IV123 Future challenges of informatics

Faculty of Informatics
Spring 2016
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus extra credits for completion). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: k (colloquium), z (credit).
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Jozef Gruska, DrSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Mojmír Křetínský, CSc.
Department of Computer Science – Faculty of Informatics
Contact Person: prof. RNDr. Jozef Gruska, DrSc.
Supplier department: Department of Computer Science – Faculty of Informatics
Timetable
Wed 14:00–15:50 B410
Prerequisites
There are no special technical requirements. Main requirement is a deeper interest to know the expected role of Informatics for society in future,\, as well as its main challenges and potential
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The existing exponential development of information processing driven technologies is going to have very soon enormous impacts on all major aspects of society. Due to that, what we can currently expect to happen in 100-500 years, in many important areas of society, especially in science, technology, medicine,..., if the current rate of development is sustained, is going to happen actually within next 20-50 years. The goal of the lecture is to provide a visionary, but as well grounded as possible, analysis of what we can reasonably expect, and why, in the (very) near future, especially due to the exponential developments in all information processing and communication driven technologies, nanotechnology, genetics, non-biological (artificial) intelligence and robotics as well as in fighting death. Informatics, once properly and sufficiently broadly and deeply understood is going to play by that the key role and help society to deal with its current two main megachallenges. The lecture should be of interest and importance to all those interested to learn frameworks, tools, methods, tasks and main challenges they and society as the whole will face in the near future. To understand that should be for anyone not only very interesting, but actually much needed for knowing how to prepare oneself for long future carrier in in enormously fast changing circumstances.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction. Why and how we need/can forsee future? Old and new mega-challenges of science, technology and informatics. 2.Evolution. From biological to non-biological (technological) evolution and their merge. Enormous expected impacts of the merge ot the biological and non-biological intelligence. 3. Exponential developments in information processing and communication technologies and their impacts on science, technology and the rest of society 4.New perception of informatics and its grand challenges. Informatics as a merge of scientific, engineering, methodological and application informatics. New perception of the scientific informatics and its grand challenges. 5. Impulses and roads to a new perception of informatics. 6. New perception of the technological informatics and its grand challenges. 7. New, informatics-driven methodology for science, technology, and actually for all areas of society. 8. Modelling, simulation and visualisation - tools, problems and power. 9. Recent developments in understanding of human brains and minds. 10. GNR (G - genomics, N - nanotechnology, R (+AI) - robotics). - I. G + N 11. GNR revolution - II. Robotics and artificial intelligence. Long hhistory, hot outcomes, big dangers. 12. Singularity - life after (2045?) a merge of biological and non-biological evolution. 12. Longevity - Can we fight death? How (much). Lif etill/after 150?!
Literature
  • R. Kurzweil: The singularity is near, Penguing books, 2005
Teaching methods
lectures
Assessment methods
esseys or exams or colloquia
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
http://www.fi.muni.cz/usr/gruska/future13
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Autumn 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2016, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fi/spring2016/IV123