Kim Solez, MD

1. Ten minutes. Can leave questions blank.

2. Content/format similar to parts of mid term October 24th. (Will also have multiple choice questions.)

3. Does not count toward your grade but allows us to see how much you already know and how much your knowledge is improved by course.

4. Helps us to structure future lectures in the course so they will better serve your needs.

1. To outline the basic plan of course and its expectations, due dates, evaluation criteria, and feedback mechanisms, and new features.

2. To begin to introduce basic concepts of the course including technological singularity, exponential change, existential risk, the accessible future.

3. To outline plans for November 16th Diversity Day.

4. To outline expectations for mid-term exam October 24th on material to October 19th, mentor and topic selection due November 9th, and the 3,000-4,000 word final paper due November 28th.

5. Course ends Nov. 30th. No Classes Dec. 5 and 7 due to TERMIS meeting in Charlotte NC and FAATJ.

1. 80 minute class periods Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each registered student will take on a special project of their own with guidance by the faculty and present the results of that special project in the latter portion of the course. See http://www.singularitycourse.com

2. The course emphasizes the idea of the “accessible future”. Concepts of the future which are easily understood by an informed general public and which follow rules of common sense, and are of practical value.

3. Taking the course on the road between semesters, mixing technology presentations with themed music and poetry: The Future and All That Jazz with Mallory Chipman. Arts and Humanities in Health and Medicine link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8TOJGQanJghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJjXtGUPKE Subjects addressed: AI and regenerative medicine.

1. Students will be evaluated on their presentation on their chosen project in the course (30%), a paper on that project (40%), the mid-term exam (20%) and class participation (10%).

2. Students should pick a mentor and final paper topic by Nov. 9th & inform Dr. Solez at kim.solez@ualberta.ca . The paper is due April 4th and should be 3,000 to 4,000 words excluding references (10-13 pages). The final paper and presentation must be on a subject related to one of the main themes of the course such as exponential change, the technological Singularity, nanotechnology, genomics, replacement of human labor by machines, existential risks, and medical ethics of the future. Sources of images used should be indicated. 5 points a day will be deducted for late work.

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

Course conceptualized in March 2011, tested with

focus groups inMay for its suitability as a

course for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Ten minute introduction

Fifty minute lecture

Twenty minute discussion

In the course we talk about machines replacing many of the functions of human beings. This picture was taken by a machine without human intervention, as were many of the best still images from the course. The video camera is constantly comparing the scene to algorithms and takes still pictures when the requirements of the interesting picture algorithm are satisfied.

First teaching session 2011 Teaching session 2012

Hot-linked tables of contents in YouTube video descriptions allow one

to jump right to content of interest.

Acceptance. Share power. The AIs will not all be under our control. They

will compete and cooperate with us

just like other people, except with greater diversity and

Asymmetries We need to set up mechanisms (social, legal, political,

cultural) to ensure that this works out well Inevitably, conventional

humans will be less important. Step 1: Lose your sense of entitlement

Step 2: Include AIs in your circle of empathy

Thought provoking for us all!

AI Safety and Regenerative Medicine: Areas Where We Need to Broaden Audience By Going Beyond Lecturing to Other Communication Modalities:

The Future and All That Jazz with Mallory Chipman

We endeavor to shoot broadcast quality video of each lecture and discussion.

Previous lectures on YouTube.com at /user/KimSolez.

Course website

http://www.singularitycourse.com

Readings suggested by Email.

The technological Singularity. Existential

risks, AI, genomics, and nanotech.

Ways to optimize a positive outcome for

humanity in the co-evolution of humans

and machines . The influence of these

considerations on medicine of the future.

Prominent people internationally. Most

lectures not very “medical”. Easily

understood.

Balanced view provided by incorporating

both tech skeptics and tech advocates.

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.

Considerable youth orientation in the course. Faculty are getting younger and younger.

Material from course taught to first year medical students.

Student group related to course. Planning optional activities outside of class time. Movies. Entertainment. Food. Diversity Day Nov. 16th.

Link to poetry readings at The Nook Café (on Tuesday nights). Course is the subject of my poetry. The Road Home mornings on CKUA with Bob Chelmick.

Link with December 3-6 TERMIS meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Transplantation Pathology Morphs into Tissue Engineering Pathology.

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

Nova program on PBS Television (7 million viewers)

Big Bang Theory (the TV show; 80 million viewers)

Smart phone owners (3 billion people).

Singularity Summit (9,000 views per video)

Kim Solez – Technology and Future of Medicine Course LABMP 590 (4,200 views per video)

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

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 of the AI

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

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!

This course is a beginning attempt at achieving that.

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.

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 beone where all disease was eliminated but life was intolerable. Another where the only diseases are from bioterrorism.

All natural disease may be eliminated, leaving

only man-made diseases. But that may leave

as much for 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.

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

It became apparent that the best way to make this happen was for me to create a novel course of new design. Thus, this course.

Presently, we know of no similar courses being presented elsewhere, except for the Lessons in Digital Health course in Budapest and BartsLondon X Future Medicine (SU based).

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

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.

We need the mainstream public to regard the coming Technological Singularity as fact, not fiction.

We need to promote organized thinking about the future in Universities and beyond.

We need to think of all the ways to increase our reach from this one course to the world at large.

Cooperation with Barts London & SemmelweisUniversity Medical School Courses.

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has embedded Barts X Future Medicine, largely SU based, as a compulsory subject in the medical school this year following a pilot for 120 students last year.

This semester, Bertalan Meskó at SemmelweisUniversity in Budapest is launching a new course for medical students, Lessons in Digital Health. He will work very closely with 20 students to make them the most future oriented medical professionals.