think:lab: Futurist Ray Kurzweil's View of Education

If Kurzweil is throwing his 2 cents into 'the future of learning' ring, does that mean that The Singularity is (finally) Near?

If you have roughly 16 min 44 seconds of free time, consider listening to the recent eSchool News video that showcases the famed futurist's thoughts on where all of our giddy education talk should be pointed. If you're going to be headed into the future. Wonder about the 'exponential' technology shifts impact there. And are curious. A little.

Note: You'll have to listen to a decent vodcast of various stories taking place lately to get to the Kurzweil piece, or simply skim forward to the 9:47th minute where Ray starts talking. UPDATE: Karl Fisch kindly pointed me to the way to skip the set-up news content in the video and go straight to where Ray begins. Thanks!

Ray's ideas for the technology implications for education (which I highlight below if you are short on time):

Exponential growth of technology/software in every part of our life
Exponential awareness/knowledge of the brain (doubling knowledge yearly); creating working models of brain simulations in exact mathematical terms
Late 2020's -- we'll have computing to simulate the human intelligence
Wisdom vs. Intelligence? Ray is asked if he sees wisdom increasing as well as intelligence. He mentions the oft-discussed (mis-understood) 'wisdom of crowds', too, like Google or the aggregate of the blogosophere.
The democratizing of knowledge -- huge impact on education. The cost barriers are dropping like flies constantly, so anyone can create previously impossible projects/products. Same with distribution of e-courses (like MIT's).
Ultimately,it won't matter if you are in the classroom or not. Still have access to a high level of education.
Educators will become "mature guides" to "guide you through the world" of education and information

Extra: I was tickled pink to hear in the video that my alma mata, Indiana University, was named as the 3rd Most Wired University in the US by PC Magazine, behind #1 Vilanova and #2 MIT (oooh, #2? Yikes). IU has the fastest university owned supercomputer and the largest disk-based storage center. Forget Bobby Knight, we got fast storage!