The Singularity Is Near

Explore how in the past five decades, the internet has changed the very fabric of our society, highlighted by interviews with the founders of AOL, Craigslist, Friendster, Match, and Tinder.

On a NASA research base in Silicon Valley, there's an organization that's changing the world ... Singularity University (SU). Created by renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, with support from NASA, Google, and others, the university brings in some of the smartest students from around the world, and gives them a crash course in the most powerful exponential technologies on the planet. The students are then given a challenge: create companies that will impact a billion people within ten years. The film follows the students and their companies over five years, as they use the support of scientists, astronauts and billionaires in their attempt to make a dent in the universe.

There is a popular theory that it takes at least 10,000 hours of focused practice for a human to become expert in any field. In Japan, there are craftspeople who go far beyond this to reach a special kind of mastery. These people are called Takumi and they devote 60,000 hours to their craft. That's 8 hours a day, 240 days a year, for over 30 years. It's an almost superhuman level of dedication to a life of repetition and no shortcuts. This film asks the question: Will human craft disappear as artificial intelligence reaches beyond our limits?

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

What if, before rushing headfront into technology progress, we think twice about it ? As our societies bet on technology outbids, some chose to invest on sobriety : the "low tech".

A whimsical yet serious-minded look into the future sponsored by the appliance and radio manufacturer Philco-Ford. In the "1999 House of Tomorrow", each family member's activities are enabled by a central computer and revolve around products remarkably similar to those made by the sponsor. Power comes from a self-contained fuel cell which supports environmental controls, an automatic cooking system, and a computer-assisted "education room".

A story about people whose lives are connected by typewriters. A meditation on creativity and technology featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, Sam Shepard, David McCullough and others.

In 1981, Wau Holland and other hackers established the Hamburg based Chaos Computer Club (CCC). The idiosyncratic freethinkers were inspired by Californian technology visionaries and committed themselves to hacker ethics. All information must be free. Use public data, protect private data. But not everyone followed the rules. Computer technology was still in its infancy and the emerging Internet became a projection screen for social utopias. What has become of them? The story of the German hackers, told by the protagonists themselves in a montage of found video and audio material.

Computers, smart phones, and tablets are now a part of our daily lives. They have revolutionised the way we work, the way we communicate and the way we view the world. But what happens to our old phone when we upgrade? Where does our broken computer go after we throw it out? 'e-Life' explores what happens to our electrical goods when we throw them away and exposes some unpleasant (and perhaps unknown) truths about the detrimental affects e-waste has on people's health, the environment and the economy. From consumers in the UK to the recyclers in the dumps of Ghana, the documentary will follow the journey of our e-waste. We will examine current manufacturing and disposal processes and also assess the burden the boom in electronic goods is placing on global resources. 'e-Life' will be an objective portrayal of the problem of e-waste that documents the issue through carefully crafted cinematography.

Take an intriguing, fun-filled journey through the history of the Amiga computer. From the earliest days, we'll examine the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of today's latest models from Commodore. Listen while Jay Miner, "Father of the Amiga", tells amusing anecdotes of the early days and the first prototype...hear what Commodore has to say about the future of the Amiga...and lots more! Meet the people, view the products and visit the places that have helped make the Amiga and Amiga user unique in the history of computing!

Within the coming decades we will be able to create AIs with greater than human intelligence, bio-engineer our species and re-design matter through nanotechnology. How will these technologies change what it means to be human? Director Doug Wolens speaks with leading futurists, computer scientists, artificial intelligence experts, and philosophers who turn over the question like a Rubik’s Cube. Ultimately, if we become more machine-like, and machines more like us, will we sacrifice our humanity to gain something greater? Or will we engineer our own demise? THE SINGULARITY is a comprehensive and insightful documentary film that examines technology’s accelerating rate, and deftly addresses the resulting moral questions.