Ray Kurzweil Giving GDC 2008 Keynote...From The Future!
Oh, oh, oh - I know I cannot be the only dork in Dorksville who's wetting his rubber sheets at the thought of a GDC keynote address by futurist, transhumanist, author and all-around genius idea-guy Ray Kurzweil. Dubbed the "rightful heir to Thomas Edison" by Inc. magazine and "the ultimate thinking machine" by Forbes and "crazy as a loon" by the conservative science establishment, Kurzweil has received honors from three presidents and is your go-to guy if you're interested in immortality through science or just want to meet the man who invented the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, and the first music synthesizer that could recreate a grand piano.
In other words, the dude's got street cred.
And he'll be flashing that cred at GDC in February with his keynote address, "The Next 20 Years of Gaming." Whatever he's got to say may sound far-fetched, but to say that it's guaranteed to be interesting is an understatement. Hearing men like Ray Kurzweil speak in person is half the reason I picked up the pen keyboard in the first place!
GDC 2008 Gets Keynote From Futurist Ray Kurzweil [Gamasutra]
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Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 3 January 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: gdc 2008, ray kurzweil, transhumanism
He's crazy as a loon because he's CRAZY AS A LOON! He may be smart enough to invent some pretty incredible stuff, but he has no clue about humanity or a sense of history. Singularity? full AI and immorality in 20 to 50 years? Bullshit. The whole thing has a sort of L. Ron Hubbard feel to it.
His whole theory of the future is based on the rapid technological advancement of one or two specific industries, and that the rate of advancement will be maintained. Thats a huge assumption. He's no better than the "We'll have flying CARS!" dudes from the 50's.
How about instead getting someone actually involved in the videogames industry? He may have some... interesting... ideas, but I fail to see his relevance to the conference's subject.