I saw Ray Kurzweil live today!

So, a friend of mine, Chris Luna, told me today that he had an extra ticket to go see Ray Kurzweil live at Coolidge Corner, Boston. Kurzweil was going to give a sneak peek of his new and upcoming film, The Transcended Man, and also discuss a movie he is producing, The Singularity Is Near, based of his best-seller book with the same name. I grabbed this opportunity in a heartbeat! I have been a fan since I read The Singularity is Near back in high school. At the event, in addition to learning about his movie productions, I learned about several of his theories regarding what the future holds for mankind. His predictions for the future exponential trend of all information-based technologies and what kinds of amazing avenues these trends can lead to can seem farfetched at first. But if you actually look at his models, his track-record, it all surprisingly fits. His presentation is uploaded on the web at his website, KurzweilAI.net. I didn't get a chance to note down the exact URL though I wish that I did in retrospect. It was an amazing evening - the future is going to be very very exciting.

When is the last time I read a book, out of pleasure?

I was thinking today as I went to bed... I have been at MIT for just about a year now, and I cannot recall the last time I read a book for the sheer pleasure of learning something that caught my eye. I mean I often surf the web and absorb the latest technology and business news, but a book is a whole other medium through which, a different type of knowledge and information is conveyed. It is hard to describe. I just know that I miss that experience, which I enjoyed in high school. That being said, I think I am going to pay a visit to the library and check out some some titles which I have been hearing a lot about but never gotten to reading: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, maybe some biographies, anything that makes me curious. The next time I go to bed, I'll make sure I have something next to me to read for 20-30 mins (or even longer, depending on my interest versus sleep deprivation).