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Lifeboat News #67

#67

Lifeboat News

This issue published on 02/01/08. Copyright 2008 Lifeboat Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

U.S. Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Meeting

Read the reaction of the U.S. Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG) to meeting with experts from the Lifeboat Foundation at http://lifeboat.com/lifeboat.navy.pdf

Our Growing AGI-08 Lineup

Tsvi Achler, Eyal Amir, Nick Cassimatis, Wlodzislaw "Wlodek" Duch, Ben Goertzel, J. Storrs "Josh" Hall, Ari Heljakka, Matthew Iklé, John E. Laird, Kenneth Livingston, Moshe Looks, Cassio Pennachin, Alexei V. Samsonovich, Angela Schwering, Karan Sharma, Leslie Smith, and Peter Stone will be speaking at The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence at the FedEx Institute of Technology, University of Memphis in cooperation with AAAI, March 1-3, 2008.
 
Session chairs will include Eric Baum, J. Storrs "Josh" Hall, Randal A. Koene, Steve Omohundro, and Stephen Reed. The organizing committee includes Ben Goertzel and Bruce Klein. The AGI-08 Program Committee includes Michael L. Anderson, Eric Baum, Mark H. Bickhard, Nick Cassimatis, Wlodzislaw "Wlodek" Duch, Ben Goertzel, J. Storrs "Josh" Hall, Marcus Hutter, Christian Lebiere, Moshe Looks, Randal A. Koene, Bruce Maclennan, Matthias Scheutz, and Jürgen Schmidhuber.
 
The Outreach Director is Natasha Vita-More and Conference Management Software Hosting is by David Hart.
 
Learn more at http://lifeboat.com/upcoming

Deputy Networking Director

Michael Dickey is now our LF Deputy Networking Director. Using the internet as his primary social-networking instrument, Michael is focused on expanding and strengthening Lifeboat Foundation's global network of professional and personal contacts and the active welcoming of financial donations as well as donations in kind from this growing web of worldwide connections.
 
Learn about Michael at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.michael.dickey

Blog Webmaster

Chris Haley becomes our Blog Webmaster. His main task will be to manage spam — to remove spam that gets past our spam filters, and more importantly, to save legitimate messages that our spam filters thought were spam.
 
Activity in our blog is growing and Chris's help will be appreciated!
 
Learn about Chris at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.chris.k.haley

Blog

Bruce Klein joins our blog team with his first post at http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=116
 
Michael Graham Richard joins our blog team with his first post at http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=122

[email protected] Team

Michael Graham Richard activates our [email protected] team at http://lifeboat.com/ex/rosetta.home
 
Donate the unused CPU cycles on your computer(s) to help scientists to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases. By running the Rosetta program on your computer while you don't need it you will help speed up and extend research in ways scientists couldn't possibly attempt without your help. You will also be helping efforts at designing new proteins to fight diseases such as HIV, Malaria, Cancer, and Alzheimer's. (See Disease Related Research for more information). Read news and articles about Rosetta.

[email protected] Team

Chris Haley joins our [email protected] team at http://lifeboat.com/ex/folding.home, working to help scientists understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases.

Facebook Causes

Thanks to Matt McGuirl, we now have three Facebook causes. They are: A-PRIZE at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631, NanoShield at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631, and AIShield at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631

Poll

Participate in the poll "Top 10 Existential Risks" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=116

Lifeboat vs Skynet

The Speculist says "How about a story arc in which Sarah and John elicit the help of the Lifeboat Foundation in warding off the rise of the machines? I'd like to see a heavily armed paramilitary cell within the foundation all decked out in camouflage and talking trash about 'tearing Skynet a new memory cache' and the like."
 
Read more at http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/001621.html

Videos

Watch "Jesse Sullivan with the Bionic Arm" at http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#jesse_sul...onic_arm
 
Watch "DNA Molecular Biology Visualizations - Wrapping And Replication" at http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#dna_molec...izations
 
Watch "Programming DNA: A 2-bit language for engineering biology" at http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#programming_dna

World News

We added information to our World News page about "CIA Says Hackers Have Cut Power Grid: Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks on utility systems and extortion demands" at http://lifeboat.com/ex/world.news#cia_s...wer_grid
 
Read our InternetShield program at http://lifeboat.com/ex/internet.shield for solutions!

AIShield

Dan Berleant improves our AIShield program enabling us to upgrade it to a "current program".
 
Learn about Dan Berleant at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.daniel.j.berleant

AIShield Fund

We have launched the AIShield Fund which will be used to turn our AIShield program into reality.
 
While we won't be funding the purchase of massive supercomputers, ginormous teams of programmers, or research into quantum computers and other computing breakthroughs in the near future, we can do something today. Learn more at https://lifeboat.com/ex/ai.shield.fund

Correction

The following correction was made to issue 65 of Lifeboat News: "Terrestrial Peoples, Extraterrestrial Persons" by Charles Tandy. The paper's most important idea is that he suggests two new Concerts (one Terrestrial, one Extraterrestrial) and that "implementing both proposals in concert would have a synergistic effect". (Concert 1: The political structure of Earth, which is neither a Law of Peoples nor a Law of Persons, is unworkable. But at this unique point in history it is both desirable and feasible to establish a Terrestrial Law of Peoples along the lines of Kant; Rawls; and, Daalder and Lindsay.) (Concert 2: The political structure of Space, which is neither a Law of Peoples nor a Law of Persons, is unworkable. But at this unique point in history it is both desirable and feasible to establish an Extraterrestrial Law of Persons along the lines indicated herein.) Contrary to what you may have heard, the paper does NOT suggest termination or replacement of the UN. You may want to read the paper for yourself; this paper by Charles Tandy may be found in an anthology edited by him: Death And Anti-Death, Volume 5 (Palo Alto: Ria University Press, forthcoming 2007).

Membership Type

Our donor list can now be sorted by membership type as shown at http://lifeboat.com/ex/donor.membership.type.list

Growing Membership

Humberto Castaneda becomes our first Patron level member. He says "Human survival has always been in mortal danger. It is only our slow perception of time that has given us the illusion of stability. Whether we call it luck, or by design, we have gotten to a point where through technology we may escape the risk horizon on Earth. Now we have to believe this is possible, and that we will do it, because whatever stance we take collectively will be self-fulfilling."
 
Tyrone Steels II joins our LF 500 team, bringing this important group to double digits. We now also have double digit Executive and Economy Class members.
 
Being thrifty, Tyrone cuts his cost in half as he says, "I work for Hewlett-Packard and they have added the Lifeboat Foundation into their preferred donation database. As a result, they match all contributions." So HP will be paying half his costs!
 
Here are some of the recent donations/pledges we have received since the last newsletter:
 
Tyrone Steels II: $25,000, Matt Bamberger: $2,000, Chris Haley: $1,085, Humberto Castaneda: $400, Robert Citron: $300, Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $170, Anonymous: $140, Colin Kline: $120, Michael Anissimov: $85, Eric Bauswell: $85, Michael Dickey: $85, Jason Gaverick Matheny: $85, Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85, Kenneth P. Weiss: $85, James William Taylor: $50, Adrian-Bodgan Morut (Adi): $40, C M Anderson: $25, Vincent A. Cate: $25, Adam Dobrin: $25, Rick Hubbard: $25, Matthew L. McGuirl: $25, Peter Murray: $25, Robert Hunt Robinson: $25, Mark A. Walker: $25, Anonymous: $10, Stephen Fleming: $10, Joshua Fox: $10, Christopher Dilkus: $10, Sylvia Engdahl: $10, Joseph P. Jackson III: $10, Sheridan Layman: $10, Glenn A. Miller: $10, Sarah Jane Pell: $10, John N. Philipps (Jack): $10, Pennye Shaw: $10, Kaj Sotala: $10, Otto Valtakoski: $10, Michael Vassar: $10, and Thoughtware.TV: $5.
 
Our Join Us page at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us now allows you to pay for your membership anywhere from monthly to every ten years.