A little bit of smile inducing, starry eyed optimism to balance out the post-apocalyptic horror-show version of the Singularity depicted in the other shot film I posted.
‘PROTO’ is a short film, produced by Eye Candy Film as an international co-production between Screen South based in the UK and Film Fyn based in Denmark.
The film was shot in August 2011 at Robocluster in Denmark, a genuine working robotics lab. It was completed in June 2012 and will premiere later this year.
CGI was completed by VERL, Dundee. Additional CG was provided by James Kearsley http://www.jkstudios.tv/
DIRECTOR, WRITER: Nicholas Pittom PRODUCER: Richard Georg Engström PRODUCTION COMPANY: Eye Candy Film DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Luke Palmer
‘PROTO’ is a sci-fi action adventure, about a child-like, experimental robot, set in the robotics lab where he has been built. Although PROTO has been made to fulfil the ambitions of his creator, Prof. Andrews, he learns to find his own dreams and ambitions, and also the strength needed to realise them.
The main theme of the film is freedom, both literal and in the ability to choose one’s own destiny – to break free of expectations. We wish for the film, while an exciting and fun science fiction, to also capture a magical sense of wonder. PROTO will overcome the expectations and restrictions placed on him and discovering his true self.
** This film starts over black so have your speakers up nice and loud! ** Check out this fantastic Sci-Fi short film directed by the talented Samuel Jorgensen, and Produced by Jeremy Pronk!
In the midst of a war between humans and sentient androids, a Delta Force team must battle a dangerous enemy to rescue the US President.
Raymond “Ray” Kurzweil is an American author, computer scientist, inventor and futurist. Aside from futurology, he is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, and gives public talks to share his optimistic outlook on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology.
Kurzweil admits that he cared little for his health until age 35, when he was found to suffer from a glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes (a major risk factor for heart disease). Kurzweil then found a doctor (Terry Grossman, M.D.) who shares his non-conventional beliefs to develop an extreme regimen involving hundreds of pills, chemical intravenous treatments, red wine, and various other methods to attempt to live longer. Kurzweil was ingesting “250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea” every day and drinking several glasses of red wine a week in an effort to “reprogram” his biochemistry. Lately, he has cut down the number of supplement pills to 150.
Emerging technologies are shaking up how we grow food, distribute it, and even what we’re eating. We are seemingly on the cusp of a food revolution and undoubtedly, technologies including artificial intelligence will play a huge role in helping people grow healthier, more resilient food faster and with less energy than ever before.
Rob Nail, Singularity University’s CEO and Associate Founder, provides a few examples of how robotics, automation, and drones are transforming agriculture in this short video:
An interesting look at the singularity gone awry. No other form of fiction (in any medium) even comes close to truly and honestly exploring our immediate future — be it for good OR for ill. Fantastic game, too.
Computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, founder of the California-based Singularity University, claims that by 2030s humans could be using nanobots to connect our brains to the cloud.
Ray Kurzweil’s singularity of human superintelligence is a polar opposite of the singularity described by Vinge, Hawking, and Bostrom:
“The singularity will be a merger of our bodies and minds with our technology. The world will still be human, but transcend our biological roots. There will be no distinction between human and machine, nor between physical and virtual reality.”
Dear readers,
This month celebrates the 10 year anniversary of the classic book The Singularity Is Near, written by Ray Kurzweil, published in September 2005.
In the decade since its publication, we’ve witnessed an explosion of breakthroughs in genetic engineering, medical regeneration of the human body, autonomous robotics, computing power, and renewable energy. Advanced sensor arrays and internet meshes are uniting all people and things within the interconnected environments we live in, and with each other. Today’s massively scaled, crowd-sourced knowledge, innovation, and shared human experience are driving this momentum. The future is now.
