James and I are at the Accelerating Change 2003 Conference being held at Stanford University in Palo Alto California. The topic is the future of science and technology and in particular the concept of �the singularity� � the point where exponential increases in the power of various technologies combine to create a period of such rapid technological change that, among other things, we'll be able to defrost cryogenically frozen heads and allow people to live forever.

I have to say the conference started out pretty badly. Members of staff at Demos will know that I�d been looking forward to seeing Ray Kurzweil give his keynote presentation as a 3 dimensional hologram. I�d imagined something like the projection of Princess Leia from R2D2 in Star Wars (as described in the forthcoming Douglas Rushkoff pamphlet for Demos if you�re interested).

Kurzweil is a technology legend. He�s been involved in the invention of all kinds of things from artificial intelligence through to speech recognition and been honoured for his achievements by successive US Presidents. His most recent book, The Age of Spiritual Machines, is a hugely optimistic view on where technology is taking us because Ray is a big believer in the singularity and seems to think it�s a damn fine idea. If you want a tip, I�d say he has to be odds on favourite to be the first human to upload his brain.

But in the end we didn�t see any 3D image of Ray, because, you see, the technology hadn�t accelerated quite enough. In fact it just didn�t work. We could hear him (well about four words out of five anyway) and we could see his powerpoint slides (although they kept on crashing the computer) but try as the multitude of techies present did, we still couldn�t see him in his office in Boston. So, in the centre of the stage, the huge piece of equipment that was supposed to be showing us the future, stood dormant and useless. I couldn�t bring myself to ask if they�d plugged it in.

The next main speaker was Eric Drexler. Now Eric is a very angry man. He feels that he�s been widely misunderstood for his 1986 book Engines of Creation which is where he first used the word nanotechnology. Those of you who�ve followed this one will know that people like Prince Charles think nanotechnology could be a very bad thing indeed and if you�ve read Michael Crichton�s novel Prey, you�ll know why. The basic plot line is that self replicating nanobots get out of control and threaten the human race.

Drexler gave a very erudite presentation admitting that he�s needed to reinvent the story of nanotechnology to show that it�s just part of a much deeper routed idea of which Nobel Laureate and physicist�s physicist Richard Feynman is the father figure. Self replicating nanobots aren�t something that Drexler really likes talking about right now, he�s more interested in talking about the wave of funding that�s going into nanotech and is particularly damning of all the nano products that are being marketed at the moment being quite clear that in his eyes they�re not nanotechnology at all. Nanopants particularly incurred his wrath.

It�s been a fascinating day, and even more to come tomorrow. At the moment in the conference hall they�re busy talking about the significance of string theory and multiple universes and I have to admit, it�s all a bit over my head. That�s why I�m sitting outside, thinking up safer questions to ask whoever I sit next to at dinner.

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