Zak Allal on TV5MONDE
Singularity University comes to France, interview on the 64 minutes set
Source: YouTube, TV5MONDE, 64 minutes. Conducted in French.
About this Interview
Filmed on the set of TV5MONDE's 64 minutes, the host opens by sketching a remarkably full résumé for someone aged 27: born in Algeria, medical training there, clinical rotations at Oxford and Harvard in neurology and surgery, time at Stanford, a first Silicon Valley startup in organ transplantation and artificial heart work, a parallel career as a concert pianist who has played Carnegie Hall, and ambassador of Singularity University to French-speaking countries.
The interview centers on Singularity's planned French launch and on the deeper question of how France should engage with frontier technology.
What the Interview Covers
A Paris campus, ahead of schedule
Zak announces that Singularity's French headquarters will open in the second half of 2015, originally planned for 2017, but accelerated by interest from French authorities and academic and industrial partners. ESSEC and ESCP Europe are mentioned as partners, alongside a major French bank funding scholarships for students who otherwise could not access the program.
NBIC and exponential technologies
The curriculum is built around what the French call NBIC: nanotech, biotech, AI, cognitive sciences. Zak describes practical training in programming, big data, data science, 3D modeling and printing, and the application of these capabilities to specific real-world domains, backed by an on-site accelerator and incubator.
Why France matters
Asked why France specifically, Zak points to academic excellence and to a humanist tradition he believes Silicon Valley needs. He cites his recent debate with former French Education Minister Luc Ferry as an example of the kind of conversation France can uniquely host.
"Singularity University is not transhumanist"
Zak draws a sharp distinction. Ray Kurzweil, co-founder, Google's chief engineer, is transhumanist. Peter Diamandis, the other co-founder, is a "techno-philanthropist," not transhumanist. Zak says the institution itself, its researchers, and its staff are not transhumanist, but they host open debate about AI ethics, technology security, and philosophy. His own line: he'll become transhumanist the day a machine composes a Chopin waltz.
The limits of Californian techno-utopianism
Zak warns against transposing engineering progress directly onto biology and neuroscience. Today's neuroscience does not yet have the granularity to "upload a consciousness," and he calls the leap from Moore's-law extrapolation to mind-uploading a serious category error, "a fine line between scientific genius and the absurdity of science fiction."