[Sci-tech-public] FW: An Evening with Ray Kurzweil - May 11 at the Coolidge

[David Mindell]

-----Original Message-----
From: cheryl at coolidge.org [mailto:cheryl at coolidge.org] 
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 10:43 AM
To: mindell at mit.edu
Subject: An Evening with Ray Kurzweil - May 11 at the Coolidge

Dear Professor Mindell,

Thought the following would be of interest. Hope you can join us and will
spread the word to your colleagues, students, and others whom you think
would be interested.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like a flyer for
posting.

Many thanks!

Kind regards,

Cheryl White
Coolidge Corner Theatre
617/699-7285
cheryl at coolidge.org
__________________
The Coolidge Corner Theatre concludes the 2008-2009 season of its acclaimed
Science on Screen series on Monday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m.
with a special program, An Evening with Ray Kurzweil. The celebrated
futurist, inventor and entrepreneur will give a multimedia presentation
based on his best-selling book The Singularity is Near: When Humans
Transcend Biology and will show a trailer of the upcoming film of the same
name. Audience members will also get a sneak peek at Transcendent Man,
director Barry Ptolemy's documentary charting Kurzweil's journey to bring
the ideas from The Singularity to a worldwide audience. Kurzweil will lead a
question-and-answer session following his talk.

According to Kurzweil, the onset of the 21st century is the beginning of an
era in which the very nature of what is means to be human will be both
enriched and challenged. As our species breaks the shackles of its genetic
legacy, we will achieve inconceivable heights of intelligence, material
progress, and longevity. The paradigm shift rate is now doubling every
decade, so the 21st century will see 20,000 years of progress at today's
rate. Computation, communication, biological technologies, knowledge of the
human brain, and human knowledge in general are all accelerating at an even
faster pace. Three-dimensional molecular computing will provide the hardware
for human-level "strong"artificial intelligence well before 2030.
 The more important software insights will be gained in part from the
reverse engineering of the human brain, a process well under way. While the
social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound,
and the threats they pose considerable, Kurzweil will present an inspiring
vision of our ultimate destiny.

One of the leading inventors of our time, Kurzweil has developed pioneering
technologies in the areas of music synthesis, speech and character
recognition, reading technology, virtual reality and cybernetic art.  A
graduate in computer science from MIT, Kurzweil is the recipient of the
MIT-Lemelson Prize for invention, the National Medal of Technology, honors
from three U.S. presidents, 18 honorary doctorates, and seven national and
international film awards. He has written five books, of which four have
been national best sellers. The Singularity is Near was a New York Times
best seller and the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy.

Tickets: $9.75 regular admission; $7.75 for students, seniors and Museum of
Science members; free for Coolidge Corner Theatre members. Tickets are
available in advance at the box office, located at 290 Harvard Street in
Brookline, or on-line at www.coolidge.org/science.  For more details, visit
the Coolidge web site or call 617/734-2500.