Singularity – If you don’t know, now you know

Singularity and its adherents (including the two founders of Google) are looking to rush in the technological utopia that truly sounds out of this world:

“Within 30 years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence,” Mr. Vinge wrote. “Shortly after, the human era will be ended.”

If you have never heard of it before, you can check out yesterday’s NYT article, “Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday” .

To me, it just sounds like, “let us make man in man’s image”.

PBS Frontline “College Inc.”

I just watched the Frontline program “College Inc.” on the PBS website.  It is a really good story regarding “the promise and the growth of the for-profit higher education industry”.

With various for-profit schools throughout the US, the University of Phoenix is the biggest player in the for-profit education sector.  With an enrollment of almost half a million students, its revenue last year was $4 billion.

The for-profit schools only enroll 10 percent of all post-secondary students, yet they receive almost 25 percent of all federal financial aid.  What is most alarming is that 44 percent of all students who defaulted with three years of graduation were from for-profit schools.

Watch the full program online at PBS – College Inc.

The Knowledge Society

A recent survey from BBC World News suggests almost four in five people around the world believe internet access is ‘a human right’.

“The right to communicate cannot be ignored…The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created.” Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

Has the internet pushed us into “The Knowledge Society”?

Interesting poll results and analysis at here.

Nigeria’s Ethnic/Religious Violence

I am amazed how we humans can so easily kill one another.  Even in the 21st century we are so barbaric.  Our violence exposes the vileness that exists inside of our hearts.

Consider the five hundred plus people who were killed this weekend in the city of Jos.  Jos is located in the middle belt of Nigeria between the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria and the largely Christian south.

It is reported members of the mainly Christian Berom community were hacked to death with machetes.  Many of the dead are reported to be children, women, and older men who cannot run.

More information and analysis is available at here.