Participant Statements (alpha
order)
Prior
to AC2004,
attendees have the option to submit a brief participant statement
of passions (topics of personal interest),
current projects and problems, and
resources to recommend. Statements
below will also be included in the Conference
Handbook to optimize peer-to-peer networking
and discussion. To
submit your participant statement, please click
here.
Miguel F. Aznar, Executive Director of KnowledgeContext
(aznar {at} KnowledgeContext.org)
Passions and Futures
How do we understand technology? How do we evaluate it? Since
the first stone tools, we have used technology to transform
our world...and technology has transformed us. Did anyone
anticipate how the spear, written language, or global travel
would create the environment in which our surviving ancestors
were fittest? Will we select and guide 21st century technology
to create a future we want?
Projects and Problems
I direct an educational nonprofit corporation that teaches
young people, through a classroom curriculum, how to understand
and evaluate technology...any technology. KnowledgeContext's
soon-to-be-printed book takes this strategy to a deeper level
for the parents, teachers, and others who want our society
to be able to think critically about technology, and not just
learn which buttons to push.
Resources to Recommend
The classroom curriculum and online book on understanding
and evaluating technology are available for download at http://knowledgecontext.org/.
I am always interested in discussing the patterns underlying
technology, in particular, those that explain how it changes,
how it changes us, what its costs and benefits are, and how
we evaluate it. If you care about education, talk to me about
how we can promote technological literacy.
Robert
J. Berger (rberger {at} ibd.com)
Passions and Futures
The area I have been most involved is solving the last mile
problem for broadband Internet Access. The last few years
has been making 802.11 wireless suitable for that application.
My belief is that making Internet access an alternative to
the oligopoly of mass communications is key to opening the
future to many more possibilities. Renewable energy and sustainable
infrastructure is another area of interest. We need to be
converting our brittle and wasteful ways of sustaining ourselves
and our technology to ways that can last thousands of years.
The flip side of that is the expectation that we will be seeing
breakthrus in anti-aging and life extension within the next
decade. How can we prepare for that and also help accelerate
its dispersement in society.
Projects and Problems
As I mentioned, routing around the oligopolies of mass communication
and creating new content and ways to transport that content
are my main focus. I would also be interested in working with
folks on ways to accelerate the development and introduction
of anti-aging and life extension drugs and techniques. And
of course the development of sustainable and renewable energy
and technologies.
Resources to Recommend
Personal website (which of course will someday be updated):
http://www.ibd.com
Some favorite websites:
http://boingboing.net/
http://joi.ito.com/
http://www.metafilter.com/
Sustainable Tech:
http://www.worldchanging.com/
http://macroscopic.org/php/html/
Life Extension / Anti-Aging:
http://www.betterhumans.com/
Brian Chaikelson
Passions
and Futures
Technology is most interesting in the context of a premeditated
campaign; with an end goal, we're less likely to get lost
in the implementation details. With that in mind, I'm hopeful
for an international
commitment to address the demands of global population growth
in the next few decades.
Projects and Problems
We seem to know people four clicks away better than our next
door neighbor. As GPS becomes more integrated with the wireless
web and we're able to easily provide contextual annotations
to space, I'm
hopeful that we'll build relationships with those in close
spatial proximity. Ping me before or during the conference
if you know of great graduate school programs where I might
be able to focus on these topics, along
with the policies which drive them.
Resources to Recommend
Elastic Space is
an interesting site about spatial annotation.
David Clemens, Monterey Peninsula College
Passions and Futures
My passion is teaching and positively affecting students’
lives. I devised a literature/film class that engages some
of the issues of human destiny (and human definition) in terms
of the way Hollywood has depicted them (such as Blade
Runner, 2001, Gattaca). The next 30 years are filled
with conflicting potential—I would like to see the human
race focused on exploring the universe but I realize we could
also become omphaloskeptics, cowed by indifference of cosmic
nature. The greatest risk is continuing erosion of human dignity
from further redefinition of when and what a human being is—that
is, technology proceeds blindly providing expanding opportunities
for control and supposed perfectability. I would not want
to live in the world of Gattaca, and I hope that sensitizing
students to such a possible future will cause them to seek
humanizing avenues for change rather than “inhumanizing”
ones. Finally, I think that to be human involves encountering
and coming to terms with mortality. In 30 years I expect to
be dead, but, as Heinlein’s character says when going
into battle, “C’mon you apes! What do you want
to do, live forever?”
Projects and Problems
Primarily educational—I’m trying to put my “robot
class” online even though I find online education a
shadow of real education. As Martin Pawley once said, all
technology acts as insulation against human contact. Futurist
issues need to be more infused into the schools so that students
have some sort of mental construct about the potentials inherent
in the developments around them. Most students have no image
of the future at all, or the past either, for that matter;
they are ahistorical and cocooned . What sort of government
eventuates from the ahistorical and cocooned?
Resources to Recommend
Class website: (http://www.angelfire.com/realm2/singularity)
I am affiliated with the Association of Literary Scholars
and Critics, the National Association of Scholars, and the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Rob Courtney, Stanford Law School Student
Passions and Futures
I am a cyberpolicy wonk, particularly in areas of free expression,
the growing network, and the ever-increasing degree to which
personal and networked computing enhances the capabilities
of individuals and groups.
Areas that I don't know much about, but want to learn more,
include visualization, interface design,
mediated group dynamics, and the art of finding/building the
right tool for the job. I am fascinated by
video games but very bad at them. I am a student at Stanford
Law, and I hope that in thirty years I'll have leveraged my
legal education into helping bring my vision somewhat closer
to reality.
Projects and Problems
My interests tend towards the law/policy side. RIght now I
am spending a lot of time studying the FCC's growing influence
on the network and personal expression, and studying digital
copyright law in general. I am also interested in the ways
that technology is propelling changes to contract and property
law, frequently in ways that place the cost of the transition
on end-users.
Resources to Recommend
Traceroutes
- the student blog of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet
& Society
Center for Democracy & Technology
Public Knowledge
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Importance
Of
Susan Crawford blog
Game Girl Advance
John
Fischer (jefischerjr {at} hotmail.com)
Passions and Futures
Architecture is a lifelong passion of mine. However, I am
not an architect, and the discipline is much less kind to
hobbyists than, say, photography. In my lifetime, I would
like to see more of the industrialized world, and particularly
the United States, enjoy the benefits of more thoughtful architectural
planning, a modern and relevant aesthetic, greater community,
and more rational and sustainable use of scarce resources.
On a topical note, I would like our country to be governed
by a more direct form of democracy, although not necessarily
formalized in law. Our system carries the inherent flaws of
coalition party politics with none of the benefits, as well
as other structural problems which turn many of our elected
representatives into a coterie of "the bribed and the
coerced." I believe the Internet gives us the potential
to introduce greater accountability on broad issues, e.g.,
dealing with our massive unfunded liabilities. The fact that
both Presidential candidates punted on the issue of Social
Security this year indicates to me the limitations of our
politicians as intermediaries between the public and its policy
needs.
Projects and Problems
I am currently leading a start-up venture in the field of
cryptography. A mathematician by training, I nonetheless hung
up my spurs years ago, and wear other hats where innovations
in encryption algorithms are concerned. Alongside challenges
to improve security and efficiency of cryptosystems, what
I find most interesting is the corresponding challenge to
enhance privacy and simplicity in our use of confidential
information. A Privacy Guard application kit, available for
free from any credit card company, is one illustration of
the Tower of Babel that digital security needs to avoid. Early
indications about the direction of the massive DHS project
to police the Southern border seem to further illustrate the
need for a robust and innovative intellectual framework over
a focus on the newest technologies. I have recently started
a blog, but it hasn't yet decided what it wants to be.
Resources to Recommend
Politics: Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street
Journal (requires paid subscription online),
andrewsullivan.com, factcheck.org
Architecture: dwellmag.com,
arcosanti.org
Beautiful stuff: sky-dyes.com,
isaiahzagar.org
Terry Frazier, Principal, Cognovis Group, LLC
Passions and Futures
I am most fascinated by how people intereact, their disparate
approaches to technology and collaboration, and how their
fears and perceptions color their ability to reach their goals.
As for 30 years hence, the IRS predicts that I will only live
another 39.8 years so I I'll mainly be old but I expect biotechnology
and genetic science to give me some help in that area. The
world doesn't have quite as easy a task. The problems here
will not be solved by technology, but rather by reformation
of thinking and the evolution of destructive cultures. Our
priorities should be to better understand the human mind,
to develop economic and social frameworks that can aid cultural
evolution, and to find better ways of cushioning the impact
of change for those who suffer from its forces.
Projects and Problems
I spend time in two developmental areas: the effective combination
of on-line and off-line media, and collaborative processes
for knowledge workers. There is a growing body of scientific
evidence to suggest significant physiological differences
in the way we absorb information presented to us on a screen
vs information on paper. Today there is little real effort
at fully integrating the two forms complementary features,
even though there are important audiences for each. Second,
the range of computer-augmented collaborative solutions is
quite large, but most are complex and costly with poor user
adoption rates. I'm working to integrate friendlier, more
cost-effective tools that appeal to non-technical users and
can improve work processes without undue cost and complexity.
Resources to Recommend
My personal web page is www.terryfrazier.com
where I track many of the issues that affect the projects
listed above. I also work with the CRM Association (http://www.crm-a.org)
which is the only non-profit, user-centered organization aimed
at helping businesses improve their relationships. Resources
I use regularly include the A-OK Network (http://www.kwork.com)
for excellent knowledge work discussion and news, Dave Pollard
(http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/)
for insightful business innovation, Weblogg-ed News (http://www.weblogg-ed.com/)
for educational and e-learning insight, Oligopoly Watch (http://www.oligopolywatch.com)
for tracking the ever-growing impact of MNCs on our society,
and Dr. Lynn Kiesling (http://knowledgeproblem.blogspot.com)
for economic analysis. Martindale's "The Reference Desk"
http://www.martindalecenter.com/
is a fascinating source of reference data in virtually
every area.
W.
Thomas Grové (lion {at} lotek.org)
Passions and Futures
I am interested in ways to employ both entertainment
and technology for the purposes of raising the level of consciousness
in individuals and in societies.
Projects and Problems
As change accelerates, will the governing bodies of the
world be able to keep up with the world around them? Will
they be able to effectively cultivate those changes?
Resources to Recommend
http://www.lotek.org/
This page has links to my personal homepage and to many pages
and organizations that are directly related to progressive
world change.
Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson
Passions and Futures
Presently, as a professional with nine years of progressive
management experience in the operational areas of Supply Chain,
Manufacturing, Distribution, Procurement and Research and
Development, I’m passionate about simulations and anticipatory
design science for the purpose of improving direction, decisions,
and response-ability. As a digital media artist, new technology
and its capabilities are my raw material in the process of
extending technology to applications other than originally
intended and exploring the impact of that technology. New
technology also allows me to mine the gap between new and
antique technology to create something of critical import.
Social networking is a core interest of mine. (See below)
One future challenge includes managing the degrees of separation
with the right people while remaining unfound by the rest
in an era of telepresence, nanoswarms, and personal information
broadcasting devices such as the Lovegety service offered
in Japan.
Projects and Problems
Most recently, I have researched and presented the impact
on socio-economic class of occupational dreams and goals in
a capitalist society. Currently, my digital media work is
focused on social networking. The first project concerns dynamic
representational methods for an individual’s network
as it grows from person to person interactions… a sort
of trip map with a trajectory and a past present and future.
Ants leave a decaying pheromone trail. These power structure
networks should also have contact reminders triggered at a
certain decay level. The second project concerns diagramming
power structures of corporations based on social networks
rather than organizational design and structure both similar
to the work that Marc Lombardi does in that it shows the interrelationship
of things and similar to www.theyrule.com
but for all individuals in the corporation rather than just
the board members. Thirdly, my mine the gap project includes
combining digital and antique photographic processes to comment
both on the digital and the film worlds.
Resources to Recommend
Personal Websites: http://www.jennifer-henderson.com
for resume, exhibits, and publications.
Also, http://www.alternativeprocessphoto.com,
a website about the handmade in the era of the digital.
For reviews of books on social networking, technology, science,
social culture and politics see http://www.jennifer-henderson.com/id65.htm
Switch Journal issue on Interface: Software as Cultural Production:
http://switch.sjsu.edu/~switch/nextswitch/switch_engine/front/front.php?o=mp&cat=44&show=
Leonardo Journal: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/index.html
Peter
Jenkins (pisemsky (at) yahoo.com)
Passions and Futures
Passions -The metaverse, augmented reality with the use of
RFID's and HUD's, human consciousness as a form of real estate,
finding the real role of so-called "junk DNA".
Futures - It is impossible now to predict with any reasonable
hope of accuracy 10 years into the future, let alone 30, but
here goes - a world where human reproduction and perception
is completely mediated by technology.
Projects and Problems
Projects - Dr. Hayutmann's Virtual Temple Project
Problems - cyberbalkanization, cyberpolarization, the linking
of micropayment technology with the over-expansion of copyright.
Resources to Recommend
My weblog: http://petabytes.typepad.com/blog/
Peter Kaminski, CTO, SocialText
(peter.kaminski {at} socialtext.com)
Passions
and Futures
What makes a mind? Most people don't think about it much,
but "single human" is an oxymoron. Humans live within
a rich web of information and infrastructure interdependence,
and aren't really "human" without interacting with
other humans. Does that rich web "think?" How do
individuals interact with it? Where is it going? Could it
-- or should it -- think faster?
Projects and Problems
Technology is too hard to use. People don't understand
-- or even recognize -- systems well. How do we build good
systems? How do we build robust systems, complete with immune
systems to adaptively defend and repair themselves? We're
still learning a lot about how people work best together.
How do we learn to build bridges instead of walls?
Resources to Recommend
My home page and blog is at http://peterkaminski.com/
-- there are links there to my other homes on the web, including
KaminskiWiki. del.icio.us is great, Google is great, Wikipedia
is great. Read more foreign newspapers, with an online translator
if you have to. It's a good way to see more of the world,
and it's an easy way to pick up more of a language, with a
constrained vocabulary and lots of context words you'll recognize.
Nelson R. (Buzz) Kellogg, Professor of Interdisciplinary
Studies, Sonoma State U. (kellogg {at} sonoma.edu)
Passions and Questions
The question which burns most brightly for me is one of stories
and narratives in a world of accelerating
change. Historically, we have located both individual and
social meaning and purpose through the use of stories, often
from various religions. But in order for these to function
as meaning-bearers, they must have a certain durability. Now
we are entering a time when individuals are reinventing their
lives a half dozen times during their working lives. What
narratives of meaning can embrace this change and give us
some direction in the practical aspects of living as well?
Projects
I have worked during the mid 1990s on projects of electronic
communities (I called them electronic villages), and assembled
a group of students that helped several local communities
establish a virtual counterpart. Recently, I have contributed
a chapter (called “Wisdom Communities) to a soon to
be published book titled Healing the Planet, Healing Ourselves.
This work will include chapters by such writers as The Dalai
Lama, Huston Smith, Deepak Chopra, and many more.
Adam
Lasnik (adam {at} lasnik.net)
Passions and Futures
I'm fascinated by how technology helps -- and hurts --
the social side of humanity. When I was 13 years old, I actively
beta tested messaging software and helped shape online community
guidelines for Prodigy Online Services, and I've been passionately
involved in the theory and practices of online community development
ever since. I'm excited by the potential for technology to
enhance or augment existing offline communities and I conversely
worry about online socializing serving as a crutch: damaging
or even wholly replacing offline interactions. As you can
imagine, I am now deeply involved with online social networking
services and firmly believe that what we're seeing and using
now is but a tiny tip of the iceberg of this sphere's potential.
Another one of my online passions is digital music. While
I understand the great risks and disadvantages of the rental-based
paradigm, I've become a strong convert of the NewNapster/Rhapsody
version of an eventual celestial-jukebox-on-call. Though most
of my friends strongly disagree, I believe that someday we'll
look back at the idea of "owning" music and laugh
at the inefficiencies and waste inherent in toting around
silver discs. As long as we're eventually able to wrest control
from the greedy and clueless RIAA into the hands of music
makers and music lovers, I know our world will be a better
place with the concept of music an *experience* of discovery
rather than a *thing* to be owned.
Projects and Problems
One of the greatest issues facing our world is the tension
between the risks and the opportunities inherent in comprehensive
personal information disclosure and aggregation. For instance,
by allowing Google or any other search engine to fully correlate
what I search for, publish, and store, my ability to find
and receive targeted information of value to me would be dramatically
increased. At the same time, trusting such comprehensive and
aggregated personal particulars of my life even to a "Good"
entity carries with it enormous risks: vulnerability to hackers,
overzealous government officials, unhinged employees, and
so on. At present, I worry that -- as with much of our society
-- the debate is destructively polarized and usually uninformative.
There is no such thing as ultimate privacy, total protection.
Additionally, no one privacy policy can fit everyone's needs
and desires. I deeply hope that our society looks past both
fear mongering and dollar signs and thoughtfully evaluates
both risks and benefits associated with personal data sharing
and aggregation.
Resources to Recommend
- My 'personal portal' site -- http://www.lasnik.net/
-- which links to my blog and my SmileZone site.
- Furl and Spurl -- http://www.furl.net/
and http://spurl.net -- two
fabulous (and competing) personal online archiving services.
You'll never bookmark an item to your local favorites list
again.
- Any universal 'travel points' credit card. I think it's
amazingly important for people to travel internationally as
often as possible, and having a credit card like this (and
charging all of one's expenses to it) is a very helpful way
to get to Europe or Asia or Africa or wherever faster.
- The Arts. If you have never danced, dance. If you have never
painted, paint. In Silicon Valley, it's too easy to get sucked
up into virtual learning and virtual communications and virtual
shoot-em-ups. Don't just consume -- create!
Mark Lenhart (singularity {at
}lenharts.com)
Passions and Futures
Most fascinating subjects: Interface of mind to machine allowing
the transmission of thought into/out of the brain, altering/reprogramming
long term human memory at will, super-enhanced human cognition
by machine/chemical/genetic enhancement, and silicon/quantum/optical
computer (self) awareness/consciousness/morality.
30 Year World Projection: If pre-Singularity - exactly the
same with a few more elegant technological solutions, and
a few more deeply troubling problems. If post Singularity,
fallen off the bell curve - either nonexistent or on the utopic
or dystopic extreme.
On Continual Acceleration: Technological advancement will
be an S curve, but what will be lying on the
other plateau is beyond comprehension. Which technologies
plateau first won't matter once Science is Singularity-controlled
- most technologies will be rapidly developed to their physical/logical
maximum, and will be largely indistinguishable from each other,
and/or incomprehensible to us.
Personal to Global Developmental Priorities: There is no difference
- they are fractal-scale mirrors of each other. Ultimately
we must use morally enlightened technological means to guide
or reprogram our collective primate neuropsychological development
to achieve personal (and thereby global) ethical/moral mastery.
Failure to do so in an age of super-technological empowerment
will lead to techno-tyrannical dystopias and/or self/global
annihilation.
Projects and Problems
Projects - Intellectual: Revisiting J.D. Bernal's Devil
(The third element of Bernal's book: "World, the
Flesh & the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three
Enemies of the Rational Soul", the 'Devil' signifying
our self/other destructive impulse and how it will interfere
with our post-human quest for virtual immortality.) Writing
a thesis on the possibility of the ethical use of technology
to enhance our collective individual moral compass and ethical
self empowerment. And hopefully thereby avoiding global self-destruction
in the transition to post-humanity and/or Singularity.
Projects - Business: Launching Gigabrains.com, an intellectual
networking and bartering startup.
Personal Issues of Accelerating Change: What becomes of our
ego, identity, and humanity with the exponential increase
in intelligence, awareness, and knowledge. I.e., are you still
you at IQ point 500? 1000? What happens to society if everyone's
IQ is doubled or tripled?
Resources to Recommend
Bay Area Future Salon
SciTech Daily Review
The Internet Archive
Bug Me Not
Peter C. McCluskey
Passions and Futures
Idea futures markets will improve on democracy (see http://hanson.gmu.edu/futarchy.html);
AI creates big risks (described by Eliezer Yudkowsky); molecular
assemblers will increase productivity dramatically but risk
setting off arms races. Mind uploading will allow us to increase
our mental capacity and to make frequent backup copies of
ourselves to protect against accidents. And once we've solved
these problems, it may be time to relax and head off torwards
the Far Edge Party.
Projects and Problems
I have a small investment in a nano-scale imaging startup
called Angstrovision, which is looking for a larger investor.
Coaststead (http://seastead.org/coast/) looks like it might
be an interesting project to effectively build more land,
and as a first step towards creating better governments by
homesteading new societies in the sea.
Resources to Recommend
Personal web page: http://www.bayesianinvestor.com
Organizations I support:
The Singularity Institute
Foresight Institute
EFF
The
Methuselah Mouse Prize
Alcor
Cheryl Morris
Passions and Futures
In one year, Mars Rovers, Mars Express, Cassini-Huygens, and
the Genesis Project have extended knowledge of our solar system-and
raised more questions. At the smallest scale, new findings
and developments at the quantum level and in nanotechnology
are propelling technological advances.
Most important to me is what we do with knowledge gained from
that science and technology.
Projects and Problems
As a doctoral student in Information Science, my current concerns
are
twofold: the erosion of privacy with the offshoring of personal
data and how to effect enforcement of national laws in an
interconnected world and still permit citizens their freedom.
Steve Mushero
Passions and Futures 
Technology will undoubtedly continue to accelerate,
in directions as yet unforeseen. In particular, information
delivery will increase from a torrent to a deluge, itself
creating interesting opportunities to apply technology to
managing access to every bit of human knowledge. On the flip
side, most of the world is as yet unable to access or even
read information in any form; the lack of education and literacy,
especially for women, is appalling and one of the leading
challenges for the world. Thirty years hence will ideally
find the whole world firmly in peaceful co-existence, which
will only happen when everyone is in the middle-class, with
health, liberty, and happiness.
Projects and Problems
Existing or potential projects or unsolved problems
you'd like to work on or are working on. Areas of collaborative
opportunity. Business, social, and personal issues of accelerating
change and technological development you find challenging,
and want to discuss in the group.
Women, education, and public health in the developing world
(at at home) are key issues for me, as they tie into nearly
everything else, from poverty to AIDS to armed conflict and
even terrorism. Developed country issues include how the U.S.,
Europe, and Japan will manage the twin challenges posed by
aging populations (especially pensions and health care) and
Globalization (potentially hollowing out their middle-classes).
In the end, the West can no longer live fat, dumb, and happy,
ignoring the economic and moral challenges posed by the developing
world. In the end, we are all in this together and need to
think globally, act globally.
Resources to Recommend
My business page is at www.SteveMushero.com
and my personal page, with thousands of global travel pictures,
is at www.mushero.com.
Aside from that, I would promote the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
(www.few.org), helping women
entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, and Pacific Community Ventures
(http://www.pacificcommunityventures.org/),
working with small Bay Area companies to promote employment
and development of under-served communities. As a tech guy,
I find Slashdot (www.slashdot.org)
useful to keep current of the absolute latest tech happenings,
plus www.news.com for more
traditional tech news. I find Rojo (www.rojo.com)
the new RSS reader/collaboration site, also very helpful for
finally allowing me to manage my news feeds.
Sponge
Nebson (nebson {at} gmail.com)
Passions and Futures
I see almost everything as a complex adaptive system. Related
concepts that have recently come to my attention are Chaos
Theory, Fractals, Artificial Life, Emergent Computation, Self
Organization, and many others. I am triple-majoring in Computer
Science, Mathematics, and Neuroscience at CSULB. I believe
this is a toolset which will give me freedom, versatility,
and power to study complex adaptive systems of all flavors
and varieties. As a futurist, I am concerned with the concept
of the self, how the self-concept is changing, and what will
eventually happen to it. First there was Dualism: "The
Ghost in the Machine." Now most identify with their body
alone, along with the ideas, preferences, and memories encoded
in their brains. However, this modern self-concept, quickly
becoming too simple. New technologies such as Computer Neural
Interface Systems and other neural implants will make a strict
body boundary much less definable. Recently, I have begun
using a wonderful service provided by Google called "Google
Alerts". I feel that Google Alerts is an extension of
my self, a 'third eye' that keeps tabs on the developments
that interest me. The modern self-concept is also beginning
to become blurred due to communication technology. A sort
of "collective consciousness" has developed and
is becoming more and more prominent. Many are starting to
feel as if their self is breaking out of their body and merging
with their technology, as well as with the minds of others.
This trend is accelerating with technological advancement;
very soon many people will have a very hard time answering
the question: "who/ what am I?"
Projects and Problems
Project 1: I wish to use EEG Biofeedback to treat my Attention
Deficit Disorder. This winter I will be working with Dr. Bob
Hill, a professional EEG Biofeedback practitioner who wrote
a book on treating ADD/ADHD with EEG Biofeedback: "Getting
Rid of Ritalin: How Neurofeedback Can Successfully Treat Attention
Deficit Disorder Without Drugs". I will be using very
low cost open source hardware developed by the OpenEEG project
(http://openeeg.sourceforge.net).
Hopefully I will be able to help others with what I learn.
Project 2: I have become overloaded with media and information.
My hard drive is a complete mess of digital articles, pictures,
online conversations, web pages, emails, sounds, videos and
other media. My physical office space is in a similar condition.
I am looking for a unified solution to my media mess. I am
currently learning the Perl and SQL programming languages,
which I will one day use to build a sophisticated, cross linked,
brain-like, searchable database solution to my media problem.
I will one day build (or find) a wireless internet enabled
wearable computer, with a built in scanner, video/still camera,
and microphone. I expect to use this wearable computer, along
with my database software to store, organize, search, and
retrieve any and all media I wish. Ideally it will be my second
brain, my neo-neocortex.
Resources to Recommend
Personal web page: Operation Beta Wave www.csulb.edu/~bbush
LA Futurists: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LAFuturists/
http://www.singularitywatch.com
http://www.kurzweilai.net
OpenEEG Project: (http://opneEEG.sourceforge.net).
Eric Nehrlich
(nehrlich {at} alum.mit.edu)
Passions and Futures
I am fascinated by the topic of how people communicate,
whether it's in the form of how a company makes its management
decisions, or how people coordinate on a project, or how we
decide who to vote for. I think that one of the most valuable
aspects of the internet and its offshoots is the ability to
support such communication. While I don't believe in the technology-led
paradigm shifts that we once dreamed of, I think it's interesting
how we have found ways to embed technology into our lives.
It's only when technology is no longer technology that it
has crossed over into the mainstream. So my interest is more
in understanding the social aspects of interaction that can
then be buttressed by an appropriate use of technology, or
as Joel on Software dubbed it, social interface design.
Projects and Problems
I don't have any specific projects or problems I'm working
on. I'm interested in hearing about research into tools for
supporting new group interactions. Technology in and of itself
isn't of much interest to me. Technology in support of a real,
identified problem is.
Resources to Recommend
My personal web page is at http://www.nehrlich.com/blog/,
which is where I post my thoughts on a variety of subjects.
It also includes links to blogs I follow. Relevant to the
issues I mentioned above is the Many-to-Many group blog (http://www.corante.com/many/),
discussing how technology can be used to support group communications,
from blogs to wikis to social tagging like del.icio.us, etc.
Phil
Nelson, Ph.D. (penelson {at} comcast.net)
Passions and Futures
The human, organizational, and Cultural Changes (Spiral
Dynamics) in response to accelerating change. How can we consciously
facilitate our human evolution and development using accelerating
change as the driver?
Projects and Problems
How can we Invest wisely to profit from accelerating
change? I build teamwork and facilitate interdisciplinary,
creative problem--solving meetings. Need a breakthrough?
I also coach managers. How can we leverage eLearning (and
later, virtual reality learning) to lift global educational
level, cooperation and synergy? How can we shift the U.S.
& world cultural balance away from competition and toward
cooperation, to take full advantage of the potential synergy
offered by accelerating change?
Resources to Recommend
My SUN Coaching web site: http://www.successunlimitednet.com/
My field of Organization Development is skilled in the
art of organizational change.
http://www.odnetwork.org/
and http://www.odnetwork.org/bookstore.php
Spiral Dynamics provides a map of the process of cultural
change. The 2-steps at each level of their ladder of
cultural evolution are close to the general principles of
1. Evolution and 2. Development, in the “strata”
of human culture.
http://www.spiraldynamics.net/
http://www.clarewgraves.com/home.html
Michael
Olson
Passions and Futures
My general interest is in systems thinking related to the
evolution of man as influenced by his use of tools. The tools
of course are our technological skills that continue to evolve
at an accelerating pace - as discussed by Ray Kurzweil and
numerous others. The key technologies to watch in my mind
are the usual suspects, 1) computing/storage/graphics/power,
2) biotechnology and 3) nanotechnology. The latter drives
both of the former going forward.
The most influential book that I often recall is The
Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski as an indicator of our
species' imperative to continue to evolve. The biggest challenge
will be to allow the fecundity of Man to be expressed in useful
ways that may well see the divergence of the species into
various philosophies depending upon how various like-minded
individuals see the "future of man". Some will see
the convergence of man and machine as indicated by the embedding
of electromechanical technology to both restore lost biological
function as well as to improve our abilities such as adding
exoskeletons and vision augmentation. Some will see the genetic
perfection as perhaps the most "natural evolution"
that follows from man's long history of husbandry - in this
case, upon ourselves. And some will see any tampering as "against
nature" that has through the eons created the variability
in our species to generate a robust gene pool to help aid
survivability. In the next 30 years these trends will begin
to seriously emerge, I believe, and the result is likely to
create a competition of values.
Thus, tolerance will be a major challenge and needed behavioral
trait as all people are stressed by the rates of change in
the world. Like an automobile traveling a highway with slow
rolling hills - the ride is comfortable. But come to a gravel
road and the slow rolling hills can come at shorter and shorted
intervals until suddenly you are traveling on a washboard
of lateral ruts and there is no time for adaptation - just
a stuttering bouncing and rattling of teeth and heads bouncing
off the roof. Hence the need to develop the buffers that absorb
the shocks of accelerating change, change that typically now
occurs faster than most of us are used to adapting to. I sometimes
ask - Did H.G. Wells get it right with his vision of the future
in The Time Machine? Will engineers (and scientists)
begin to be looked upon like the Morlocks while everyone else
(the Eloi) lives in a protected cocoon of both childhood delight
and fear of the dark? The challenges are many and the opportunities
to achieve great visions are numerous. Thankfully, the tools
for global collaboration to better manage our continued evolution
are coming together and hopefully we will have the will to
use them productively.
Frank Paynter
Passions and Futures
I have a passion for truth. For three hundred years, euro-culture
advanced an understanding of the universe in a quest for foundational
truth. Then about thirty years ago, there was a retreat from
the commitment to shaping a universal understanding in favor
of a darker solipsistic postmodernism. While this cultural
cul de sac provides fuel for its own immolation, it has also
encouraged the growth of bizarre belief structures and fundamentalisms.
Ideally, the next thirty years will be spent recovering lost
ground and committing to reinvestment in science, knowledge
and the growth of respect for universal education. I look
for an emerging global culture with broad advances in international
law, health and wellness, food and shelter for the billions,
and equal opportunities for creativity and interpersonal cultural
enrichment.
Projects and Problems
The problem of combustion-based energy haunts us. Discarding
substitutes like coal gasification, ethanol, and bio-diesel
in favor of bio-electric, wind and solar will be necessary
if we want to halt global warming in time. Unfortunately,
combustion alternatives are the low-hanging fruit economically
as we shift from the petroleum culture. Democracy is necessary
to enforce the mandate world-wide against the destruction
of combustion based energy. Chemical based agriculture seems
to harm as much as it provides sustenance. Closed system organic
approaches that recycle bio-wastes will be needed on a broad
scale to restore soil that has been sterilized by herbicides,
pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. The internet promises
communication and cultural integration for all. Protecting
it as a commons and developing it according to standards that
will prevent it from collapsing under its own weight is a
challenge constantly before us.
Resources to Recommend
http://sandhill.typepad.com/
http://www.rageboy.com/blogger.html
http://idcommons.net/principles.html
http://www.eff.org/
John Peterson, President, The Arlington Institute
(johnp {at} arlingtoninstitute.org)
Passions and Futures
I am interested in the future in general, and breakthrough
tools for anticipating futures and facilitating a global transition
to a new world, in particular. I believe that one of the most
profound areas of technological advancement will be in "sense-making"
and anticipatory analysis, both of which will provide humans
extraordinary abilities for dealing with a world that increasingly
seems out of control and headed toward fundamental dysfunction..
Projects and Problems
We are developing very powerful technologies for sense making
and surprise anticipation, in particular, a surprise anticipation
center.
Resources to Recommend
More about me can be found at http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/about_tai/john_petersen.html.
I am a network member of the Global Business Network. I edit
the fortenightly published free newsletter: FUTUREdition,
which monitors early indicators that could portend significant
future change.
Edward
Piou (piou {at} eppi.com)
Passions and Futures
Bioinformatics: will sequence analysis give us the insight
and tools to cure and enhance ourselves as appropriate? And
will those tools be restricted to a chosen few? In 30 years,
I hope to see the fruits of research into this field benefiting
people from the top to the bottom of the economic scale. I'm
also passionate - now more than ever - about leveraging networks
and information to help move this country's citizens towards
a reality-based view of the world, away from the faith-based
course we appear to be on.
Projects and Problems
I recently helped develop and debug the Election Incident
Reporting System (EIRS), an online system used in the recent
national election to document and deal with voting irregularities
nationwide. Inspired by the folks who put in months developing
EIRS before I ever heard of it, I am contemplating projects
which can contribute to a positive change in the world.
Resources to Recommend
Personal page: http://www.piou.org/
Online political destinations:
http://www.dailykos.com/
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
https://voteprotect.org/
http://www.theweekmagazine.com/
Online indicators of offline entertainment:
http://www.stayhuman.org/
http://mvgals.net/
Ryan Rawson
Passions and Futures
We all brought our unique viewpoints and priorities to ACC2003
and discovered new and interesting things. A year later viewpoints
and priorities shift, and what follows are some of my main
concerns for the future (or lack thereof):
- Devolution of public debate and policy. Shrinking away from
Science and Rationalism as deciding measures.
- Total amortized energy costs - Oil is going to get quite
a bit more expensive in the future.
- Environmental preservation - Plan for the future today.
- Social Justice and Human Rights - It's not just an abstract
concept, there are tangible benefits to these concepts. Property
theft and crime being the most obvious.
- Advertising - the manufacturing of desire and the 30 second
attention span will become more of a problem as the problems
and issues we face become more complex.
Projects and Problems
Perhaps the main question is "How do we build a future
worth living in?" I look forward to an interesting and
invigorating conference.
Gregor J. Rothfuss, Vice President,
Business Development, KAYWA Ltd.
Passions and Futures
I am interested especially in nanotechnology and artificial
intelligence. I expect the rate of change to increase in the
next 30 years as various previously unconnected technologies
begin to interesect. I hope that the world will see the first
pre-singularity technologies being put to use within 30 years,
and hope that I can be a part of the ride by learning and
teaching about these changes. The risks and opportunities
have been written up cogently elsewhere, let me add that I
consider the creation of friendly AI to be key.
Projects and Problems
One of the biggest problems facing us today is for society
to adapt to change. The collective intelligence of society
has to grow much quicker than it does today to tackle the
complex problems of today and the future. I hope that social
software and weblogs can be a first step in that direction.
I design and promote weblog software.
Resources to Recommend
For more, see my personal weblog: http://greg.abstrakt.ch
Chris Smith, Project Manager, Artificial Development (chris.smith
{at} ad.com)
Passions and Futures
Some of my favorite subjects include interactivity, cognitive
systems, augmentation, and emerging technologies. I would
like to see the creative and responsible development of molecular
nanotechnologies, and the application of these and other new
technologies towards increasing our collective knowledge.
Projects and Problems
My primary project is working on CCortex, a biologically realistic
simulation of the human brain, at Artificial Development (http://ad.com).
Another project I'm involved with is Kidz Magazine (http://kidzmagazine.com),
an international children's publication written entirely by
K-8 students.
Resources to Recommend
My personal site is Accelerating Technology (http://acceleratingtechnology.com),
which includes news and resources on accelerating change,
nanotech, cognitive systems, and many related subjects.
Philip Steele
Passions and Futures
Ethical aspects of artificial intelligence. What will be the
legal status and responsibilities of AI's as they emerge,
and how do we demarcate their passage from "childhood"
to "adult" legal status? How do we motivate and
enforce responsible behavior in AI's?
Projects and Problems
Currently plotting a science fiction novel involving AI and
singularity issues. Currently participating socially with
ASF members and looking for a more productive involvement
with this community. Wondering how to apply my professional
skills (predominantly writing/editing/copywriting/web-content/usability)
to help advance discussion of these issues. I would welcome
opportunities to consult in these areas.
Resources to Recommend
My company for website services, copywriting, editing, and
design (http://www.perfect-content.com/).
Lisa Tansey (lisaware {at} aol.com)
Passions and Futures
Molecular and cell biology, human behaviour (genetic and socio/anthro/political),
and software
development including database design are my current favorites.
Ideally...30 years...the world would have found multiple
better ways to generate any needed energy for specific needs
in specific places, transportation will be improved for everyone
- providing both the benefits of mass transit wherever possible
as well as satisfying individual needs, we'll have found a
higher plane
on which to solve the Lucifer Principle in human group relations,
nanotechnologies and stem cell research will solve the annoying
parts of aging (but people will still finally die), I'll be
benefitting from all of these advances as well as helping
to advance them in whatever ways I can - primarily by becoming
a more globally conscious consumer & thoughtful citizen.
I expect that nano and genetic technologies will continue
to accelerate, as will some software technologies.
Opportunities, challenges and priorities - already listed
above. I suppose I could change the original list from "Ideally"
to Really", in which case it'd all move down here &
up above I'd say we were continuing to swing further &
further out on the pendulum between environmental disaster
and technological/social salvation.
Projects and Problems
I'd like to work on helping the U.S. and really the whole
world define a "middle ground" we could all truly
agree on. I am working on this in small ways through various
social organizations. I am wondering how these goals can be
advanced more rapidly through effective use of technology.
The accelerating change and technological development issues
I find challenging in my day to day life have to do primarily
with my paid employment at Northrop Grumman and my desire
to find more effective ways to communicate the ideas I think
are important. Are plays effective? Not too many people see
plays. Movies are effective, but expensive to produce and
difficult to distribute. Web pages are good, but now the web
is so big that I'd need to invest time in learning how to
make it stand out and be found. My biggest political quandry
right now is the situation in the Middle East - how to assist
those folks in coming to a peaceful resolution.
Resources to Recommend
ASF, Futurists, The World Affairs Council, Sister Cities
International, Sifter (atheists social network), Morris dancing,
Samba (Diaspora and SuperSonicSambaSchool), Benissimo5 improv,
IEEE Siggraph, the International Dance Association of San
Diego, and Mensa are all groups with which I am affiliated
or promote. MIT's "Technology Review", "Science
News", the BBC, NPR, tempest, the Washington Post, the
New York Times, Commentary, Muslim World Today, the Jerusalem
Post, and the national and local Mensa publications are where
mostly I get my info. I also like to read Simon Funk's blog
from time to time. I keep meaning to join a web community...
:) &, for that matter, set up a web page - for a computer
geek, I've been pretty slothful on these two items.
Hans
van Rietschote (hvrietsc {at} myrealbox.com)
Passions and Futures
What fascinates me is the ability to be connected all the
time, everywhere, to everyone and everything I want to be
connected to at any given time. My cell phone gives me the
opportunity to talk to anyone. My ultra-portable lap/palm/button-top
gives me access to everything digital: all my pictures, movies,
emails, files and the whole internet. The challenge will be
to filter all this stuff so I can find what I want to look
at it immediately, so I don't get bombarded with SPAM, and
I don't get contacted by people or bots that I don't want
to be contacted by. The challenge will be flexible privacy
in a digital world and at the same time the ability "record"
everything I do digitally.
Projects and Problems
Given my job in the CTO organization of VERITAS I am interested
in working on topics such as: can I have immediate access
to all my data by carrying around something the size of a
matchbook or smaller. Another topic of interest how do I find
something I am looking for. I was going to write "how
to organize everything" but I think we will not be able
to organize all the bits we generate, so there has to be a
better way...
Peter
Voss, Founder, Adaptive AI Inc.
Passions and Futures
My interests include: Artificial General Intelligence
(AGI), philosophy, ethics, futurism, technology, psychology,
as well as radical life-extension including calorie restriction
(CRON) and cryonics. Indications are that in less than 10
years we'll hit the singularity, and who knows what things
will be like... AGI is the key: It will happen before full-blown
nanotech, bioengineering, and before we figure out how to
stop ageing – AGI will make these other advances possible.
Projects and Problems
Adaptive AI (a2i2) is building an AGI system: http://adaptiveai.com/
. We are always looking for additional team members &
collaborators. Our AGI engine is based on a specific theoretical
model of high-level intelligence developed over the past decade.
Our immediate goal is the creation of a fully functional,
proof-of-concept prototype of all the foundational elements
of General Intelligence. We currently have seven full-time
members on our team, who in a short period of time have created
a significant framework of core functionality and tools for
our AGI engine. For more information about our project, see
our Research
and Company
page.
Resources to Recommend
Peter Voss: http://www.optimal.org/peter/peter.htm
Longevity: CRON - Calorie
Restriction with Optimal Nutrition
Kennita Watson, Software QA Engineer
Passions and Futures
What subjects fascinate you most? Space travel and colonization.
The meeting of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and
psychology (for example, as they could be applied for rehabilitation
of criminals or for reacclimatization of reanimated cryonics
patients). Biomedical technology (neural regeneration and
repair).
Where will the world, and you, be in the next 30 years? Most
of the world, particularly the third world, may be held to
approximately its present state by political inertia and the
slow diffusion of ideas across linguistic, cultural, and ideological
boundaries. For those in developed countries, death from aging
and disease will be greatly reduced, as will unplanned procreation.
Other than that, I really don't know, which is part of the
point.
Do you expect continual acceleration of technology? Yes, although
I don't know what that will look like.
What are the risks and opportunities? Risks include that technology
will be used for violence and destruction, or that it will
push humans out of their accustomed niches without giving
them time to adapt to new ones. Opportunities include that
it will be used to free up the creative energy of billions
who are currently unable to use it effectively due to poverty
and disease.
What should be our development priorities? A general priority,
not connected to any particular technology, should be safety.
Many technologies are in the works or on the horizon that
have the potential to get out of control, or to be purposely
developed and used, to the detriment of millions or even billions.
Projects and Problems
I'm interested in AI-assisted psychology and education. Think
The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.
I have long thought that grades (in both senses) should be
done away with in schools; now I think that schools themselves
(as we have come to know them) should be done away with. I'd
like to hear others' views of how those brought up in the
20th century will deal with an economy turned topsy-turvy
by coming developments, and how our social structure will
integrate people who live much longer and healthier life spans.
Will people retire much later? Much earlier? Not at all? Will
they even have to (or be able to) work as we know it?
Resources to Recommend
Personal web page: http://www.kennita.com.
Groups you are affiliated with or promote: Foresight Institute,
Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Extropy Institute, Libertarian
Party. Other info sources you use and recommend: The only
one that comes immediately to mind at 5 AM is http://www.feelinggood.com,
particularly the Tutorials section.
William Wiser
Passions and Futures
I am currently most interested in learning about potentially
world changing technologies, such as superhuman intelligence
(either computers or human augmentation), nanotechnology,
and biotechnology. I am also interested in the sociology of
technology development, international military relations,
and the politics of technology, war, and freedom. I don't
know where things will be in 30 years. I do expect technology
to keep accelerating. Risks and opportunities are too many
to mention. Development priorities for me would be inevitable
technologies with dramatic effect or anti-aging science.
Projects and Problems
My current top project is learning potentially dramatic technologies
and keeping up on them. Methods for tracking technology are
interesting to me. Current health and productivity is also
a big interest for me - teaching and applying what is known,
stimulating interest. My main focus for now is learning and
teaching (mostly by writing) technology and ways to avoid
death. Technology with high, near-term profit potential and
long term value is also interesting to me.
Resources to Recommend
I like Foresight Institute. I generally hang out with a life
extension, future oriented crowd but I have few novel recommendations.
I have a good knowledge of general life extension topics.
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