Convergence 08 Mountain View, CA 08-11-15,16

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If you missed the recent Singularity Summit in San Jose, you still have a little time to make plans to attend Convergence 08. Two days of impressive speakers mixing it up with attendees who may be even more impressive than the speakers, in their own right. If I were choosing between the SS 08 and the C 08, I would choose the upcoming conference.

Synthetic Biology: life engineering moves into your garage

We're on the path to juggling biological components the same way we now juggle bits. Does this thrill you or scare you? Four visionaries sketch the huge upsides and weird downsides of bringing digital-style control and a hobbyist approach to the globby mess we are today.

The Future by Design.... as a group we co-evolve the world's most exciting conference schedule, to be implemented on our behalf this afternoon.

Competing Options, Tempting Choices, Intense Involvement. From the riches on offer we each grit our teeth and choose the top three we absolutely cannot do without – starting a nanotech career, extending our lifespan, building the first truly smart computer, maximizing security and privacy, and so many more. We may lead a discussion, do a demo, recruit for our next project or company, or incite a revolution – probably technological, but anything is possible at Convergence08.
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Artificial Intelligence: the next level

"How can we use AI technology to build the world we want to live in?" Four AI pundits thrash it out, and then we all join in!

The Future by Design.

Competing Options, Tempting Choices, Intense Involvement. Feel free to session-hop if your first choice isn't what you expected. There's still time to convene your own session on the new topic of your choice – maybe something resulting from a session yesterday.

To get your new topic included, add it to the master schedule on the wall, labeled with your name as convenor.

Longevity: How can we get it in time?

..."life extension" does not mean "living longer in a decrepit state." It's all about feeling great and making a difference as long as we possibly can, starting now and continuing indefinitely – or at least a heck of a long time. Four longevity gurus let us compare their theories and figure out what to do now for ourselves and our loved ones.

It's one thing to read and discuss these topics over the net. Quite another to discuss them face to face with others who may have thought about them as long and well as you have yourself--perhaps longer and better. Wild ideas will fly like fireflies in June. The idea is not to shoot them down, but to learn to ride the light. Like the illuminati.