Moffett Field, Calif. — An unusual new academic institution called Singularity University, run by a well-known entrepreneur and a futurist known for his claims that computers will soon outsmart human beings, welcomed its first class of students last night. But first the new students posed for a class picture and had a “spit party,” where they submitted saliva samples to have their DNA sequenced.

The premise of the university is that a range of technological fields — including nanotechnology, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence — are advancing more rapidly than many people realize. They’re accelerating exponentially, the university’s leaders argue, and so big changes may soon seem to sweep in all at once, even though initial developments happened less quickly.

The university’s goal is to train emerging leaders in business, government, and academe to prepare for what’s ahead — and possibly dream up a few new technological applications. The institution’s first program — a nine-week summer session — offers students a survey of the latest developments and trends in several high-tech disciplines, taught by experts from universities, government agencies, and technology companies. Classes are taking place at NASA’s Ames Research Center here, set in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google is a corporate sponsor, and the company gave every student a cellphone running the company’s Android operating system.

Peter Diamandis, the university’s founder, said at an opening ceremony on Monday that the institution is meant to supplement more-traditional options. “Today’s institutions of greater learning — where you go and get your doctorate degree — teach you to focus so narrowly,” he said. “Where do you learn to pull way back and think about the biggest issues on the planet? That’s what we hope to bring you here today. Not to compete with the great institutions out there but to give you a different way of thinking.”

Forty students were selected for the inaugural class, though leaders hope to expand that to 130 next summer. Tuition is $25,000 for the summer.

Mr. Diamandis modeled the institution on another one he created, the International Space University, a graduate-level training center to which NASA and other space agencies have sent students for 22 years.

For Singularity University, Mr. Diamandis teamed up with Ray Kurzweil, an inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist who argues that by 2030, a moment — the “singularity” — will be reached when computers will outthink human brains.

Mr. Kurzweil goes further than many academic researchers in his predictions of what the future will look like — and how fast it will arrive. In his latest book, Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever, which he wrote with the physician Terry Grossman, he predicts that computers and human bodies will soon intermix, greatly extending lifespans. “Instead of repairing our genetic code, we will eventually be able to completely replace our DNA with microscopic computers whose code could be wirelessly reprogrammed to quickly address threats, such as a viral infection or cancer,” he wrote.

In an interview with The Chronicle on Monday, Mr. Kurzweil said that he believes such new technologies are sure to come, but that how they will be used is far from certain. “I think it’s important that people be aware of these exponentially growing information technologies and their power, for both promise and peril, so we can harness the former and control and harness the latter,” he said.

He seems as concerned about the dangers as he is excited by the promises. “We’re democratizing the tools of destruction, and there are things we can do about that, but we need to do them,” he said. “We are reprogramming biology away from heart disease and aging. But the same tools could be use by a bioterrorist to reprogram a virus to make it more deadly.”

“It’s potentially more dangerous than an atomic bomb, and the tools to do it are much more widespread,” he said. “It’s not so easy to create an atomic bomb — Iran still doesn’t have one. But the tools to create a bioengineered biological virus are in a typical college bioengineering laboratory.”

Several students and instructors said they were not here to enact Mr. Kurzweil’s visions. “We’re much more for the practical and pragmatic technologies that are five to 10 years out,” said Sterling Wright, a teaching fellow for the university.

Jessica Scorpio, a student from Canada who founded a nonprofit organization, said she sees “huge potentials” in emerging technologies and is hoping to find new ways to use them to help people. For her, the idea of a “singularity” is not her reason for attending, despite the university’s title. “If you call it ‘Emerging Technology University,’ that’s not a catchy title,” she said.

As for the “spit party” where students had their DNA analyzed, Ms. Scorpio said it was a good bonding experience, and a way to think about medical technologies on the horizon. “It was actually hard for me because I got a lot of bubbles in the tube, but you had to have nonbubbly saliva,” she said. —Jeffrey R. Young