Robert Barry Ptolemy (born 1969) is an American film director, producer and writer. Ptolemy directed '' Transcendent Man'' (2009) a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about futurist and inventor

Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), speech synthesis, text-to-speech synthesis, spee ...

Life

Ptolemy was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California. His father introduced him to computers at an early age, giving him a lifelong interest in technology. At the age of 12, Ptolemy worked with

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

on the set of ''

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film, science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott Taylor, Elliott, a boy w ...

'' (1982) as an animal wrangler. Inspired by working with Spielberg the next year in 1983 Ptolemy directed and produced his first short film ''The Holograph'' which won first place in a regional arts festival. He attended

USC School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of Sound film, talkies, the school descends from America's first ...

in 1990 and shortly after started a production company that produced TV commercials and show pilots.

Career

In 2006, Ptolemy read Kurzweil's ''

The Singularity Is Near ''The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology'' is a 2005 non-fiction book about artificial intelligence and the future of humanity by inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. A sequel book, '' The Singularity Is Nearer'', was released on J ...

'' and was inspired to make the film, ''Transcendent Man'' in February 2007. Along with his wife Felicia, Ptolemy followed Kurzweil around the world to roughly 25 cities in five countries while documenting his ideas about the concept of the singularity. After working closely together, Ptolemy considers Kurzweil a friend. In 2010, Ptolemy directed the "We Are The World for Haiti" video which premiered during the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics with Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie. In an interview with ''High School Rejects'', Ptolemy said his next project would be a science fiction film. As of this writing Ptolemy is scheduled to produce and appear in a panel discussion called Transcendent Man LIVE with

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

Deepak Chopra Deepak Chopra (; ; born October 22, 1946) is an Indian-American author, New Age, new age guru, and alternative medicine advocate. A prominent figure in the New Age movement, his books and videos have made him one of the best-known and wealthi ...

Dean Kamen Dean Lawrence Kamen (; born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway PT, Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Sc ...

Michio Kaku Michio Kaku (; ; born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, Science communication, science communicator, futurologist, and writer of popular-science. He is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and ...

Tan Le Tan Le (Vietnamese: ''Lê Thị Thái Tần'', born 20 May 1977) is a Vietnamese-born Australian telecommunications entrepreneur and a co-founder of Emotiv. She was named the 1998 Young Australian of the Year. Career As president of the Vietna ...

with special appearances by Vice President Al Gore,

Bill Maher William MaherStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', January 12, 2016, PBS; on a series that lists "Jr." and "Sr." distinctions, Bill Maher's birth name was listed simply as William Maher, while his father was William Aloysius Maher Jr., and his pa ...

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

and

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

. The event will be broadcast to 500 theaters nationwide as a Fathom Event live from the Lincoln Center in New York City on August 3, 2011. Ptolemy has been quoted as saying he assembled this panel to "start a grand discussion about the future."

Filmography

*''The Catch'' (2000) – Director/Producer/Screenplay *'' Transcendent Man'' (2009) – Director/Producer * Transcendent Man LIVE! (2011) – Executive Producer * The Future of Us – starring

Jason Silva Jason Luis Silva Mishkin (born February 6, 1982) is a Venezuelan-American television personality, short filmmaker, futurist, and public speaker. He is known for hosting the National Geographic documentaries '' Brain Games'' and ''Origins''. He ...

(2014) Executive Producer

References

External links

* http://transcendentman.com/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ptolemy, Barry 1969 births Living people Writers from Los Angeles American transhumanists Film directors from Los Angeles