Future Salon

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

Update: Here are the videos from the great event.

Evo Devo Universe? Part 1 (55 mins)
http://www.vimeo.com/6013211

Evo Devo Universe? Part 2 (52 mins)
http://www.vimeo.com/6153233

Slides:
http://accelerating.org/presentations/EvoDevoUniverseBAFS2009.ppt

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.