Kim Solez, MD

SingularityCourse

Course conceptualized in March 2011, tested with

focus groups in May for its suitability as a

course for both undergraduate and graduate

students.

SingularityCourse

The technological singularity occurs as artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest and most capable life forms on the Earth. Technological development is taken over by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what is going on. The machines enter into a "runaway reaction" of self-improvement cycles, with each new generation of A.I.s appearing faster and faster. From this point onwards, technological advancement is explosive, under the control of the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted (hence the term "Singularity"). – Ray Kurzweil

SingularityCourse

1) The technological Singularity.

2) Existential risks, AI, genomics, and nanotech.

3) Ways to optimize a positive outcome for

humanity in the co-evolution of humans and

machines.

4) The influence of these considerations on

medicine of the future.

SingularityCourse

The challenge of friendly AI becomes just a small part of a much larger challenge of creating a friendly world in which humans still have lives of significance, human history is retained and extended.

A positive outcome is possible, let’s make it likely. We all need to be engaged in ensuring a positive

outcome for humanity. The future is ours to shape. We need to get busy doing that!

Part of the imagined future could be one where all disease was eliminated but life was intolerable. Another where the only diseases are from bioterrorism.

SingularityCourse

All natural disease may be eliminated, leaving only man-made diseases. But that may leave as much for laboratory physicians to do as there is today!

Challenging responses to bioterrorism and stem cell technologies.

Focus of medicine no longer disease but enhancement, which will extend beyond the physical to the moral.

Social responsibility an important aspect of medicine and one of the focuses of the course. Physician responsible to individual patient and to society.

SingularityCourse

“It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habitation. Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.” -Rudolf Virchow

Ten minute introduction Fifty minute lecture Twenty minute discussion

Heather Graves, from Department of English and Film

Studies, in Faculty of Arts.

First teaching session 2011 Recent teaching session 2012

1)How I came to create this course

2)How it relates to Future of Pathology

1)In 1994 created websites for CAP, ISN, and RPS and NEPHROL Email discussion group2)In 1997 created NKF CyberNephrology and ISN Informatics Commission3)In 1999 new Lab Medicine Pathology chair Victor Tron suggested I broaden focus to CyberMedicine, and encouraged medical humanitarian ventures

1) In 2007 joined medical advisory board of new medical school in Nepal devoted to rural health, Patan Academy of Health Sciences (“PAHS”).

2) Now direct this project at UofA, sixteen UofA faculty are now involved in the PAHS project in Nepal.

1)Tech musings from the Hinterland.2)The first video was from Nepal.

Virtual microscopy one topic.

SingularityCourse

SingularityCourse

It became apparent that the best way to make this happen is to create a novel course of new design myself. Thus this course.

There are no similar courses out there at the moment.

Eventually it is our hope that hundreds of similar courses will begin appearing at Universities all over the world.

SingularityCourse

Some already know what the technological Singularity is, others don’t, and are finding out now.

However, if the people and ideas I present are genuinely new and interesting I should be able to satisfy both groups.

The most interesting aspects have to do with the impact on young people today.

Elenchus - Open Facebook Group

"Elenchus" is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposingviewpoints based on utilizing Socraticdialogue in asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas.

The only rule: Maintain Decorum :)

SingularityCourse

How Inside Outside and Singularity impact young people, important concepts discussed in course.

Big Bang Theory (the TV show; 16 million viewers) Singularity Summit (9,000 views per video) Kim Solez – Technology and Future of Medicine Course

LABMP 590 (900 views per video)

SingularityCourse

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However, Marcus Hutter suggests that there is an element of human insignificance that makes the whole scenario much more challenging. Also, Hutter has created a model general AI which makes the problem seem more immediate!

SingularityCourse

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However Marcus Hutter suggests that there is an element of human insignificance that makes the whole scenario much more challenging. Also Hutter has created a sort of general AI which makes the problem seem more immediate!

SingularityCourse

While these are “just” recreational games, they do contain many prototypical elements of the real world, such as food, enemies, friends, space, obstacles, objects, and weapons

Next could be a test in modern virtual worlds... that require intelligent agents, and finally some selected real-world problems

The same single [AIXI approximation “MC-AIXI-CTW”] has learned to play TicTacToe, Kuhn Poker, and most impressively, Pacman (Veness et al. 2011) from scratch

SingularityCourse

Outside the Singularity looking in it will be white noise

Inside the Singularity if everything speeds up at the same rate we may not notice anything; it may seem like normal life to us

Even if initially our biological brains count for something in our mental processes, very soon the processing power of the machine implant will vastly outstrip our biological brains. Our biological brains become insignificant regardless of the friendliness or lack thereof of the AI

SingularityCourse

Extreme risk taking because we can back ourselves up from backups if something bad happens

Insignificance, lack of identity. Why wait to create backups when we have the processing power to run several lives at once. Can replicate ourselves endlessly in seconds! No more waiting 9 months!

The world has little incentive to keep identities straight when biological brains contribute so little to mental processes. Bigger not better

Aimlessness, lack of sense of purpose

SingularityCourse

The challenge of producing a friendly AI becomes just a small part of the much larger challenge of creating a friendly world in which humans still have lives of significance, human history is retained and extended

A positive outcome is possible; let’s make it likely We all need to be engaged in ensuring a positive

outcome for humanity. The future is ours to shape. We need to get busy doing that!

A simple approach is needed to engage the general public on these matters!

SingularityCourse

SingularityCourse

SingularityCourse

SingularityCourse

SingularityCourse

Regulatory oversight that is completely focused on compliance. Discourages risk-taking and innovation.

Health care doesn't have the same financial reward system. Facebook isn't about to pay $1 billion for the latest hot-ticket item in imaging and informatics.

Security always trumps information sharing, and so better, faster linkages are constrained because of security concerns, most of which are bogus.

SingularityCourse

HealthAppsNotUsed