(It's the second summit, not the second singularity.) The singularity is the putative "tipping point" that will occur when the combination of computers and networks get really smart and gain consciousness - whatever that means. The general assumption is that the processes leading to the singularity will include software that modifies and improves itself, and the general consensus is that this will be a development of the area of computation known as "artificial intelligence," or ai.Now, ai, in its early incarnations, offered such things as "expert systems," "chess programs," "theorem solving," and other stuff that turned out to be difficult to commercialize. Its development continues, but for investors - and hence for startups - we've had an "ai winter" for the last couple of decades or so. To distinguish the magic that could lead to the singularity from that older stuff, proponents are using the term, "artificial general intelligence," or agi.The conference was impressive in terms of intellectual content, sponsors,...

Did your personal net worth increase by more than $300 million in the last 12  months ending August 31, 2007? No? Then you’re probably no longer eligible for  the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans! Indeed, if your net worth is not  greater than $1.3 billion, forget it! The collective net worth of America’s 400  richest people rose $290 billion, to $1.54 trillion from $1.25 trillion last year,  or a 23.2% increase. What’s that you say? You didn’t even get a 23% raise in the  last year? 

Wall Street led the charge for wealth creation, despite the stock market problems  of recent months. Nearly half of the 45 new members of the list of 400 made their  new fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. The youngest member of the Forbes  400 this year is 33-year-old John Arnold, a former Enron trader who now runs hedge  fund Centaurus Energy and has now amassed a $1.5 billion fortune. And private  equity got a nice bail out this past week, when the Fed lowered interest rates by  an unexpected half point,...

I have a spectrum of interests and will appreciate your guidance on which are pertinent, here.

Microsoft appears to be repeating IBM’s history as it goes through its lifecycle. From smart growth, having to learn new rules when you're the dominate player in the industry, appearance of arrogance from the same behavoirs when smaller, alienation of original market and new technology and market model challenges. It maybe Microsoft will continue to follow IBM's history into a major service provider instead of a technology providor role it is known for.

The saying goes “to really learn a subject teach it” and “if you help someone you’ll get back more in return than you give”. A recent event in helping a friend turned out to be a joyful reaffirmation of these sayings

Among the many enervating political and economic factors that have emerged in the last six and a half years, is the unmistakable and increasing trend of a rich-get-richer, poor-get-poorer US income distribution.Over the last week, a report was issued by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy that revealed quantitatively what we have known qualitatively for a long time; namely, that chief executives of American companies made an average of $10.8 million in 2006, more than 364 times the average pay of American workers.Moreover, according to this year's report, CEOs received an average of $1.3 million in pension benefits last year. By contrast, less than 60 percent of US households led by someone aged 45 to 54 had any retirement account at all.The 20 highest-paid CEOs of US public companies were paid an average of $36.4 million, three times more than the 20 highest-paid European CEOs, and 204 times more than the 20 highest-paid generals in the US military.Now let's see, just which American...