OPINIONS

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• 
  The end of human civilization as we know it will take place around year 2045
  
  Professor David Passig
  In a presentation at the World Lithuanian Economic Forum, Israeli Professor David Passig quoted the futurist Ray Kurzweil, who defines the concept of ‘Singularity’ in terms of the technological creation of superintelligence, arguing that it is difficult or impossible for present-day humans to predict what a post-singularity world would be like, due to the difficulty of imagining the intentions and capabilities of superintelligent entities.
  
  Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent.
  
  According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it will take place around year 2045.
  
  The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity.
  
  See also https://vilnews.com/?p=7041...
• Lithuania’s Silicon Valley?Lithuania will get a new R&D centre thanks to a joint research partnership between IBM and the Lithuanian government. Under the five-year agreement, the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Education and Science has decided to launch a new research centre and IBM will contribute existing assets and research expertise from IBM Research laboratories in Zurich, Almaden, New York and Haifa. Lithuania and IBM will share equal rights to the intellectual property, and R&D commercialization, such as patents, IP licenses, products and prototypes that result from the research centre's activities.
  
  The Lithuanian research centre also will involve scientists from Lithuanian universities (Vilnius University, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas University of Medicine) and institutions (Santariskes Hospital) who are focused on developing innovations that will contribute to the development of a knowledge-based society in Lithuania, and will enable the Lithuanian research center to become a focal point for healthcare, life sciences, and nanotechnology in the Baltic region.
  
  In the area of nanotechnology, IBM and Lithuanian scientists will focus on integrated photonics and novel photonic materials for faster computers of the future and nanopatterning security tags for advanced anti-forgery technology at IBM's new, state-of-the-art nanotechnology center in Switzerland that opens next year....
• Importance of leadershipLeadership is an important function of management which helps to maximize efficiency and to achieve organizational goals. The following points justify the importance of leadership in a concern.
  
  1. Initiates action- Leader is a person who starts the work by communicating the policies and plans to the subordinates from where the work actually starts.
  
  2. Motivation- A leader proves to be playing an incentive role in the concern’s working. He motivates the employees with economic and non-economic rewards and thereby gets the work from the subordinates.
  
  3. Providing guidance- A leader has to not only supervise but also play a guiding role for the subordinates. Guidance here means instructing the subordinates the way they have to perform their work effectively and efficiently....
• Birštonas Secondary School is best in classSome time ago I met with a very energetic school rector, Alvydas Urbanavičius at Birštonas Secondary School. Birštonas is a small town about 30 km from Kaunas.
  
  I asked him what had made his school so successful and his answer was quick and clear: “We were very lucky to be ‘adopted’ by a Danish school already in the early 1990s, and the Danes taught us how to run a modern school and also gave us important funding so that we could avoid many of the problems that other Lithuanian schools and the very educational system here still is fighting with”.
  
  He used some time to explain me what a good school is all about, and how the Government has to act if the school system in Lithuania should be able to reach a western level, but he became silent for a moment when I ask him what he would have done to the school system if HE was the Minister of Education.
  
  When the answer finally came, the young rector’s face had become very serious: “It would not help much to be Minister on the top of a non-functional system as is the case today, so the first thing I would have to do would be to perform fundamental changes in the Ministry and only then start a very much needed modernising of the complete educational system in Lithuania”......

Ranking of Lithuanian business schools

Four Lithuanian business schools have been ranked in a recent report from Eduniversal-ranking

* ISM University of Management & Economics
* International Business School at Vilnius University
* BMI - Baltic Management Institute
* Vytautas Magnus University Faculty Of Economics and Management

The report offers the following ranking:
http://www.eduniversal-ranking.com/

Pulling extraordinary 'minds & brains' together from all over the world for the purpose of 'rescuing' Lithuania as a nation

I have been reading some of the most interesting articles sine the Vilnews launch. There was one, in particular, that touched and impressed me deeply, it was an Oxford's view on Lithuania's education. However, what has impressed me the most is the fact that you have been able to pull extraordinary 'minds & brains' together from all over the world for the purpose of 'rescuing' Lithuania as a nation, and fundamentally improve its current practices with respect to economic and political justice, business practices, educational sustainability and resilience and much much more. Just wanted to say one more time THANK YOU!!!
Barbara Rapaport, Australia



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