The World Technology Network (WTN) in association with Time magazine presents the New York City premiere of Ray Kurzweil’s documentary film The Singularity Is Near on June 24, 2010. Audience Q&A with Ray Kurzweil, moderated by Moira Gunn, host of NPR’s “Tech Nation,” to immediately follow screening.

The Singularity Is Near: A True Story About the Future, by filmmakers Anthony Waller, Ray Kurzweil, Ehren Koepf and Toshi Hoo, with Executive Producer Martine Rothblatt (Terasem Motion InfoCulture) premieres on June 24, 2010 at the Time & Life building in New York City. The WTN convenes various events in association with Time, Fortune magazine, CNN, Science magazine and The American Association for the Advancement of Science, among others.

This feature-length documentary film presents the daring arguments from Kurzweil’s New York Times bestselling book, The Singularity Is Near. He predicts that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, humanity is fast approaching an era in which our intelligence will become trillions of times more powerful and increasingly merged with computers. This will be the dawning of a new civilization, enabling us to transcend our biological limitations. In Kurzweil’s post-biological world, boundaries blur between human and machine, real and virtual. Human aging and illness are reversed, world hunger and poverty are solved, and we cure death. He maintains a radically optimistic view of the future course of human development while acknowledging profound new dangers.

“Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future,” according to Bill Gates. “Kurzweil envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations — transforming our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

Kurzweil examines the social and philosophical implications of these profound changes and the potential threats they pose to human civilization in dialogues with big thinkers, including former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke; technologists Bill Joy, Mitch Kapor, Marvin Minsky, Eric Drexler, Sherry Turkle and Cynthia Breazeal; Future Shock author Alvin Toffler; civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz; venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and environmentalist Bill McKibben. Kurzweil illustrates the future with a narrative story about an “AI” seeking her human rights, featuring popular NCIS actress Pauley Perrette and personal development guru Tony Robbins. The movie, The Singularity Is Near offers a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.

The World Technology Summit is a global annual gathering of the leading innovators in the world in science and technology, to inspire and educate each other. The conference is a living embodiment of the WTN motto, “Encouraging Serendipity.” Nominations are still being accepted for this year’s World Technology Awards program, and registration is now open for the World Technology Summit & Awards event in the Fall. (Participants in this WTN Film Series kick-off event on June 24th can apply their fee toward their Summit registration.) 
   

PROGRAM & TICKET INFORMATION

The Singularity Is Near will make its New York premiere on Thursday, June 24 at 5:30 p.m. at the Time & Life Building, 1271 Avenue of the Americas (50th Street and 6th Avenue), New York, NY. An audience Q&A with Ray Kurzweil, moderated by Moria Gunn, host of NPR’s “Tech Nation” will immediately follow the screening. For more information, please visit the event’s official website here.

   
PROGRAM SCHEDULE

5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Welcome champagne reception 
6:00 p.m. – 6:05 p.m. Opening remarks by James P. Clark, Founder/Chairman, WTN 
6:05 p.m. – 6:35 p.m. “The Singularity and the Law of Accelerating Returns,” talk by Ray Kurzweil
6:35 p.m. – 7:55 p.m. “The Singularity Is Near” film screening 
7:55 p.m. – 8:20 p.m. Q & A with Ray Kurzweil, moderated by Moira Gunn, Host, NPR’s “Tech Nation” 
8:20 p.m. – 8:30 p.m Closing remarks by James P. Clark, Founder/Chairman, WTN  
     

ABOUT RAY KURZWEIL

Inventor Ray Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading futurists, with a 20-year track record of accurate predictions. Called the “restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes magazine, Kurzweil was selected as one of the top entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine, which described him as the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison.” Inventor of the first CCD flat bed scanner and many other firsts, Kurzweil is an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and recipient of the National Medal of Technology, the Lemelson-MIT Prize (the world’s largest for innovation), and 19 honorary doctorates and awards from three U.S. presidents.

 
ABOUT MOIRA GUNN

Dr. Moira Gunn is Host of Tech Nation and BioTech Nation, which air on such venues as National Public Radio’s SIRIUS Satellite Radio channels NPR Now and NPR Talk, and internationally to 177 countries via American Forces Radio International. Produced at the studios of KQED in San Francisco, the programming can also be heard on over 200 domestic public stations and through podcasts via iTunes and other Internet distribution venues. More than simply radio, the family of Tech Nation programs seeks to educate the public on the issues of science and technology. They demonstrate that all aspects of our lives are affected, and to make reasonable decisions, we must understand much, much more — as individuals, as communities, as nations and as a global society.
 
 
ABOUT THE WORLD TECHNOLOGY NETWORK (WTN)

The WTN brings key players together — from the most cutting-edge technologists to the most forward-thinking financiers, from the most conceptual futurists to the most grounded entrepreneurs, from the most insightful science writers to the most savvy marketers, from the most big-picture government officials to the most focused policy analysts, and from the world’s leading corporations to the world’s newest start-ups — helping to make things happen sooner and better than they might have.

The WTN exists to “encourage serendipity” — the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions. The WTN works to accomplish its mission through global and regional events for its members (and others) to help make connections among them, and to examine the likely implications and possible applications of emerging technologies.

For more information please visit The World Technology Network.
For more information on the 2010 World Technology Summit & Awards please click here.
  
CONTACT
World Technology Network
Pamela Tucker, 917.414.2004
press@wtn.net

KurzweilAI.net
Sarah Reed, 781.263.0000
Public Relations Manager
SReed@Kurzweiltech.com

or

Celia Black, 360.320.8087
Media Relations
Celia@Kurzweiltech.com