Proposal to the UU Saratoga Board of Trustees

DRAFT IN DEVELOPMENT FOR JUNE 27 BOT MEETING

No author has influenced my thinking about my relationship to technology and religion more than Ray Kurzweil.

First, I read The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. That came out at the turn of the century.

Then I read The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. He published that in 2005.

When I started writing Darwin’s Edge 20 years ago with the UU Free Writers of the UU Fellowship of Stony Brook, Kurzweil’s books were key references. We invented the Rev. Peter Gilman as a composite UU minister who must decide whether or not to accept the invitation of a lifetime: To venture into the next frontier of consciousness as a ThinkPal Volunteer, offering himself as a test subject for the first whole-brain interface with AI, the first neural auxiliary that’s so powerful it will change our concept of what it means to be human.

Now Penguin Random House is publishing Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with AI on June 25. This is the very moment at which Ron Roth (UU Boca Raton), Elias Kruger (AI and Faith), and I are bringing Rev. Pete’s story to the New York State Summer Writers Institute for a two-week fiction-writing workshop that starts Sunday, June 23.

In collaboration with partners, I propose to develop Darwin’s Edge as a fund-raiser for UU Saratoga’s new meeting house. Ten percent of net revenues generated by the sale of intellectual property we mutually create in Darwin’s Edge, Smartacus, and AI and the Human will go toward construction of our new building. Ten percent of any revenues generated after it’s completed and paid for will go toward either defraying the congregation’s annual operating expenses or placed in the Smartacus Endowment.

Proposed ‘Legacy Vault’

I propose also to collaborate with UU Saratoga in developing the “Legacy Vault” that the Task Force plans to install in the new meeting house’s ground floor with the understanding that the many “interred” items will include transcripts and recordings of these services and a copy of Darwin’s Edge. The exact nature of the Vault is to be determined. It has been suggested we go with a safe. The Task Force undoubtedly also will want to consider this to be a choice naming opportunity.

I further propose we schedule for Sunday, February 29, 2032 a service in which Darwin’s Edge is exhumed and reconsidered in light of all that has happened technologically and spiritually in the previous eight years. We’ll ask: What did we get right in our forecast — and what did we get wrong? And what do we make of our integration with AI to this point? Where do we see this going?

A Collaborative Effort

By pledging to contribute to UU Saratoga 10 percent of net revenues generated by intellectual property we collaboratively create, I hope to incentivize UU Saratoga members to participate in any of the following ways:

  • Join Smartacus’s Basecamp workspace, where our Creative Group processes interviews with experts to be published on AI and the Human, reports AI and neurotech news as Smartacus blog posts, and in collaboration with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Midjourney writes and illustrates chapters unfolding in Darwin’s Edge;

  • Participate as Worship Associates, Readers, and Actors in AI-themed worship services;

  • Share our AI-themed content with friends via personal social media channels and UU Saratoga media, including its newsletter, web site, and Facebook page;

  • Perform in, build sets for, and sell tickets to the Darwin’s Edge two-act play we might stage if we’re able to enlist sufficient volunteers and we think we can sell enough tickets to make the production worthwhile;

  • Purchase the print-on-demand Darwin’s Edge novel we might publish if we think we can sell enough copies to make that worthwhile;

  • Contribute items to our Legacy Vault;

  • Watch the Darwin’s Edge television series we aspire to sell to Netflix, Max, or PBS.

‘Smartacus’ as Intellectual Property

The name “Smartacus” came to me as I was riding the Long Island Railroad into New York in the mid-1990s. The World Wide Web was new and there was a scramble for great “.com” domains. Arriving home that night, I snagged the “.com” domain for “Smartacus” and have held onto it ever since, looking for a great application.

Back then, I thought of Smartacus as the “King of the Expert Networks,” the next generation of the “Professors Network” which I had launched in email in 1992.

Today, I think of Smartacus as evolving by 2031 into the “AI Colossus” and am writing it as such into Darwin’s Edge. ThinkPal connects to it va the 9G Wireless Neural Connector.

In 2016, I trademarked the name in Class 41. For easy reference by the attorneys we’ll consult when we find a buyer for this intellectual property, here are the trademark’s particulars:

U.S. Serial Number: 86/580,495

U.S. Registration Number: 5,004,360

U.S. Registration Date: July 19, 2016

Our File No. 277320.01 

U.S. Application Serial No. 97481793 (issued in 2023)         

The trademark protects the use of “Smartacus” in a wide range of services primarily related to education and entertainment. This class includes services provided by institutions and individuals to educate people, train animals, or entertain audiences. Specific examples include:

  1. Educational Services: This encompasses a variety of educational activities such as tutoring, conducting classes, workshops, seminars, and running educational institutions ranging from preschools to universities. It also includes services like vocational training and religious education.

  2. Entertainment Services: This includes organizing and providing entertainment events like concerts, theater productions, and sporting events. It also covers services related to amusement parks, zoos, and other recreational activities.

  3. Publishing and Reporting: Class 41 includes services related to publishing books, journals, and electronic publications, as well as news reporting and media production services.

  4. Sports and Fitness: This covers services provided by fitness trainers, sports coaches, and health clubs, as well as organizing and conducting sports competitions.

  5. Cultural Activities: This includes organizing cultural exhibitions, art shows, and other activities that promote cultural enrichment and entertainment.

  6. Other Services: It also covers a variety of other services such as library services, translation services, and providing facilities for gambling and lotteries​​​​​​.

In summary, Trademark Class 41 is quite broad and is designed to protect a variety of service-related trademarks, particularly those involved in educating, entertaining, and providing recreational activities.

“Smartacus” is a compelling name for any enterprise operating in these classes. The more equity we can build in it, the more a potential buyer will be willing to pay for it. Since UU Saratoga will be awarded ten percent of the net revenue from that sale, the congregation has an incentive to drive traffic toward our Smartacus platform, especially if it’s high-quality content that speaks to matters of interest to UUs — such as the merger of AI and human and the future of our species.

Why Do This?

What Orson Wells’ achieved with his radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, Smartacus aspires to achieve with Darwin’s Edge — not to terrify the nation but to open our collective eyes to the remarkable opportunities and stark threats our integration with AI poses.

Along the way, we aim to make a substantial contribution toward UU Saratoga’s new meeting house. If we all pull together, we just might achieve it.

In fellowship,

Dan Forbush
Member, AI and Faith Editorial Team
Member, UU Saratoga Worship Team
Member, UU Saratoga Capital Campaign Team