World-Renowned Scientists Team With Google And NASA To Launch Singularity University

I think the idea is to create 30 more Ray Kurzweils, so that Ray can then be 31 times as effective. Or something like that: http://singularity-university.org/overview

Singularity University aims to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges.

http://singularity-university.org/about/faq/#student

3. We are looking for proven leaders and entrepreneurs. We are looking for the next generation of CEO’s, University Deans/Presidents and Government leaders.

Oxford has been doing essentially the same thing for hundreds of years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford#History

The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to British politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. More than forty Nobel laureates and more than fifty world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford.

educating 30 people for $25k a piece? It really seems like there is an opportunity here to include masses of world changers instead of only targeting corporate executives

They are not merely targeting corporate executives, and they are planning on graduating more than 30 students per year: http://singularity-university.org/about/faq/#gsp

    Program Track   # students  freq/year  grad/year  

  Graduate Studies    30-120        1       30-120
   Mid-Level Mgmt       40          8         320
    C-Level Mgmt        20          8         160

                                Total/year: 410-500

Only the Graduate Studies Program is limited to 30 students, and then only in the first year. "[...] subsequent years will have a program size of ~120."

For what seems to be a nine week course? ~$500/day? Sounds quite pricey.

$25k for a course on preparing for a future that may or may not happen (in our lifetime) does seem steep considering that anything you learned here would likely be outdated the minute that future arrives.