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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 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.”

  Read the full article.

   

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  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.
  

  

   
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  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.

   
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  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)

   
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  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.

   
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  Rod Furlan 11:24 am on April 12, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Taking a stand against the unthinking 

   
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  Rod Furlan 5:08 pm on April 1, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  Can science answer moral questions? 

   
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  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!

   
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  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.

   
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  Rod Furlan 12:40 pm on January 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  The Evolution of Life in 60 seconds 

  Very, very exponential – enjoy!

   
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  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.

   
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    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.

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    Rod Furlan 9:40 am on January 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply

    Actually, I got a NIA instead: http://bit.ly/xtBz

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    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!

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  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]

  

   
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  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

   
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  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.”

   
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  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