Media Sponsor Of The Singularity Summit 2009
The Lifeboat Foundation has joined organizations such as Scientific
American and KurzweilAI.net as a Media Sponsor of the Singularity Summit
2009. You can see our listing at http://www.singularitysummit.com/
Our Itamar Arel, Gregory Benford, Ed Boyden, Bill Dickens, Ben Goertzel,
Aubrey de Grey, Stuart Hameroff, Marcus Hutter, Randal Koene, Ray
Kurzweil, Gary Marcus, Anders Sandberg, Jürgen Schmidhuber, and Eliezer
Yudkowsky will be speaking at the Singularity Summit 2009 which will be
held in New York on October 3-4 in Kaufmann Hall at the historic 92nd St Y.
Following is more information on this important event:
Over the past half a century, an increasing fraction of people who have
thought seriously about the future have come to the conclusion that
extrapolation of historical technological progress leads to extreme
difficulties, as linear extrapolation of even old and established trends
seems to imply radical emergent discontinuities which call those trends,
or even their meaning, sharply into question. At first it was just Von
Neumann and Lem, then I. J. Good, and by the time Vernor Vinge named
this observation "The Singularity" in 1993, a critical mass of people
had been talking about this for years and the name stuck.
Today, after a couple decades of serious discussion by a niche
intellectual community, the Singularity is beginning to become the
subject of mainstream investigation. In particular, the idea that
radical human life extension should be achievable in the next few
decades has attracted serious attention. With major life extension
breakthroughs taking place in animals every few months, it has become
unclear whether extending lifespans by three years by curing cancer or
by 30 years by slowing aging is likely to be a more difficult research
goal. This year, Google funded a $2M "Singularity University" in
collaboration with NASA Ames, and two high exposure independent films
were released focused on Ray Kurzweil.
The Singularity Summit is the world's only regular conference focused on
the Singularity. Speakers will include some of the world's top
researchers, futurists, and philosophers, including Ray Kurzweil, David
Chalmers, Gregory Benford, Aubrey de Grey, Ed Boyden, Peter Thiel, and
Jürgen Schmidhuber. They will cover a diverse range of topics related to
the Singularity concept, including decision theory, AI, biotechnology,
futurism, quantum computing, brain emulation, and many others. David
Chalmers is known as the world's foremost philosopher on the topic of
consciousness, Ray Kurzweil is widely regarded as the world's foremost
(if not the most controversial) futurist, Ned Seeman is a leader on DNA
nanotechnology, and Aubrey de Grey is known for his work on supporting
research to fight human aging. If you are looking for a cutting-edge
conference with a strong futurist bent, the Singularity Summit is for
you.
This year, after three years in the Bay Area, the Singularity Summit
will take place in New York for the first time next month. With thirty
speakers all at the top of their fields and a two day speaker's workshop
at the end, this looks like by far the best Summit yet for actually
advancing the state of understanding of the future.
Learn more at http://www.singularitysummit.com/
International Journal of Green Nanotechnology
Our Kattesh Katti has launched the International Journal of Green
Nanotechnology. This is the first journal to focus specifically on the
crucial scientific, engineering, industrial, and logistical challenges
of developing green nanotechnologies for applications in medicine,
materials science, environmental science, and alternate energy
production.
"Agricultural and medical sciences must connect with emerging areas of
science and technology; the International Journal of Green
Nanotechnology, edited by Professor Kattesh V. Katti, would be a means
of establishing this important connection between nanotechnology and
green science." — Dr. Norman Ernest Borlaug, humanitarian, and Nobel
Laureate.
Learn more at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/...0892.asp
Kattesh Katti
Our Kattesh Katti donates to our Website Redesign Fund and says "It is
gratifying to be part of and donating to Lifeboat Foundation as the
extraordinary group of members of this foundation operate in an 'out of
the box' approach in bringing an awareness of the implications of
science and technology to our day-to-day lives. This collective effort
will take all of us into the next domain of science in terms of
realization of the power of nanotechnology in medicine, agriculture, and
environment restoration."
Kattesh was just bestowed with the highly coveted Doctor of Science
(DSc) Honoris Causa by Karnataka University, India, in recognition of
his contributions to nanoscience, nanomedicine, green nanotechnology and
its application to medical and environmental research.
Learn about our Website Redesign Fund at
https://lifeboat.com/ex/website.redesign
Learn about Kattesh at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.kattesh.v.katti
NanoBioTech 2009
Our Raj Bawa is Chair of NanoBiotech 2009 which will be at the Center
for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, Troy, NY on October 19, 2009. This conference explores the
global opportunities in nanobiotechnology and related science and
engineering fields.
Learn more at http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/nanobio2009.html
Banners
Due to popular demand, we now have many banners available for public use at http://lifeboat.com/ex/banners
Bill Dickens
Bill Dickens joins our Economics Board. Bill is Distinguished Professor
of Economics and Social Policy, Northeastern University; Visiting
Scholar, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Non-resident Senior Fellow,
Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution; Co-Director of the European
Central Bank's International Wage Flexibility Project — a collaborative
effort involving Brookings, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the
European Central Bank, and economists from 13 country teams; Board of
Reviewers, Industrial Relations; and Consultant on labor, economics, and
statistics.
Bill was previously Consultant, New York Federal Reserve Bank (Sep 2005
- Aug 2008); Director, National Community Development Policy Analysis
Network (Jan 1996 - Oct 2001); and Senior Economist, President's Council
of Economic Advisors (Jul 1993 - Jun 1994).
Learn more at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.william.t.dickens
Growing Membership
Recent donations/pledges we have received since the last newsletter:
Donald Maclean: $1,000,
Eric Klien: $500,
Dan Stoicescu: $500,
Bill Dickens: $100,
Garth D. Ehrlich: $100,
Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $85,
Michael Anissimov: $85,
Eric Bauswell: $85,
Michael Dickey: $85,
Jason Gaverick Matheny: $85,
Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85,
Matthew L. McGuirl: $75,
Kenneth P. Weiss: $85,
Kattesh V. Katti: $50,
Frank C. Adamek: $25,
C M Anderson: $25,
Rick Hubbard: $25,
Alan R. Light: $25,
Dipanjan Pan: $25,
Anonymous: $20,
Ronald Amos: $10,
Stephen Fleming: $10,
Christopher Dilkus: $10,
Thomas Dolphin: $10,
Sylvia Engdahl: $10,
George Garrett: $10,
Joseph P. Jackson III: $10,
Linus Petersson: $10,
and John N. Philipps (Jack): $10.
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.
