The NASA Ames is the campus for SingularityU, would it ever become part of the 'Stanford Torus' (by Donald Davis) ?

“A number of exponentially growing technologies (biotechnology, supercomputing, nanotechnology, robotics, communications technologies and more.) are giving tools for change around the world. These technologies and sciences build on each other: a medical advance may rely on supercomputers, robotics, and sophisticated programs such as machine learning. Singularity University is an academic institution whose students and faculty will study these technologies, with an emphasis on their interactions.”

Angelica, Amara D., Academic Model/Curriculum Lead, Singularity University Arrison, Sonia, Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute Barry, Dan, President, Denbar Robotics, former NASA astronaut Bennetsen, Henrik, Assoc Dir, Stanford Humanities Lab, Stanford University Black, Sarah, Kurzweil Liaison, Singularity University Blakely, Dave, Director of Technology Strategy, IDEO Bloom, Howard, Author, The Lucifer Principle, and Global BrainBoshuizen, Chris, Project/Events Planning Lead, Singularity UniversityByers, Tom, Prof, Stanford Univ; Stanford Technology Ventures Program Byrd, Troy, Education/Business Development, Singularity University Canton, James, CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures Cerf, Vint, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google Inc.Damer, Bruce, Founder CEO, DigitalSpace; Dir The Contact ConsortiumDator, Jim, Prof & Dir of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures StudiesDebat, Yves, Monterey Institute of International Studiesde Grey, Aubrey, Chair & Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah FoundationdeCharms, Christopher, Founder, Omneuron, Inc.Diamandis, Peter, Founder, X PRIZE FoundationDiBona, Chris, Open Source Program Manager, Google Inc.Ebenstein, Lanny , Professor, UC Santa BarbaraEpstein, Kevin, Executive in Residence, Mohr Davidow VenturesFerriss, Timothy, Author, The 4-Hour WorkweekFletcher, Lauren, Engineer, Astrobiology, NASA Ames Research CenterFonseca-Klein, Susan, VP of Operations, Singularity UniversityFord, Daniel, Senior Mathematician, Google Inc.Freitas, Robert. A., Jr, Sr Research Fellow, Inst for Molecular Manufacturing

Gelobter, Michel, Founder, Cooler Inc; former Pres, Redefining ProgressGlenn, Jerome C., Director, The Millennium ProjectGoertzel, Ben, Founder, Novamente LLC; Dir of Research, Singularity InstGoldberg, Robert, Managing Director, Crossroads VenturesGrossman, Terry, Founder and Medical Director of Grossman Wellness CenterHall, J Storrs, Pres, Foresight Inst; Author, Beyond AI & NanofutureHaussler, David, Professor, Biomolecular Engineering, UC Santa CruzHessel, Andrew, Open source biology, Founding Dir, Pink Army CooperativeHodder, Mary, Founder of DabbleHoffman, Jeffrey, MIT Professor of Aerospace Engineering, former NASA AstronautIsmail, Salim, Executive Director, Singularity UniversityJacobstein, Neil, CEO, Teknowledge; Media X Prog, Stanford UnivJames, Donald, Project Manager, International Space UniversityKammen, Dan, Co-director, Berkeley Institute of the EnvironmentKarkanias, Jim, Senior Director, Applied Research and Technology, MicrosoftKhare, Rohit, Former Director of CommerceNet Labs; Founder, Ångströ Inc.Kim, Stuart, Professor, Developmental Biology, Stanford UniversityKleiner, Keith, Associate Founder, Singularity UniversityKraft, Daniel, Instructor, Cancer/Stem Cell Biology Institute, Stanford UniversityKurzweil, Ray, Founder, Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.Langhoff, Stephanie, Chief Scientist, NASA Ames Research CenterLee, Burton, Faculty, European Entrepreneurship & Innovation at StanfordLemmey, Tara is the CEO of LENS VenturesLin, Patrick, Director, The Nanoethics GroupLinksvayer, Mike, Vice President of Creative CommonsLohn, Jason, Senior Research Scientist, Carnegie Mellon UniversityMarshall, William, Academic Model/Curriculum Lead, Singularity UniversityMartin, Gary, Director, New Ventures & Communications, NASA AmesMerkle, Ralph, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular ManufacturingModha, Dharmendra, Manager, Cognitive Computing, IBM AlmadenMetcalfe, Bob, General Partner, Polaris Venture PartnersMullenweg, Matt, Founder, WordPress and AutomatticMyronuk, Kathryn, Library and Knowledge Resources, Singularity UniversityNorvig, Peter, Director of Research, Google Inc.Orban, David, Founder & Chief Evangelist at WideTag, Inc. (OpenSpime)Paul, Sunil, Founding Partner at Spring VenturesPeterson, Christine, Vice President, Foresight InstitutePotter, Michael, Director, Paradigm VenturesReda, Daniel, Co-Founder, CureTogetherReddy, Raj, Prof of Computer Science & Robotics, Carnegie Mellon UnivRichards, Robert, Founder, Odyssey Moon LimitedRose, David S., CEO Angelsoft, Managing Principal, Rose Tech VenturesRutherford, Matt, Media Producer, Singularity UniversitySaffo, Paul, Visiting Scholar in the Stanford Media X research networkSimpson, Michael, President, International Space UniversitySmarr, Larry, Dir, CA Inst for Telecommunications & Information TechSmart, John, Founder & President, Acceleration Studies FoundationSmoot, George, University of California, Berkeley; 2006 Nobel Prize in PhysicsStott, Christopher, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ManSat LLCTaylor, Robert, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PCThrun, Sebastian, Prof of Computer Science and Dir, AI Laboratory at StanfordTomkins, Claire , Project Manager: Gigaton ThrowdownTosh, David, Co-Founder of ElggTracy, James, Educational Consultant, Singularity UniversityVita-More, Natasha, PhD cand, U of Plymouth; Vis Scholar, 21st Century MedicineWhaley, Dan, Founder and CEO, ClimosWorden, Pete, Director, NASA Ames Research CenterWright, Will, Creator: SimCity, Spore; Founder, Maxis (Electronic Arts)

From Alex Soojung-Kim Pang recent blogessay “thoughts on design + futures”, he discusses the importance of design in discussing futures, this validates exactly how i see design is a tool to debate, discuss, create and influence what happens next through very visually inspiring and disturbing means. Design has always been about planning the next step and making it tangible and design research is constantly evolving in response to exploring ways we understand, visualise, prepare and react to possible, plausible and probable futures. Depending on the design tools that have been learnt (eg. MA Design Interactions, RCA), a designer can create parallel scenarios/worlds/futures/mental models and depending on how empathetic they are to imagining peoples actions/reactions they can then imagine the implications of new services, systems, products and platforms within these future worlds. Depending on the design approach, it is fundamental to how we  make decisions as a collective or help facilitate decision making to provoke the darkest and the lightest of approaches to our futures.

“To create a futures appropriate for the 21st century and its challenges, we futurists don’t have to become designers, any more than we have to be printers or graphic artists today. But we do need to learn some of the tools of design, learn from designers how to study people’s interactions with technologies, and pay attention to how people create mental models and imaginary worlds through things. In exchange, we can contribute to the design of things that make the world and the future more comprehensible, and better.” Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

High Anxieties: The Mathematics of Chaos was an ace bbc4 doc that was on last week and shown at just the right time in amidst the economic MELTDOWN that is all around us!! David Malone has put together a film about the mathematics of chaos , why things happen the way the do and can they be predicted with a model? From the mechanicalreliability of Newtonian theory, through the shock of the Great Depression and the rise of equilibrium theory  to chaos theory, which suggests that we are roller-skating in the dark, with no idea of when we’ll hit the one-in-three downward slope that lies somewhere ahead of us.

RANDOM WALK

Random Walk—Characterized by volatility. You only find these in textbooks and in essays on probability by people who have never really taken decisions under uncertainty.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the man who wrote of the black swans, the highly improbable and unpredictable events that have massive impact, has recently written an essay for EDGE about how those who are putting society at risk are “no true statisticians”, but merely people using statistics either without understanding them, or in a self-serving manner. its entitled THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS and can be found on the EDGE site here>

Statistical and applied probabilistic knowledge is the core of knowledge; statistics is what tells you if something is true, false, or merely anecdotal; it is the “logic of science”; it is the instrument of risk-taking; it is the applied tools of epistemology; you can’t be a modern intellectual and not think probabilistically—but… let’s not be suckers. The problem is much more complicated than it seems to the casual, mechanistic user who picked it up in graduate school. Statistics can fool you. In fact it is fooling your government right now. It can even bankrupt the system (let’s face it: use of probabilistic methods for the estimation of risks did just blow up the banking system).

Those clever chaps at Futurelab have created a beta online tool that enables people to think visually! Think of all those mind maps you have done in the past that have been completely disorganized and free form. But with exploratree they will help you create frameworks for futures wheel (my favourite), a compass rose (!) and a pmi!!