I love Mind Camp. When I’m asked what Mind Camp is I answer that it is whatever you want to make it. (more on the unconference format here).

When I arrived on Saturday morning I browsed the sessions that other attendees had proposed and there were a number that I wanted to attend.

I popped out to get a coffee from Starbucks and on the way I asked myself the question: what session isn’t there that I would turn up for if it was proposed? My answer was a session on Ray Kurzweil’s book The Singularity is Near. So I got a hold of a session submission form when I got back from Starbucks, filled it out and the next thing I knew I was in a room moderating a discussion with 20 smart people disucssing the idea of the Singularity for an hour.

Mind Camp 3.0: session on the Singularity

Lazy me: no preparation (could you tell?), no slides, no objective for the session other than to discuss with others something that interests them and me. Most people in the room had either already read the book or were some way through it, so I started by asking the group which questions we should have a go at discussing, and writing these up on the chalkboard: what are the risks? what about individual identity? what would ‘its’ motivation be if a collective intelligence emerged? would ‘it’ care about us? would we retain ‘free will’? etc. And we went from there.

Thanks to Bryan Zug Vids who recorded a video of the session and has posted on to blip.tv. The video starts about five minutes into the session.

Mind Camp 3.0 (Image: Ario J.)