thanks to AI advancements. Going forward, we can expect to do less boring work and have more time for truly intellectual tasks which are less likely to be automated in the near term.”

Furlan says that as more businesses embrace aggressive automation opportunities through AI and advanced robotics, we’re likely to see more companies that, like Google, have an astronomical revenue-per-employee ratio. He adds that he’s still “bullish” on AI and is confident that businesses and individuals will be able to adapt to the new era of increased worker capability.

Read the full article.

Rod Furlan 6:06 pm on August 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

Objects of Beauty

Today I revisited my childhood at the Computer History Museum. We have come such a long way already and I can’t wait to to see what the future has in store for us.
Rod Furlan 10:57 pm on July 22, 2011 Permalink | Reply

How algorithms shape our world

Great TED talk on algo trading, AI and the brave new world of computational finance.
Rod Furlan 6:32 pm on April 12, 2011 Permalink | Reply

My National Geographic Interview On Human Augmentation

“Right now, it’s easy for us to distinguish between a human being and a machine. However this line will become increasingly blurry in the future. [20 years from now] You will start by getting visual and auditory implants, then you are going to have your midlife crisis, and instead of going out and buying a sports car, you will instead buy a sports heart to boost your athletic performance.

The transition will happen little by little as you opt-in for more enhancements. Then one day you will wake up and realize that you’re more artificial than natural.

Eventually we will become unable to draw a crisp line between human beings and machines. We will evolve and by changing our bodies we will change the way we relate to the world. It is going to be fundamentally a good thing.

It is just evolution – artificial evolution.“

On that note, here is a terrific TED talk by Aimee Mullins – “How my legs give me superpowers”:
Rod Furlan 2:15 pm on April 9, 2011 Permalink | Reply

US Research System Inefficiencies

I decided to share my personal notes on the inefficiencies I have observed on the US public research system, you can find it here. Or if you prefer, you can download it as a mindmap.
Rod Furlan 11:12 am on June 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Changing the world, one grand challenge at the time

“If I was a student this is where I would want to be.” – Larry Page, Google co-founder regarding Singularity University (video below)
Rod Furlan 11:40 am on June 20, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Advancing Substrate Independent Minds 2010

ASIM (Advancing Substrate Independent Minds) is a new series of workshops and activities that will cover the current state of the art in the fields of whole brain emulation, brain scanning, gradual replacement techniques, and brain preservation.

The sessions of the ASIM workshop will run after the Singularity Summit workshop on Monday and Tuesday, as a satellite event to the main Singularity Summit (August 14-15). The Singularity Summit workshop finishes at 5pm on both days, so there will be time to find some dinner before joining us for our evening sessions.If you are interested in attending and would like more information, please feel free to contact the organizers.
Rod Furlan 11:24 am on April 12, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Taking a stand against the unthinking
Rod Furlan 5:08 pm on April 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Can science answer moral questions?
Rod Furlan 2:33 pm on February 6, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Beautiful Visualization of Twitter’s Development Process

Icons represent developers, particles represent source code files that were either changed or committed. Created using Code Swarm. Simply beautiful!
Rod Furlan 11:13 pm on January 7, 2010 Permalink

Exploring the Brain-Computer Interface: Singularity University Partners with X Prize Labs @ MIT

Imagine a direct connection between the human brain and the world’s most powerful computers… What if you could type with your thoughts? Or help the blind to see? Or give an amputee control over his bionic arm? How can the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) positively affect humanity’s grandest challenges?

Singularity University partnered with X Prize Lab @ MIT for the 2-day “Brain-Computer Interfaces: Igniting a Revolution” workshop that kicked off today to discuss these questions and more with some of the leading minds in neurobiology. Special guests included SU co-founder and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, Ed Boyden, Director of the MIT Synthetic Neurobiology Group, and Gerwin Schalk, Director BCI2000, Wadsworth Center.

SU Graduate Studies Program alum Rod Furlan interviewed a few of the BCI experts to get their thoughts on the state of BCI, where it’s headed, and how it can affect “humanity’s grand challenges.” Check back soon for those videos, as well as the lively panel discussion on the future of BCI with Peter Diamandis, Ed Boyden, and SU instructor and Omneuron founder Christopher deCharms.
Rod Furlan 12:40 pm on January 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply

The Evolution of Life in 60 seconds

Very, very exponential – enjoy!
Rod Furlan 2:42 pm on January 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply

Welcome to the Man-Machine University

I was just featured on an article published by the Estado de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest newspapers, mother will be certainly proud.

Welcome to the Man-Machine University

(Translated by Amazon Mechanical Turk)

At age 9, he taught himself to write computer programs. At 10, he devoured books in English on the subject, using a dictionary to translate it word by word. At age 15, he founded BBS, a precursor service of the Internet. At 22, shortly after becoming a director of a large technology company, he decided it was time to leave everything behind to “conquer the world.”

The curriculum of Rod Furlan, 30, impressed the directors of one of the boldest educational institutions in the world, Singularity University (SU) in California.

Starting with the name, inspired by the book The Singularity is Near by futurist and founder of SU, Dr. Ray Kurzweil, nothing is conventional in the institution, which is also known as the Google University because the Internet giant is one of the founders and supporters of the institution, located within the NASA Ames Research Center in the Silicon Valley.

“We seek enterprising people, willing to face great challenges,” says the executive director of the SU., Salim Ismail, who was in Sao Paulo this month to establish a partnership with the Faculty of Information Technology (Fiap). After the program, students must submit a proposal that to positively impact on the lives of at least 1 billion people in the following decade.

Participating in this dream team university is not easy. The applicant must be an expert in matters such as networks and computer systems, biotechnology and nanotechnology, medicine and neuroscience, robotics and artificial intelligence, public policy, law or finance. Last year 1,200 candidates competed for 40 seats, this year 1600 to compete with 80 available.

“It was the best time of my life,” said Furlan. According to the Brazilian student, he alternated days of talks with senior officials from companies like Google itself with yoga classes and site visits. And at night, the participants met at the NASA lodge to discuss all that they had learnt about the future for hours. “SU is also known as Sleepless University, because students do not sleep,” jokes Ismail.
Rod Furlan 12:41 pm on January 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply

New Year’s Resolutions for 2010

“Become ruthlessly efficient, work less, own less stuff, read more, spend more time with people I love and change the world“

I am also planning (but not committing) to: write more, outsource more, gain 10 pounds of lean muscle, have at least one project in the VR space and learn how to control a computer using an EEG interface no matter how exhausting it might be (BCI).

David Orban, Rod Furlan, and Collin Bockman are discussing.
- Collin Bockman 8:57 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  
  “learn how to control a computer using an EEG interface no matter how exhausting it might be”
  
  Rod, does this mean you’ve purchased one of the Emotiv headsets? You’ll have to let me know if it is at all useful.
- Rod Furlan 9:40 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  
  Actually, I got a NIA instead: http://bit.ly/xtBz
- David Orban 6:00 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  
  My son @cosmyco also has a NIA. You two should find a way to train together online in VR, reaching two of your ’10 goals simultaneously!
Rod Furlan 3:30 pm on December 17, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Greetings From Future Camp

Popular Science have just published a cool article about our summer at Singularity University. Late but great!

“According to Ray Kurzweil, the Singularity is a point at which man will become one with machine and then live eternally—which makes Singularity University, a nine-week academic retreat named for the concept, sound a little cultish. Our writer traveled west to investigate and found 40 stunningly sane brainiacs out to change the world.” – Popular Science [read full article]
Rod Furlan 9:54 pm on December 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Singularity University Executive Program

When: February 26 – March 6, 2010

Where: NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA

Who: Decision-makers, strategists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, government leaders — anyone thinking about their company and industry over a 5-to-10-year horizon

Click Here To Apply
Rod Furlan 1:04 pm on October 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Supercomputing the brain’s secrets

“Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved — soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they’re made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain’s 100,000,000,000,000 synapses.”
Rod Furlan 2:34 pm on October 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

Towards a silicon brain

“Researcher Kwabena Boahen is looking for ways to mimic the brain’s supercomputing powers in silicon — because the messy, redundant processes inside our heads actually make for a small, light, superfast computer.”

Brains in Silicon lab @ Stanford
Rod Furlan 5:12 pm on September 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
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How to give a Nano-Talk

I find it hard to imagine anything more disruptive to capitalism as we know it than nanotechnology. This summer at Singularity University we had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Merkle who taught us how to give a “nano-talk” in order to explain the benefits of nanotech to anyone:

The field of [field] is critically dependent on [product].

[Product] are made from atoms. Nanotechnology will let us make [product] that are lighter, stronger, smarter, cheaper, cleaner and just better.

This will have a huge impact on [field], for example, we could even have [product] that are [astonishing parameter] and cost only [remarkably cheap]!

Here is an example to drive the point home:

The field of [bicycling] is critically dependent on [bicycles].

[Bicycles] are made from atoms. Nanotechnology will let us make [bicycles] that are lighter, stronger, smarter, cheaper, cleaner and just better.

This will have a huge impact on [bicycling], for example, we could even have [bicycles] that are [just half a pound] and cost only [a dollar]!
Rod Furlan 1:59 pm on September 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

My Summer at Singularity University