Future Salon

Future Salon: The Brain Plasticity Revolution Fr. July 17

Why Humans May Be Too Neurologically Limited To Successfully Rule The World

Super excited about our next Future Salon with Professor Michael M. Merzenich, Ph.D. on July 17 6pm at SAP Labs in Palo Alto please RSVP: http://budurl.com/3abd

Abstract: Brain Plasticity Revolution
We’ll discuss the principles of brain plasticity, on the way to explaining the bases of origin of individual human abilities and the ‘Persons’ who employ them.  We’ll describe how this science has been employed to improve or transform the lives of children and adults in need of neurological help.  We’ll consider some of the greater societal implications of our new understanding of the brain-plasticity bases of normal and abnormal human behaviors.  We’ll try to explain how the empirical, pragmatic and substantially fictitious notions about our self-development and about our humanity that have provided the primary bases for the education, organization and control of human societies are now being challenged by a scientific understanding of the true nature of the processes that account for them.  In its implications for how we view ourselves and our rapidly evolving cultures, this new perspective about our true, limited natures may provide the basis for rapid, further societal degradation -- OR guide us toward large-scale societal corrections, and cultural rejuvenation.  We’ll end our conversation by discussing a few strategies that might guide us toward that better path.

Webcast: The Science and Technology of Cooperation Future Salon with Steve Omohundro

If you can't join in person, you can join us online, as we are broadcasting starting at 7:00pm PST:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/future-salon Enjoy!

The Science and Technology of Cooperation Future Salon with Steve Omohundro

Update: Finally finalized the date of the event: Friday 22nd of May please RSVP http://budurl.com/3f8h as always at SAP Labs in Palo Alto.

Steve spoke to a couple of people after Zan Gill's excellent Evolving Collaborative Intelligence Future Salon and revised his talk since. In his own words: I enjoyed the Future Salon last night! Based on the discussions I had with people I've decided to emphasize the more near term aspects of cooperation in my talk. So I wrote yet another abstract (sorry!). It's actually been great for helping me find the best way of framing the ideas so t hey will be relevant to the greatest number of people.

Fine tuning for the Future Salon audience is very welcomed. Here his revised abstract:

The Science and Technology of Cooperation

Steve Omohundro, Ph.D.

 

A new science of cooperation is arising out of recent research in biology and economics. Biology once focused on competitive concepts like "Survival of the Fittest" and "Selfish Genes". More recent work has uncovered powerful forces that drive the evolution of increasing levels of cooperation. In the history of life, molecular hypercycles joined into prokaryotic cells which merged into eukaryotic cells which came together into multi-cellular organisms which formed hives, tribes, and countries.  Many believe that a kind of "global brain" is currently emerging.

Evo Devo Universe Future Salon with John Smart Webcast Link

We are webcasting via Ustream again: http://tinyurl.com/6776ry  Sound may be a problem as the aplification is not working. If you are coming and have a portable amp, please bring it. Otherwise John Smart and I will do Opera projection ;-)

Tomorrow Friday 16th: Evo Devo Future Salon with John Smart

It is going to be really fascinating tomorrow. I bumped into a colleague today at SAP who has not been to a Future Salon in a while, because life has the habit of catching up with you and I totally understand.  But tomorrow he will be there to find out: "Where John Smart's brain has taken him." That were his exact words and he has not seen him in years.

I am also really excited, may be John's projected technology acceleration is pulling us out of our current slump and provides us with a sustainable solution for the future?

John is looking at the long term trends, actually looking at the long term history of the universe to derive universal truths that will be true beyond the bailout of crooked bankers ;-)Evolution and Development.

Here again the abstract and details of his talk tomorrow 6pm @ SAP Labs in Palo Alto:

Evo Devo Universe Future Salon with John Smart Friday April 17th

For many of you Future Salon regulars John Smart doesn't need an introduction. The Bay Area Future Salon is modeled after John's LA Futurists meetings that he was hosting for many years. Actually he came up from L.A. to kick off the first Future Salon and helped populate it with many of his connections.

Lately he had his head down writing his book. This is why I am extra happy that he takes a brake to introduce his current big picture thinking at our next Future Salon on Friday the 17th of April. (6-7 networking 7-9pm talk/conversation). Free and open to the public please RSVP http://budurl.com/jcp7/d so we know how many people to expect.

P.S. Extra special treat: Iveta and John are having a Post-Talk Party at their place in Mountain View (216 Mountain View Ave) "from 9:30pm to Whenever" for any folks who want to hang out on couches after the Salon and get to know their fellow futurist friends on a more informal basis. We will have drinks and some snacks but people are always welcome to bring more if they would like.

Evo Devo Universe? A Framework for Thinking About the Future

Abstract: Biological systems evolve, and they also develop. These two processes are very different, but they are both necessary for life and intelligence to exist. While evolution (“evo”) is famously unpredictable, many aspects of development (“devo”) are quite predictable. For example, if you have a sense of what stage a developing system is at in its ‘replication’ cycle (birth, growth, reproduction, aging, or recycling), you have a pretty good idea what stage is coming next. Organic molecules also evolve and replicate/develop. So do stars, and their dependent planets. In fact, that’s how our own life-generating solar system came to exist, through a long process of stellar “evolutionary development” (reproduction of progressively more chemically complex solar systems) in our galaxy. Ideas or ‘memes,’ which replicate between human brains, also evolve and develop. So do technologies, which replicate in cultures. There is some evidence that even our universe itself may replicate, evolve, and develop, according to some of the new cosmologists.

Live Stream Evolving Collaborative Intelligence Future Salon

If you can't join in person, join the ustream.tv broadcast and chat. See you at 7pm PST.

Free live streaming by Ustream

Evolving Collaborative Intelligence Future Salon

It has been a while since the Future Salon tackled the meta question that Doug Engelbart asked himself years ago and us at a Future Salon: As much as possible, to boost mankind's collective capability for coping with complex, urgent problems.

I am really happy to have Zann Gill on Friday the 20th of March to bring her perspective to that question: Evolving Collaborative Intelligence. Check out her amazing life journey. Years ago she even worked for Buckminster Fuller. 
Please RSVP http://is.gd/lj0A

Zann and I sat together a couple of weeks ago and thought about what we can do in the framework of a Future Salon to evolve the Collaborative Intelligence. May be even evolve the framework itself. Here is what we came up with:

Nature manifests directed innovation, with a series of “process design” principles that human-computer systems could emulate. Zann Gill will describe how the evolution of life harnesses innovation networks, directed processes that converge toward improved adaptation that could not be predicted in advance as a goal. These principles are applicable to smart systems that support cross-disciplinary, collaborative problem-solving as we face our greatest challenge, eco-sustainability. Collective intelligence, which taps the consensus “wisdom of crowds,” harnesses algorithms to transform diverse input into a better-than-average consensual output. In contrast, collaborative intelligence taps and retains the diversity of individuals, manifesting principles of evolutionary design, such as collaborative autonomy, to co-evolve by improving through time, innovating and adapting to continually changing ecosystems.

This talk will describe how Nature’s dynamic design process principles apply to practical problems faced by enterprise systems (from companies to social networks to cities and nations) to evolve more intelligent capacity for emergent pattern recognition, decision-making, and to converge gradually toward sustainable operations. 

Objective. To seed discussion about the role SAP Future Salon plays in enabling our collaborative intelligence to evolve smart meta-systems for sustainable futures. Applications to explore include sustainable business practices, rapid responder systems for emergencies, e-governance, and planning eco-cities.

Very Gradual Change We Can Believe In

Stumbled upon this excellent spoof of Obama's poster: Very Gradual Change We Can Believe In by darwin2009 at Zazzle.com

Wanted to share it yesterday with the Future Salon crowed, but didn't get to it.

All profits from the sale of the poster/t-shirts/stickers will go to the National Center for Science Education NCSE.

By the way after the talk a second time Future Salon participant came up to me and said: Even if you would charge $50 that wouldn't stop me from coming. Wow, thank you, first time that someone put a price tag to it and such a high one at that. It made my day.

I am really happy with the support that I am getting from SAP Labs and love that we can offer the program for free and to everyone who is interested. I am planning to continue to do so. Spread the word.

Quick Notes from the Protocell Future Salon

Great Protocell Future Salon with David Deamer and Mark A. Badau.

Here are a couple of my running note:

Michelle Cadieux during the Networking: This is even better than at Google ;-)

Great round of questions from the beginning. David Deamer at the end thanked and said that he never had such a great audience.

Protocells Future Salon live stream

If you can't join in person, join the ustream.tv broadcast and chat. See you at 7pm PST.

Free live streaming by Ustream

Protocells Future Salon this Friday 20th of February

A singularity is sometimes understood as a phase shift, where the new phase is beyond the comprehension of the old. We can guess, but we don't really know what will happen once general artificial intelligence is surpassing human intelligence. Someone once said, when you look outside your window and there is a new mountain, you know it has arrived.

Such a phase shift also happened about 4.2 billion years ago. [Since this economic crisis we are getting more and more familiar with these kind of numbers ;-) ] Out of the hot chemical soup here on earth the first simple life forms: Protocells formed. The arrival of the first primitive life forms changed everything on planet earth. As far as I know we have not been able to recreate that feat in a laboratory as of yet.

At this Friday's Protocell Future Salon you will have the chance to ask two of the leading scientists what the holdup is and what our current understanding is about the origin of life.

Mark A. Bedau is Professor of Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He is the coeditor of Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Science and Philosophy and Protocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter, both published by the MIT Press in 2008.

David Deamer is Research Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz. David edited the book Origins of Life: The Central Concepts, Jones and Bartlett 1994. He is currently working on his next book to be published early in 2010 by UC Press.

I have it from very well informed people that they are excellent presenters. Not to be missed.

Oh and it was Darwin's 200th birthday the other day and the Guardian posted the results of a survey: Half of Britons do not believe in evolution. Pew Research arrives at a similar result for the US.

Independent on which side you are, please come and join us this Friday. I guarantee you will learn something and we love nothing more than a well thought out argument and debate. As always we will have great audience participation. 

Future Salons have the following structure: 6-7pm is networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP; 7-9+pm is the presentation followed by questions and discussion.

SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross or Cafeteria depending on number of RSVPs. SAP is located at 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304[map]. Free and open to the public. Please spread the word and invite others, but be sure to RSVP http://budurl.com/xx4a so we know how many people to expect.

Protocells Future Salon Friday 20th of February

The origins of life have fascinated us for centuries and on the 20th of February we will have the great opportunity to hear about the latest research and discoveries in that field from two of the authors of the Book Protocells - Bridging non living with living matter, that was published a couple of weeks ago.

Protocells offers a comprehensive resource on current attempts to create simple forms of life from scratch in the laboratory. These minimal versions of cells, known as protocells, are entities with lifelike properties created from nonliving materials, and the book provides in-depth investigations of processes at the interface between nonliving and living matter.

Endorsement: "Protocells, which bridge nonliving and living matter, are playing increasingly important roles in studies on the origin of life, artificial life, and synthetic biology. This book serves as a bridge for both nonexperts and experts in the field, providing introductory and primer material on protocells, as well as more advanced, cutting-edge updates on this exciting subject." —J.J. Collins, Co-Director, Center for BioDynamics and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University

Two of the authors are going to present:

Mark A. Bedau is Professor of Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He is the coeditor of Emergence: Contemporary Readings in Science and Philosophy and Protocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter, both published by the MIT Press in 2008.

David Deamer is Research Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz. David edited the book Origins of Life: The Central Concepts, Jones and Bartlett 1994. He is currently working on his next book to be published early in 2010 by UC Press.

This is going to be so cool, they may even cover the ethical implications of their research.

Future Salons have the following structure: 6-7pm is networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP; 7-9+pm is the presentation followed by questions and discussion.

SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross or Cafeteria depending on number of RSVPs. SAP is located at 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304[map]. Free and open to the public. Please spread the word and invite others, but be sure to RSVP http://budurl.com/xx4a so we know how many people to expect.

Will We drive more once we have Robocars?

As I wrote before I can't wait to have my car drive me where I want to go. What a relief that will be. --- Thinking about it, it may be too much relief. Once the drudgery of long distance driving is taken out of the equation, I am happy to drive even further.

Birthday party by my buddy in Seattle this Saturday? No problem. Friday night hop in my robocar and arrive Saturday morning relative well rested, can even help him with the preperations, party all night, hang out on Sunday and drive back through the night again. Perfect.

Similar with commuting. Everyone having a car enabled the urban sprawl, created Suburbia. Robocars will make it possible to live even further away from your place of work.

We better step on the gas pedal regarding renewable energy.

It is going to be an interesting discussion at the Transportation Future Salon on Friday the 16th of January 2009.
Picture taken by storem.

Transportation Future Salon Friday 16th January 2009

Two weeks ago I was getting the hell out of California, too fast for the Highway Patrol, they gave me a big ticket. Now I am even more motivated to get Robocars off the ground ASAP. I think the first step will be that you drive the car to the freeway and it is taking over from there until you have to get off. How sweet would that have been on our 5.5 hour drive to Jacksonville Oregon? Think about it, you can take a nap, play video games, watch a movie, all while your car is fighting traffic up highway 5 for you.

How much more relaxed and without big ticket would you arrive? Come and find out at the Transportation Future Salon on Friday the 16th of January. Please RSVP.

To clue us in what really is in the pipeline regarding robocars we have the following two excellent experts:  

Brad Templeton a Future Salon regular and man of many interests has lately focused on Robocars.

Abstract: Thanks to DARPA sponsored contests, robot cars are no longer science fiction; they're coming in 1-2 decades.   Their implications are quite remarkable -- and not just for transportation, where they can offer a mere saving of millions of lives, billions of hours and trillions of dollars.  Robocars can change how we live and work, change our cities, change manufacturing, housing.   Crucially in today's world, they also have the potential to make serious inroads on our energy and emissions problems. The talk will discuss the merits and downsides of robocars, potential paths to get there, roadblocks along the way and what the world of robocars will be like. 

You may remember Eric Boyd, also a Future Salon regular. who presented his passion the Automotive X Prize at our Open Mike Future Salon. Having the focus on transportation this months I asked him to give us a half hour update on where we stand from his perspective. 

If you search for automotive x prize his blog  X Prize Cars is right after the Wikipedia entry, that shows how valued his opinion is around that theme.

Brad Templeton founded and ran ClariNet Communications Corp., the first internet-based content company, then sold it to Newsedge Corporation in 1997. ClariNet publishes an online electronic newspaper delivered for live reading on subscribers machines. He has been active in the computer network community since 1979, participated in the building and growth of USENET from its earliest days and in 1987 he founded and edited rec.humor.funny, the world's most widely read computerized conference on that network, and today the world's longest running blog. He has been a software company founder, and is the author of a dozen packaged microcomputer software products. He is chairman of the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading civil rights advocacy group for cyberspace. He also sits on the advisory boards for a few internet startups. Currently he is building a new startup to reinvent the phone call. He is also on the board of the Foresight Institute (A Nanotech think-tank) and BitTorrent, Inc.  

Eric Boyd is not a car nut.  He's an efficiency nut.  Trained as a mechanical engineer, steeped in mathematics, and concerned about issues like peak oil, global warming, and the rise and fall of civilizations, Eric hopes that the Automotive X Prize will make a difference in how our society handles the major challenges which confront it.