URI honors program to focus on tech advances

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island’s honors colloquium returns this fall to address technological advances expected over the next 20 to 30 years.
The semester-long lecture series at the South Kingstown campus will feature some of the world’s most prominent voices discussing their expectations of what the future holds. The series was to begin on Sept. 13 with an introductory lecture by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has long predicted that mind and machine will one day merge.
All the lectures in the series begin at 7:30 p.m. in Edwards Auditorium on the URI Kingston campus. They are free and open to the public.
The rest of the speakers in September are: Author Peter Schwartz on the interplay of geopolitics and technology, (Sept. 20) and science fiction author Vernor Vinge, on what sci-fi writers know about the future (Sept. 27).
The final presentation, entitled We Are The Future, will feature URI honors students discussing their vision for the future, informed by their attendance at the lecture series and readings from the honors course. &#8226