This is a documentary about making the documentary and we will do this for everything that we do. That way those of you that contribute can see how we go about making the documentary and can discuss it in the forums.

There is more info on the film project at: WeAreTheSingularity.com.

So here we are shooting our first scene at Any Bots in Mountain View, CA:

Enjoy!

After I posted the video from Any Bots the number of signups at We Are The Singularity jumped. Thanks to those who signed up. Your contribution is going toward travel expenses for shoots in Silicon Valley this summer.

You’ve all been sent your private invitation to H+ Cafe where we will discuss what we want to get out of upcoming shoots. Consider yourself part of the team. As soon as I rough cut the Any Bots footage I’ll post it on H+ Cafe for members to comment on.

I urge all readers of Blogging The Singularity to sign up and take part in this project. I might be leading the project and doing the work but that’s no fun I’d rather work with others. I’m in it for the long haul. Completing a feature film is a lot of hard work and by joining as a member you will watch it happen every step of the way.

We’ll be scheduling chat sessions in H+ Cafe to discuss the direction of the film and what should be included in the film. We will also hold special screenings of rough cut footage throughout next year.

The reason I’m doing this? It’s FUN! I really enjoyed making my last film and this time I want to do it together with my readers at Blogging the Singularity. I have some of the smartest, educated, excited readers on the planet and through this experience you will get the chance to get to know me better since I don’t write much here on BTS because well…I’m out making films!

This gives me the chance to interact with you AND make a film so I’m very excited about combining my two loves into one project.

Anyway please consider joining my project it’s just $25 bucks to help fund the film and you get to watch it come together and even influence the final project.

This is the most cutting-edge way to make a film I can imagine and to me that’s what this blog and the subject matter are all about so it only makes sense to do it this way.

Once again thanks to everyone signing up I’ll see you in H+ Cafe!

Sincerely,
Chris Williamson
Founder, Blogging the Singularity
Producer & Director, We Are The Singularity Film Project

To take part in the We Are The Singularity feature documentary film project please visit wearethesingularity.com After joining you will receive an invitation to join an exclusive social networking site just for the film where you can participate in discussions about the films themes and receive constant updates about the film. Also, you’ll get to view behind the scenes footage of making the film as it’s made. Plus you will receive a DVD copy of the film once completed.

Find more videos like this on H+ Cafe

Thank you all who are signing up at WeAreTheSingularity.com!

Your participation has yielded results. Although we didn’t make to Singularity University yet we did shoot our first scene at AnyBots in Mountain View, CA! It was a great shoot and I’d like to thank Trevor, Dan, and Benjie for the media access.

Please join us at WeAreTheSingularity.com to participate in the world’s first audience-funded feature-length documentary about the Singularity and Transhumanism.

I’m capturing that footage now and will post a little bit on Blogging the Singularity and of course a lot more in the H+ Cafe for those who have signed up at WeAreTheSingularity.com

-Chris Williamson

I received an email from Jeremy Ryan a loooong time ago and he clued me into this. The email was lost until now. Lifenaut.com has over 9,000 subscribers. I produced an experimental film several years ago about a man who hopes that future humans could extrapolate his soul through a video he left behind.

I hope you check out LifeNaut.com!

—

LifeNaut.com is a web-based storage space for organizing and preserving critical information about one’s unique and essential characteristics for the future, and to share with friends and relatives in the present.
LifeNaut.com is funded by the Terasem Movement Foundation, Inc. The long-term goal is to test whether given a comprehensive database, saturated with the most relevant aspects of an individual’s personality, future intelligent software will be able to replicate an individual’s consciousness.

So, perhaps in the next 20 or 30 years the technology will be developed to upload these files, together with the futuristic software into a body of some sort – perhaps cellular, perhaps holographic, perhaps robotic. more>>>

Thanks to Michael du Vigneaud for this one:

By Constance Holden
ScienceNOW Daily News
2 April 2009

In recent decades, robots have replaced millions of manual laborers; now they’re moving in on scientists, too. A fully automated robotic laboratory can design its own molecular biology experiments and has even made its first discoveries, a multidisciplinary team reports this week. Meanwhile, a team of computer scientists has developed a robot that can independently come up with the “laws of motion” for a dynamical system such as interconnected pendulums.
Robots are doing ever more of the physical labor in laboratories–from analyzing DNA samples to handling data tapes from massive particle-physics experiments. And scientists increasingly rely on computers to analyze their data. But the highest-level thinking–the formulation of hypotheses and designing of experiments to test them–has remained the preserve of humans.

That’s starting to change with the efforts of computer scientist Ross King of Aberystwyth University along with systems biologists at the University of Cambridge, U.K., who have developed a robot named Adam to identify genes involved in yeast metabolism. Adam doesn’t look so much like an android as a huge box of Rube Goldberg–type equipment. But it does far more than just analyze cells. more>>>

We had a great shoot at AnyBots in Mountainview, CA on friday. I’ll have some clips up soon. Now, I’ve seen robots on videos but honestly video can’t even come close to being in the presence of a robot that it shaped like a human, walks like a human, and has hand you can shake like a human. I hope that I captured that experience the best that I could on video.

Didn’t make it to Singularity University but plan to get there this summer, hopefully for the opening ceremony at the end of June. We’ll see how contributions look then.

We have had some more contributors to We Are The Singularity and I will update the progress bar this week. Thanks to everyone who has joined the project! Now that I’m finished with my last film I can concentrate on this one!

-Chris Williamson

Anybots is the leading provider of robot telepresence solutions.

Be two places at once with QA, the new telepresence robot from Anybots. Enjoy complete freedom to move fluidly and interact with others in a remote location from the ease of your home or office.

QA operates simply, cleanly, and quietly while still giving you a full physical presence. It allows you to see and be seen, talk and listen, and collaborate in ways and places never before possible.

Technical Specifications
Batteries: rechargeable Li ion, 4-6 hours of operation
Connectivity: 802.11g wireless (optional 3G cellular)
Cameras: two 5 MP color, with ir illuminator
Video: 20 FPS @ 640×480 (depending on network)
Audio: full duplex, high fidelity
Display: 7 inch (18 cm) color LCD in chest
Laser pointer: green 10 mW, points and draws shapes
Navigation: LIDAR, 5.5 yard (5 meter) range
Speed: up to 6 MPH (10 km/h)
Wheels: two 12 inch (30 cm) diameter rubber
Height: 5 foot (152 cm) standing, 2 foot (61 cm) bending
Weight: 30 pounds (14 kg)
Client software: PC and Mac compatible

Here is a badass walking robot:

Join me, Chris Williamson, at ‘We Are The Singularity’ and take part in a broad documentary project to get these ideas out to the public.

The rest of this series can be found on VBS.tv

How can you get a computer to solve problems like a brain? How does the brain even solve problems to begin with? Below is an indepth look into FACETS, a groundbreaking consortium of European scientists and engineers that are taking long strides to bridging the gap between your brain and your PC. Give them enough time and money, and these cutting edge researchers may have a computer that doesn’t just act like a human…it will think like a human, too.

Click here for the complete article found on the Singularity Hub.

When robot history comes to be written, April 2009 will occupy a prominent place. Future robots will look back, perhaps with pride, at the events of this month. A robot has been created that has, for the first time, independently advanced scientific knowledge.

Click here for an article found in The Japan Times online.

But I’m just a country boy… What do you think?

Click here for a link to The Seasteading Institute website.

Recession? What recession?

A floating city off the coast of San Francisco may sound like science fiction, but it could be reality in the not-too-distant future.

The Seasteading Institute already has drawn up plans for the construction of a homestead on the Pacific Ocean.

Click here for the details found on CNN.

Dr. James Canton has made a living out of predicting the future: He’s the CEO of the Institute of Global Futures, a Fortune 1000 advisor, author of such books as The Extreme Future and Technofutures, and an advisor to the new Google- and Nasa-backed Singularity University.

Click here for the ComputerWorld article.

“Hello” to touch screens and keyboards. How we communicate is changing fast. Research and think about this before getting your next cellphone.

To learn more, click here for a recent USA Today article titled “On new cellphones, QWERTY eases out 1-2-3″.

Isn’t the function of computer control to prevent human error rather than enable it? Click here for an article found on the IT Jungle website. It’s quite thought provoking.