A film has been made about Ray Kurzweil and his ideas, with superhuman nomenclature, the "Transcendant Man". The film was screened at the Tribeca festival.
The film was designed to showcase the ideas in a sympathetic but not uncritical light:
Kurzweil, who travels around the world, is an accomplished lecturer and his audiences are largely self-selecting enthusiasts.
But Ptolemy said the inventor got a strong push-back from audiences in Brazil, where his arguments that falling prices would democratize the availability of life-extending technologies were met by skepticism. Critics said such advances, if possible, would simply open up a gaping chasm between the few who could afford technology-aided immortality and the far more numerous have-nots, he said.
Ptolemy, who has been tracking downloads of a film trailer of “Transcendent Man” on the Internet, said it is getting hits from South Africa, eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, in addition to the predominant centers of interest in North America and Europe.
“At a grassroots level people seem to be interested in these idea worldwide,” he said.
They should be. Technology and science are the engines of the future. But most people don't know how these engines work or where they may be taking us. Kurzweil is one of the few who looks down the road. Another is Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, whose essay, “Why the future doesn't need us,” offers an alarmist view of the potentially uncontrollable power of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Kurzweil is more optimistic, arguing that humans could master these perils by adopting the old adage, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Whether the balance tilts toward promise or peril, “Transcendent Man” affords us a telescopic view of a world just over the horizon that we can't afford to ignore.
Read more GlobalPost dispatches about the future:
The film was designed to showcase the ideas in a sympathetic but not uncritical light:
Ptolemy says the title of the documentary, “Transcendent Man” is a play on words — it is meant to describe the human-machine constructs Kurzweil envisions, as well as his efforts to live out his own views. For instance, Kurzweil takes more than 100 nutritional supplements each day, as he hopes to live long enough to benefit from artificial life extension technologies.
Kurzweil, who travels around the world, is an accomplished lecturer and his audiences are largely self-selecting enthusiasts.
But Ptolemy said the inventor got a strong push-back from audiences in Brazil, where his arguments that falling prices would democratize the availability of life-extending technologies were met by skepticism. Critics said such advances, if possible, would simply open up a gaping chasm between the few who could afford technology-aided immortality and the far more numerous have-nots, he said.
Ptolemy, who has been tracking downloads of a film trailer of “Transcendent Man” on the Internet, said it is getting hits from South Africa, eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, in addition to the predominant centers of interest in North America and Europe.
“At a grassroots level people seem to be interested in these idea worldwide,” he said.
They should be. Technology and science are the engines of the future. But most people don't know how these engines work or where they may be taking us. Kurzweil is one of the few who looks down the road. Another is Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, whose essay, “Why the future doesn't need us,” offers an alarmist view of the potentially uncontrollable power of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Kurzweil is more optimistic, arguing that humans could master these perils by adopting the old adage, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Whether the balance tilts toward promise or peril, “Transcendent Man” affords us a telescopic view of a world just over the horizon that we can't afford to ignore.
Read more GlobalPost dispatches about the future:
3 comments:
You say the film is "available on torrent" but I can't find it. So where is it available?
Sorry about the delayed response. I was traveling for the last few months. I have been searching for it as well even in those pay-per-torrent sites(waste of money). If you go to the official site in the link from the post there is supposed to be a screening in vancouver soon. I'm not sure why its taking so long to come out though. As soon as i find a torrent i'll post here.
Anyone come across a torrent for this yet?
I can't find it ANYWHERE!
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