Notes from Singularity University

I attended Singularity University Global Summit this year. It was good to see what the greatest minds in the world are working on. From AI to Blockchain, Energy to Medicine and Manufacturing to Quantum computing.

Few areas caught my eyes

• It was fascinating to listen to Ramez Naam again. He mentioned how renewable energy prices are lower than carbon alternatives, thanks to developments in other exponential technologies. As renewable energy is becoming more accessible and cheaper, we will continue to see new technology solutions develop.
• Autonomous driving — it’s here; however, challenges are how to integrate with human drivers. Another interesting presentation was from Colin Guinn about Air Taxis. I used to think that because of battery life limitations we are at least a few years away from using air-taxis. However, according to Colin, because of regulations, this might be 10~15yrs away. At the same time, we will see some deployments in part of the world sooner, such as UAE, as they are more bullish on these kinds of technologies.
• Jay Rogers from Local Motors explained how they manufacture Olli at their micro-factories. I was pleasantly surprised to hear over 80% of Olli is printed. Yes, printed. With micro-factories, companies can hire local workforce and manufacture products with local needs. “Agile Hardware” is becoming more and more applicable to micro-factories.
• Healthcare also gets its share from developments at exponential technologies. From proactive care to image processing, it’s changing. I was pleased to see that personalized medicine is closer than I was expecting, which will challenge the medicare and pharma industries.

After seeing all these ’trailers‘ of new developments, I’m even more optimistic about the future and looking forward to seeing, oh, living the movie.