Brains, Bots and Bodies

Michael Sean Wright of Nice Fish Films recorded a podcast with me today. Billed as “a discussion with really big thinkers”, we talked about The Singularity Summit and some of my favorite emerging technologies. You can hear the podcast below.

Still considering attending the Singularity Summit this weekend?  We’ve got fewer than 50 seats remaining for the main event on Saturday, and the Friday emerging technology workshop is over subscribed.  Here is a teaser of what the day will be about. Hope you can join us!
The Singularity Summit
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. [...]

Press release from Lamar University
Technology innovation in the coming decade will be unlike anything the world has seen, and corporations, small businesses and individuals will have to paddle hard to catch this wave — or they might just be ripped asunder. So says Jonas Lamis, executive director of SciVestor (www.scivestor.com ), a research and [...]

I was sitting a home watching TV the other evening when a commercial came on the screen that blew me way.  It was made to look like archival footage of an old gas station being built, circa early 20th century. Snow-capped mountains loom in the distance indicating the creation of an American outpost where the [...]

As part of my work with Architecture & Governance Magazine, I had the opportunity to review a new book: Blown to Bits.  The following conversation will appear in the October issue of A&G.
A&G sat down with the Ken Ledeen and Harry Lewis, the authors (along with IEEE Fellow Hal Abelson) to discuss their new book, [...]

I’m blogging Gartner Symposium down in Orlando this week.  My favorite session so far is: Generation Virtual: How a 40th-Level Half-Elf From Secaucus, New Jersey Will Change Your Business, by Gartner Analyst Adam Sarner.

I’ve been attending Gartner Symposium for the last 5 years (as part of my day job at an enterprise software company), [...]

All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
- by Richard Brautigan, 1967

(and read by Paul Saffo at the Singularity Summit)

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll [...]

Two teams of British researchers are seeking permission to create ‘cybrid’ embryos that would be around 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent animal to produce embryonic stem cells - the body’s building blocks that grow into all other types of cells.
Scientists allowed to experiment on hybrid embryos | Uk News | News | [...]

Wired magazine reports on another example of tapping into the prefrontal cortex to monitor subconscious recognition of potential threats that have not bubbled up to the conscious mind.
DARPA, as usual, has some very interesting projects ongoing with your tax dollars
Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers’ Brains -

By Karen Kaplan, Denise Gellene
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Forget sports doping. The next frontier is brain doping.
As Major League Baseball struggles to rid itself of performance-enhancing substances, people in a range of other fields are reaching for a variety of prescription pills to enhance what counts most in modern life.
Despite the potential side effects, [...]