Vichy Water – Author's Blog Just another WordPress weblog

First a few words on Singularity. On Monday night, I met three local high school honor students in a television studio to observe a taping. Give me a captive audience (sound proof room and glass window) and an idea (there were 73 prominent futuristic notions cerebrally floating around from the Singularity Summit). A few times as a little boy, I was in Bamberger’s Department Store in Newark. I loved elevator rides (my equivalent of the Starship Enterprise). As the doors opened and always a man with an oversized cap and uniform slid the metal doors slowly apart, my mother led me inside. I watched the floor indicator slowly move from left to right. Arrival sign on third floor said notions. “Hey mom, what’s a notion?” “Just stuff Calvin.”  I still don’t know. Back to the future and the high school kids: Picture me, filled with Singularity concepts and an earlier epiphany that my place in the world, and I espoused to several speakers, is to spread the message to mainstream youth, after all, I’ve come to accept, it’s their world. “Has anybody ever heard of Singularity and Ray Kurzweil?” A perfect expression of synchronistic lateral moving heads; “Just what I thought!”  Smiling, they stared quizzically at me. I hate that look; means a lot of work. Sometimes I get these ocular floaters; we all get them; mine usually are of a rocking chair variety and then they float away from fields of visions and dreams.

 

Delving time: So what would happen if and when greater than human intelligence is created either by building artificial intelligence or doing something expansive to our brains? I remember the movie ‘Forbidden  Planet’ in 1956 when a character takes the Krell mind boost. I made my 25 year old son watch that movie a few months ago then coincidentally, a few weeks later, at Hayden Planetarium, Dr. Michio Kaku tells us that ‘Forbidden Planet’ was his favorite movie growing up; a redemption for dad. Today technological advances move forward at an ever increasing rate. What if the intelligence we create could create even greater intelligence; prospects are hugely scary and remind me of ‘2001’ and ‘HAL,” the nasty computer. I never liked its voice; like an old science teacher back in Newark who gave me a ‘C.’ Aw hell, it was ‘D.’ This event was called Singularity by author and computer scientist, Vernor Vinge.

 

 

 

Ray Kurzweil (go Google him, he’s too amazing to even begin to blog about) has pioneered singularity concepts. One of his books, The Singularity Is Near was published in 2005 and is a movie.   http://www.singularity.com/themovie/index.php

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence is dedicated “to research and rational deliberation on the future of humanity and in particular the promise and perils of advanced artificial intelligence.” Hey, don’t forget IBM’s ‘Watson’ computer beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy earlier this year. Ken Jennings was the last speaker on Sunday; funny guy; smart too.

 

 

 

 

The Singularity Summit is in its sixth year casting a hopeful but cautious eye on the latest developments in science and technology and what portends for future of intelligence and therefore all of us, the human league family. If you’ve been reading my blog the past 20 months, you’ll remember I’m an environmentalist who doesn’t hold much earthly hope down the road. This year alone, I apologized to my son several times for what we’re environmentally leaving his generation. “Do you mean Dad, out of your guilt that I don’t have to pay my monthly phone bill anymore?” But for the first time in a decade, after spending two days at Singularity Summit, I’m not doom and environmental gloom. Wow, there’s amazing things coming. Maybe living forever, measuring consciousness, doubling earth’s agricultural output and three dimensional computing.(soon)  Christof  Koch (PhD. Biophysics) talked about measuring our consciousness (phi) with an equation. In the lobby, he said that one day we’ll even be able to see your dreams too; I thought a whole new field of law, “He dreamt, she dreamt.”

 

One scientist told me global warming will melt the polar ice caps so we’ll have plenty of water. But from a high placed oil company executive, a month ago, he said in confidence to a cousin, there’s plenty of oil but I’d start worrying about water; mixologist messages? Singularity Summit, at the 92nd StreetY, had about 600 attendees from all over the globe, mostly scientists, technologists, business people, press and me, representing OUR TOWN newspaper; I think the only journalist from New Jersey media.  A block away from the Y, I crossed the street at Third Avenue and 92nd. A manhole cover prominently displayed ‘Made in India.’ Is this globalization? It must’ve cost a fortune to ship those heavy objects. There were 24 speakers; all major global intellects.

 

Now hear this. The day before Singularity Summit, I went to Comic Con, NYC at Javits convention center for a complete roll me away reversal. Comic Con is also a mind expansive journey through the world of imagination and comics such that 100,000 show up, some dressed to kill, to explore their world of characters, gaming, pulp and plots. My son has me going for years and I love it; why not, I got a photo-op with ‘Snow White’ and r2d2 (I had to drop to my knees to meet him eye to eye).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflecting back on the past weekend, I wonder how many of the 101,000 visitors to both Singularity Summit and Comic Con mixed the two events as I did. Perhaps it’s one of those volatile mixtures like drinking and driving or tranquilizers. I’d like to think I’m one in 101,000. So I made it to both events last weekend; throw in a really great blues band (Slim Chance and The Gamblers in Aberdeen, NJ) late on Saturday night and I was a tad tired to write yesterday. A friend recently asked why I always run around; perhaps it’s partly posturing myself to feel the rays of the warm sun on my face which means staying alive by throwing as much into the old cortex as I can; perhaps it’s a Ponce De Leon thing; staying young and vital, stretching mind and body; perhaps it’s a cerebral maintenance thing much like an oil change for your car. Anti-aging phenomenon Aubrey de Grey said that over the weekend. I spoke to him briefly at Singularity.

You tube: Aubrey de Grey, “why we age and how we can avoid it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ

 

Back to chronological events. Comic Con was eye-opening. I ran around with a camera, jumping next to famous or infamous characters for photo-ops, marveling at Marvel Comic’s booth, observing really far out costumes; imagine one masculine soul having the fortitude/anatomy to run around in just under shorts. I did observe subtle changes in attendee demographics over the years, from hard core comic followers, escaping into its wondrous world of limitless imagination to something akin to mainstream Docker Polo folks just wanting to see ‘What’s it all about Alfie?’ Highlights included my first real interview as a reporter with Grant Alter, an accomplished writer from St. Louis who is adapting Richelle Mead’s ‘Storm Born’ comic; he’s also at Comic Con to promote his book. He’s a big proponent of Facebook for writers to network while artists still need websites. I agree with his Facebook contention. Soon he’ll be on his way to Wizard World in Austin. I invited myself; anything to get back to Texas. When I was in Austin last summer, in the capital building, taking an elevator (no men in hats to open doors) a civilian walks in wearing a holster and a real gun. You could cut my silence. Later I asked a Texas state trooper about the guy in a cowboy hat wearing a real gun, roaming around the capital building. “As long as it’s not concealed,” he said. I wondered if New Jersey would ever get there. You can’t sneeze in Trenton without; I humored myself.

 

So much went down at Singularity Summit. You know what, go to the website and check it out. In a week they’ll have podcasts of lectures etc.

http://www.singularitysummit.com/

If I had to capsule some self relevant highlights:

I’m always blogging about living to 150 years. Sonia Arrison, a futurist at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, Calif., said that by engaging end-of-life diseases like cancer, medical advances could nearly double human life expectancy to 150 years;  do  I ever feel vindicated. I met David Brin (PhD in physics and NY Times best selling author) at the coffee pot. In a passing remark during his question/answer segment, he said he’d like to see someone fund another clock, set up next to the National Debt clock showing what our debt would be if we charged royalties for satellite communications, the internet and pharmaceutical research. We chatted later. I told of my recurring futuristic colorized dream when I’m wearing a white toga, waiting in line for a cup of water and cracker then I’m sitting in a vast cathedral in 2050, thousands of people are all there wearing blue vests with the words, “How can I help you?” We laughed.

Jason Silva positively electrified with unbridled energetic imagination. “We need to give people goose bumps.” And what has to go down as a personal top ten event, Jason Silva asked to interview me. Funny thing as I observed, in addition to our physically seeing eye to eye, we’re ‘together’ on spreading the Singularity word. I had an epiphany just that morning, half-way through the lonely Lincoln Tunnel, that my place in the world of Singularity, as a growing media person, is to  imaginatively illuminate youth.  “I can do that. I still play beer pong. I relate to them. That’s what I’ll take back from this Summit; spreading the word.”

 

Check out this 2 minute video with Jason Silva (Imaginary Foundation)

¨http://www.vimeo.com/29938326

IBM scientists David Ferrucci and Dan Cerutti told how they watched Ken Jennings win 74 times in a row on Jeopardy and thought how neat to make a computer to beat him; the birth of ‘Watson.’ They envision one of the early uses of ‘Watson’ is in the medical field. Wait until the insurance companies get this machine instead of a doctor (hint). Stephen Badylak told it’s possible to re-grow muscles in humans and better yet, someday treating stroke patients by regenerating pieces of the functioning human brain.  Peter Theil, inventor of PayPal, would like us mainstream folks not to distrust or be uneasy with technology; look at Steve Jobs and how he deposited new technology in our laps. And fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a wild ride. Dimitry Itskov(‘Russia 2045’) has rather bold ‘where no man has gone before’ plans to create a human like avatar entity, transplanting a human brain into a new body in 15 years, and putting consciousness in hologram-like bodies in 35 years. Somewhere over the rainbow, I remember an Arnold Schwarznegger film (‘Total Recall’) and Baron Von Frankenstein yelling in my ear, “It’s alive!” I paid 25 cents back in the day to see that movie at the Park Theatre. A heavy scientific conference usually connotes unapproachable; Alexander Wissner-Gross(PhD Physics Harvard, triple major from MIT where he is a research affiliate in Media Lab) and I sat in an nearly empty press room talking anti-aging and beer keg stand youth-bonding which I explained in my Jersey accent.  He turned me on to a recent article on the potential of curing diabetes with a starvation diet.

 

And I didn’t understand everything. Stephen Wolfram made me feel like an amoeba on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Asbury Park. He would like to make as much of the world’s knowledge as possible, computable and accessible. I did understand when he said that he’s got data on every keystroke that he’s typed for the last 20 years. “Lions and tigers, oh my,” I thought sitting in the balcony,  momentarily checking Facebook messages on my Steve Jobs technology birthday gift for being an advanced senior citizen. But as I thought to myself in silence of the balcony, if I’m living to 150, then I’m not even at mid-life and no where near being a senior citizen. Hey, social security cost of living increase is up around 3% to $39 extra a month. Ken Jennings was bothered by losing to ‘Watson.’ It had to do with sense of self, dehumanization, being threatened but still left him with a sense of wonder. In closing, Ken Jennings said that when he was at IBM and preparing to take on ‘Watson’ for Jeopardy, he thought being there, “was an away game for humanity.” Perhaps.

 

 

 

I just lifted glasses off my head. I hear Walter Cronkite saying, “And that’s the way it is.” There was never enough time for him to cover the news each night in the 22 minutes CBS gave him. And not enough time for me to blog about being a kid last weekend on Christmas morning about to open a myriad of presents. I was a kid at Singularity; wanting to shove(open) as much as I could into my growing neo cortex and meet as many scientists and personalities as I could. I did it. I really did it. The day before, I was at Comic Con. I really did that. And I really think I was the only person (and Jersey journalist) left in the world who did both Comic Con and Singularity Summit. What does it all mean?  I thought about that sitting on my favorite Jersey Transit train contemplating smoke stacks and small sail boats in Raritan Bay, thinking about next summer dreams and sojourns. What does it all mean? I just thought that again sitting here at keyboard. I am getting younger with a lot of roads to travel and no rocking chairs (even if they’re on sale) in my future. Singularity has given me a mission to share and a jolt to my imagination and yes Virginia, there is a future Santa Claus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

website:

http://vichywater.net/

Facebook:  Cal Schwartz

 

Twitter:  Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long  

 

IMPORTANT LINKS:

 

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ????  Meet   LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

 

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR   www.njdiscover.com

 

 

 

 

 

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :

http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

 

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/