[alife] Fwd: Promoting the 2009 Singularity Summit

[Carlos Gershenson]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: aruna vassar <aruna.vassar at gmail.com>
> To: Carlos Gershenson <cgg at unam.mx>
>
> When Machines Re-Invent You
>
> One conversation centered on the ever accelerating progress of
> technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the
> appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of
> the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not
> continue.
> --Manhattan Project mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, speaking of John Von
> Neumann, 1958
>
> Famed inventor Ray Kurzweil argues that in coming decades advanced
> technologies will re-make the world. During this so-called
> “Technological Singularity,” all of humanity's problems could be
> solved: poverty, disease, even death itself.
>
> Other luminaries, such as Stephen Hawking and Sun Microsystems
> co-founder Bill Joy, agree with Kurzweil, but warn that such changes
> could include human extinction.
>
> What should we make of such extraordinary claims?  Come to New York
> City on October 3 and 4, 2009 and find out.
>
> The most acclaimed experts in fields such as quantum computing,
> neuroengineering, DNA nanotechnology, life extension, brain emulation,
> consciousness, virtual worlds, artificial and natural intelligence,
> and more will describe their latest research and discuss its
> implications for the future of humanity.
>
> Featured Speakers:
>
> *Ray Kurzweil, inventor, entrepreneur, and author of The Singularity
> is Near.  Bill Gates called him “the best person I know at predicting
> the future…”
>
> * Peter Thiel, President of Clarium Capital Management, seed investor
> in Facebook, Managing Partner of Founders Fund, and co-founder of
> PayPal
>
> * Dr. David Chalmers, Director of the Centre for Consciousness, author
> of The Conscious Mind, and one of the world's foremost philosophers
>
> * Dr. Ed Boyden, Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and
> Cognitive Sciences at MIT
>
> * Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Director of Research at the SENS Foundation,
> author of Ending Aging, and creator of the Methusaleh Prize
>
> * Dr. Juergen Schmidhuber, Director of the Swiss Institute for
> Artificial Intelligence
>
> Reserve your spot today at: http://www.singularitysummit.com/program
>