Singularity University
 

The new Singularity University is a school aimed at both students and executives in various technology disciplines, founded and backed by: Ray Kurzweil, Peter Diamandis of the X Prize Foundation, and Google co-founder Larry Page.

http://singularity-university.org/

The Singularity University Web site identifies these areas of technology for its curriculum:

Future Studies & Forecasting

Networks & Computing Systems

Biotechnology & Bioinformatics

Nanotechnology

Medicine, Neuroscience & Human Enhancement

AI, Robotics, & Cognitive Computing

Energy & Ecological Systems

Space & Physical Sciences

Policy, Law & Ethics

Finance & Entrepreneurship

It's the beginning of the end!

Slashdot mentioned the TED conference earlier, but I didn't find Kurzweil's talk. The tuition is very steep ($25,000 for nine weeks), but I suppose if you have that much money to spend on summer school, you may just be influential enough to make the singularity actually happen.

Also, why does the string "Chancellor Raymond Kurzweil" scare me?

These two things interest me and are possibly related and valuable to my major. Assuming this is still around and we're all still alive later in my schooling, I'll possibly consider doing this.

Why wouldn't we be alive?

You dare ask that question!?

AI, Robotics & Cognitive Computing and Biotechnology and Bioinformatics are their courses that interest me most.

At this stage, their courses that seem to have a very wide scope (such as Networks & Computing Systems) are probably intended to be useful for graduate students, PhDs and researchers who has already covered a lot of ground in other, semi-related field(s). However, I don't really see why anyone would want to spend $25,000 on a nine-week crash course in such a subject.

Imagine that you're going to attend an introduction class in networks & computing systems at a "regular" university. You get to choose between a regular university lecturer and a nobel laureate as your teacher for the class. The nobel laureate may seem like a better choice at first, but his or her teaching methodology may be worse than that of the regular lecturer (the latter, after all, spends a lot of time honing his or her teaching skills).

If you haven't already specialized in said field (which arguably cannot be done due to the topical expanse of "Networks & Computing Systems"), there will be a lot of new concepts to absorb. Thus, the progression from the initial encounter of the concepts in question to useful application of the assimilated knowledge is expected to take a significant amount of time, no matter how good your teacher is. Thus, at a tuition ratio of 25:1, the choice of whether to attend a regular university class or a course at the singularity university is not a difficult one.

(Emphasis: My aforementioned critique is only aimed at generalist courses. Their specialized courses appear very promising.)