James Martin

The Change Agent, the Ghostwriter and the Singularity: Andrew Crofts on Singularity 1 on 1

by Socrates
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A couple of months ago I saw Roman Polanski’s film the Ghost Writer based on the titular bestselling book by Robert Harris. At the time, I could hardly imagine that only a couple of months after the movie premiere I will be communicating with Andrew Crofts - the archetype ghostwriter on whom Ewan McGregor’s character was most probably based upon. Andrew wrote a popular guest article for SingularityWeblog.com where he shared the story behind his latest book The Change Agent: How to Create a Wonderful World. The book talks about the life and ideas of Andrew’s archetype change agent - James Martin, a world-renowned futurist, computer scientist, author, lecturer and, among many other things, the largest donor in the history of Oxford University. (Most recently, James Martin produced a pivotal documentary film called The Meaning of the 21st Century. It [...]

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The Change Agent: Onwards to Utopia or backwards to the Dark Ages?

by Andrew Crofts

“I’ve just bought an island in Bermuda. You must come out there so we can talk properly.” James Martin (“Britain’s leading futurologist,” according to The Times), knows how to catch a person’s attention. Partly because of the imminent arrival of the Singularity, he believes we are entering the greatest transitional phase of human development ever and that by the end of this century we will either have created a global Utopia or we will have catapulted ourselves back into the Dark Ages. So steeped is he in the subject he has become Oxford University’s biggest ever donor by gifting them well in excess of £100-million in seed money to set up the Oxford Martin School to study all the big issues of the 21st Century. When it comes to creating Utopia Jim is well ahead of the game. Over the [...]

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James Martin’s The Meaning Of The 21st Century

by Socrates
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Last night me and Julie watched James Martin‘s documentary The Meaning Of The 21st Century. The movie is based on his titular book and is aimed to provide what James calls A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future. In his 1 hour documentary Martin catalogues all the major perils and promises that humanity faces in the 21st century. In addition, he doesn’t forgo issues arising from advances in the fields of artificial intelligence, genetics, robotics and nanotechnology, or interviewing other futurists, scientists, inventors, singularitarians and transhumanists such as Ray Kurzweil, Hugo de Garis, Nick Bostrom and others. The video is narrated by Michael Douglas and I think it is worth watching. Synopsys: We are at an extraordinary crossroads of human history. Our actions, or failure to act, during the next 20 years will determine the fate of the Earth and [...]

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