Tuesday 16 February 2010

Singular happenings

I can remember when it was quite a novelty to find that someone had transcribed a panel discussion, let alone recorded it: panels used to be these ephemeral things where you could come out with almost any amount of incoherent, ranting rubbish and - aside from those in the room - no one would ever know. Not any more, though. Now they're out there, for posterity - or whatever counts as posterity where digital artefacts are concerned. I should add that, where panels were recorded at Boskone, it was with the full consent of all involved.

Anyway, I was the moderator on this one, along with Vernor Vinge, Karl Schroeder and Charles Stross, and we were there to discuss the Singularity, the notion that at some point in the near future, everything's going to go bananas. Here's the discussion, as captured by Michael Johnson - and see Charlie Stross's blog for some interesting follow-up on some of the issues raised herein.

http://vimeo.com/9445223

5 comments:

  1. Too bad the audio quality is really poor. Four of my favorite authors in a row :-)

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  2. It didn't sound too bad when I played it back through headphones (with one channel dead) but maybe that's because I already knew the gist of what was said.

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  3. Thanks for linking to this, Al! Thanks for coming to Boston, also.

    Re: XiXiDu
    Try listening through headphones or a different device. I enhanced the audio 200% in iMovie fwiw, because the sound was indeed terrible. Good luck!

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  4. " . . .the notion that at some point in the near future, everything's going to go bananas"

    Best definition of The Singularity EVAR!

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  5. I just discovered your new blog. I shall be a frequent visitor.

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