| FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Iveta
Brigis, Public Relations (650) 396-8220 ivetabrigis@accelerating.org
Accelerating
Change 2004: A Weekend with the Leaders of the Next Revolution
Los Angeles,
CA (October 5, 2004). The Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF) announces Accelerating
Change 2004: Physical Space, Virtual Space, and Interface
at Stanford University, November 5-7, 2004.
Sponsored by
SAP Software, AC2004 analyzes the
accelerating interconnectivity of the Physical World, the increasing
accuracy of the Simulated World, and the growing importance of the
physical-virtual/human-machine Interface.
Futurist, author
and pundit Bruce Sterling wrote in last month’s
Wired magazine, “The rate of technological change
is dizzying, and it's only getting faster. [T]he Acceleration Studies Foundation is acknowledging the trend with its
second annual Accelerating Change conference. [They are] …
the first in the world to focus on the multidisciplinary implications
of accelerating change …”
At AC2004, forty-two
leading futurists, technologists and business strategists will explore
the accelerating interconnectivity of the Physical World, the increasing
accuracy of the Simulated World, and the growing importance of the
physical-virtual/human-machine Interface.
“The kind
of people who attend Accelerating Change are uniquely broad-minded,
practical, and passionate individuals,”
says John Smart, ASF President. “They come
together to consider the cutting edge concepts and innovations today,
and to learn how to use this knowledge to make new products and
services next year.”
AC2004 features
a prestigious and diverse line-up of visionary professionals, each
in a unique position to help shape our collective future. Conference
Co-Director Jerry Paffendorf comments, “We’ve
curated a complimentary group whose ideas work together as an entire
team to explore the future rather than hammering just one position
or topic and excluding diversity.” A partial speaker list:
Peter
Norvig, Director of Search Quality, Google; Author, Artificial
Intelligence: A Modern Approach (the world's leading textbook
in AI.)
Will Wright, Creator of The Sims (the
most popular PC game of all time)
Helen Greiner, Co-Founder, iRobot
Doug Engelbart, Interface legend and inventor
of the computer mouse
Gordon Bell, Project Leader, Microsoft’s
MyLifeBits
Cory Ondrejka, VP of Product Development for
Second Life, Time Magazine’s 2002 “Coolest
Invention of the Year”
David Brin, Author of Transparent Society
Bruce and Dave Hall, DARPA Grand Challenge Team,
Digital Auto Drive
Peter Thiel, Co-Founder and former CEO, PayPal
John Mauldin, Author of Bull’s Eye
Investing
Dan Gillmor, Tech Columnist, San Jose Mercury
News; Author, We, The Media
Dewayne Hendricks, Wireless Activist and CEO
of the Dandin Group
Dana Blankenhorn, Biz-tech Consultant; Author,
The Blankenhorn Effect: Making Moore's Law Work For You
“These
individuals are all on the cutting edge of applied future studies,”
says Alvis Brigis, Press Director. “It will
be very interesting to see what new social concepts and strategies
emerge at this truly unique event.”
In addition
to solo presentations, this year’s lineup also includes three
head-to-head and panel debates. David Brin squares-off
against Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation on the relative merits and methods of societal transparency,
and Steve Salyer, President of IGE, faces Jack
Emmert, lead designer of the acclaimed massively multi-player
online game City of Heroes, in a debate addressing the
recent phenomenon of large online economies that trade real money,
entitled Real Money in Virtual Economies: The Future of User-Created
Content.
AC2004 also
features interactive technology demos 6-8 PM on Thursday, November
4th, when Jeremy Bailenson of the Virtual
Human Interaction Lab at Stanford demonstrates the fruits of
his research, and again on the following evening from 6-9 PM at
SAP Labs in Palo Alto when representatives from iRobot, Google,
Sony, Linden Lab, Kuma Reality Games and more converge to show off
some of the technologies to be discussed during the conference.
Both of these events are free and open to the public.
Tech Night coordinator
Jimbob Peltaire says, “For an annual conference
that explores the future of change, it’s important to understand
the dramatic changes that have already taken place. These technologies
will demonstrate that, as well as help point out the direction of
changes to come.”
AC2004 sponsors
include lead sponsor SAP, and additional
sponsors IPv6 Summit, Socialtext,
Terra Nova, Artificial
Development, and the VC Corporation Draper
Fisher Jurvetson.
“We’d
like to thank our AC2004 sponsors. They are helping us make this
one-of-a-kind event available at a very affordable price. I encourage
anyone interested in shaping their corporate or personal future
to attend!” says Conference Co-Director Iveta Brigis.
Until October
10th, conference registration is $350 for regular admission (thereafter
$450) or $150 for student admission. Express registration is available
at http://accelerating.org/ac2004/registration.html.
Visit http://accelerating.org/ac2004.html
for more information. The official conference blog can be found
at http://www.futuresalon.org/.
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