The sessions of the ASIM workshop will run after the Singularity Summit workshop on Monday and Tuesday, as a satellite event to the main Singularity Summit (August 14-15). The Singularity Summit workshop finishes at 5pm on both days, so there will be time to find some dinner before joining us for our evening sessions.If you are interested in attending and would like more information, please feel free to contact the organizers.

While we all long for a better tomorrow, very few of us have the courage to try to imagine what the future might actually look like. Bound by conventions and by fear of ridicule, most of us dare not to dream or speak about the deep future, instead we as a society choose to focus on the short-term future, which is safe and generally agreeable.

Futurists everywhere, I applaud your courage. Even when you are wrong, you contribute more to the future of our species than your critics ever will.

Even though collectively we choose poverty of imagination as the default mode of thinking about the future, here we stand on the verge of profound societal changes that cannot be stopped and cannot be reasoned with. We are witnessing the dawn of an age of technological wonders, of technology so advanced that it is itself indistinguishable from magic.

Take a minute to admire the monitor in which you are reading these words. Maybe you are using a modern LCD flat panel or maybe you are using an old CRT tube. Either way, old or new, appreciate its beautiful complexity with millions of interconnected parts that are able to convert a symphony of electrons, bits and bytes into the perfectly weaved tapestry of light required to carry my words to you.

Now consider for a moment the most complex devices we possessed a mere 200 years ago. How does your monitor measure up to it? Do you even know how your monitor really works? What about your computer? Your cell phone? Would you be able to design any of these devices from scratch? Do you know anyone who could?

We came a long way in a very short period of time. Now try to imagine what miracles of science we will witness in the course of the next 200 years. No matter what you think you know about the future, I assure you that if we don’t destroy ourselves, the best is yet to come.

Like Martin Luther King, I too have a dream.

I dream of a world where people are once again thrilled about the future.

I dream that one day curing death, understanding the human brain and traveling to the stars will be seem as urgent challenges that must be conquered at all cost.

I dream that one day scientists will be considered celebrities and that each of us will be measured not by how much capital we have accumulated but by how much have we contributed to the future of our species.

I dream that one day all nations will unite in the war against ignorance and superstition, the true enemies of all sentient beings.

In sum, I dream of the day humanity finally grows up.

Buying any Android-powered device is also a statement against Apple’s draconian control over the iPhone platform. While it would be ok for them to protect their vision for the platform, it is not acceptable to artificially limit functionality only to protect their interests. It is your phone; you should be allowed to run ANYTHING you want in it, the compiler being the only authority to respect. It is absurd that you have to “jailbreak” your phone and shop at alternative app stores to have access to features (and content) Apple doesn’t want you to have.

When you buy a Nexus One, you will be sending the carriers and Apple a very clear message:

I am taking back control of my mobile experience. The future is mine (and not yours) to shape. If you want my money, you must support this vision or I will do business with someone else who does.

Wireless data is a commodity service.

I will post a review as soon as it arrives!

UPDATE: The Rovio software is terrible, a sad case of great idea with poor execution

It is basically a ██████ that will allow the user to ████████ ████ █████ █████████ without ███████ ████ █ █████ ████. It is going to be like ███████████ for the masses.

Stay tuned for cryptic updates that might not make any sense

I am 29 and I am a compulsive builder. It isn’t like I want to build things, I simply have to because otherwise they consume me. Considering that I can envision way more than I can actually work on I find myself always having to give up ideas for the sake of completing projects already underway.

Once I am done, I don’t feel like I have any time to spare to enjoy success. Off I am to the next project.

To be honest, I feel like the journey is more important than the destination. Profits are nothing but a side-effect of a job well done.

My .02

Originally posted as a comment by rfurlan on Howard Lindzon using Disqus.

“TwitZap is a new way to use Twitter. It lets you slice Twitter into realtime streams of stuff that matters to you. On top of that, TwitZap users can tweet each other in real-time using our Twitter accelerator technology even while Twitter is down.”

It is basically a web-based, real-time Twitter client + search monitor. Think TweetDeck without the install – making it possible to use it anywhere, anytime.

Its unique advantage is that communication between TwitZap users is instantaneous – tweets are delivered in less than 800ms from end-to-end even when Twitter is slow or down.

All tweets are still relayed to Twitter as soon as possible. You can even see other users that are on the same channels as you – which is pretty cool and incentivize instant interactions.

This morning, TwiZap got featured on Mashable and was the #1 trending topic on twitter search. Not bad for two weeks of work

However, this is probably going to be my last web project for a while. While it is incredibly gratifying to build something the whole world can use, web development is just not challenging enough to keep me excited about it.

I just feel like it is just too much busy-work for my taste, with very few really interesting problems to solve.