UA News

The virtual lecture will address how information technologies will transform humans

A world-renowned thinker and inventor who has been called perhaps technology's "most credibly hyperbolic optimist" will be "teleported" to The University of Arizona's Centennial Hall to give a free public lecture at 7 p.m. March 5.

Ray Kurzweil, chairman and chief executive officer of Kurzweil Technologies, will deliver the sixth and final lecture for "The Edges of Life" lecture series, sponsored by the UA College of Science. Kurzweil's appearance, via teleportation technology developed by Teleportec of Dallas is co-sponsored by the UA College of Engineering.

Kurzweil is the world's only lecturer to have a Teleportec teleporter installed in his office. Although Kurzweil will be speaking from Wellesley, Mass., he will appear at UA Centennial Hall as his three-dimensional, life-sized self, standing behind the lectern, in front of the local background. Kurzweil and his audience will be able to make eye-to-eye contact in interactive real time, courtesy of three ISDN lines. Unlike standard video conferencing, teleportation is a dramatic illusion created with the ISDN connections and a few peripheral staging elements.

This futuristic lecture medium fits Kurzweil's lecture topic, titled "Life's Technological Edge: The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology." The title comes from the title of Kurzweil's 2005 New York Times best seller, and also the title of his movie to be released later this year.

Humanity is on the edge of a vast transformation, Kurzweil says. He envisions that information technologies are advancing so far and so fast that "Humans are on the brink of breaking their genetic shackles to create a technological intelligence trillions of times more powerful than today. Humans will transcend biological limitations to achieve entirely new levels of progress and longevity."

Kurzweil recently developed and introduced the first pocket-sized print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader. He is founder and editor-in-chief of KurzweilAI.net, a Web site that archives more than 1,000 articles by more than 100 authors on the future of technology and its impact on society.

Kurzweil is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Kurzweil Cyber Art Technologies, which creates software that creates art, and also FAT KAT Inc., which stands for Financial Accelerating Transactions from Kurweil Adaptive Technologies, which is developing artificially intelligent systems for making stock market transaction decisions.

Other companies he founded include Kurzweil Music Systems Inc., a leading brand of musical instruments for professional and amateur musicians, and Kurzweil Educational Systems, which develops and markets educational software for those with reading disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, low vision and visual impairment. Thousands of schools in the United States and other countries have adopted Kurzweil software products for the reading disabled.

"The Edges of Life" lecture series has been a marked success, with more than 1,200 attending each of the previous five lectures.

"Putting this series together has been great because we can show our community the fantastic talent that is available in the College of Science," Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the college, said. "What makes me the proudest, however, is to live in a community that is so eager to learn. It really is a pleasure to organize these lectures for a community like ours."

Gary Lotze, director of operations at Centennial Hall, and his staff will set the stage and connect equipment supplied by Teleportic for the teleported lecture on Monday afternoon.

"The ISDN lines were installed and are supported by University Information Technology Services. The UITS staff was extremely supportive and instrumental to making this event happen," Lotze said.

Lotze and Teleportic will collaborate in a test rehearsal of the lecture on Tuesday morning.