…As predicted by the Master of the Key – A new university has been founded to get ready for an expected gigantic increase in human knowledge coming over the next fifty years, and to prepare the way for computers that are more intelligent than humans. The Master of the Key, an unusually prescient man that Whitley Strieber met briefly in 1998, said, “To save yourselves, you must learn to build machines that are more intelligent than you are,” and the founders of Singularity University are expecting just that to happen by mid-century.
The school is backed by Larry Page, Google co-founder, and Peter Diamandis, chief executive of X-Prize, which provides grants to support technological change.
It is to be headed by Ray Kurzweil, whose 2005 book “The Singularity is Near” suggests that a period of extreme technological progress is in the process of developing right now.
Proponents of artificial intelligence see the advent of genius computers as a blessing that will help us solve our most urgent problems, but critics suggest that they might be dangerous, especially if they turn out to be malevolent or even deceitful, and decide to destroy us instead.
One of the most haunting moments in the Key comes when Whitley Strieber asks the Master whether or not he is an intelligent machine. He replies that, if he was, he wouldn’t reveal it.
For MORE haunting moments, don’t miss this week’s Dreamland, when William Henry tells us all about his recent trip to Egypt, where one of the people on his tour died (of natural causes, not terrorism, a rumor that was spread by a few less reputable internet sites). For subscribers, he speculates on where she may have gone.
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