NASA and Google To Back New "Singularity University" 294
Slatterz and Keith Kleiner were among several readers to send in word of Singularity University, announced at TED today by Ray Kurzweil. He and X Prize founder Peter Diamandis began talking about creating the school last year, after Diamandis read Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity is Near. NASA and Google are both supporting the project, NASA with space and Google with cash. The school aims to foster "disruptive innovation." As envisioned, Singularity U. will sponsor 3-day and 10-day courses for executives year-round, and its main offering will be a single 9-week course of study over the summer for 120 students, each of which will pay $25,000 for the privilege. Announced faculty so far includes Nobel Prize winning physicist George Smoot, NASA Ames chief scientist Stephanie Langhoff, Vint Cerf, and Will Wright, creator of the video games Spore and The Sims.
Kurzweil/Diamandis TED slideshow released (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Doing != Teaching (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think this is going to work because although these people are the top in their fields, it doesn't make them good teachers, which is important if you're paying $25,000 for a 10 day course.
It will work because it looks great on a resume which is all modern education is good for anyway.
Re:Sad. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nowhere (Score:5, Informative)
Where is the force-multiplier for the mind?
You are sitting in front of one of those.
A computer doesn't help you with any physical work.
Re:Doing != Teaching (Score:5, Informative)
...and its main offering will be a single 9-week course of study over the summer for 120 students, each of which will pay $25,000 for the privilege...
You obviously missed that part.
Other than that, you make a good point, though.
Re:This is a bait and switch scam (Score:2, Informative)
[The hubris of calling your potential clients 'c-level' boggles my mind]
I have no idea about the bait-and-switch-ness of this whole thing, but one minor point: a "c-level executive" refers to an executive whose acronym begins with a "C", e.g. CEO, CTO, etc. etc. So the hubris is not in demeaning their own clients, but rather in inflating their importance (which, I guess, was already obvious).