FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tom Bresnahan, (310) 398-1934, tombrez@...

ACCELERATING CHANGE: A GLOBAL FACT
Conference to Explore the Meaning of Shrinking Time Frames In All Areas of
Human Enterprise

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 29, 2003) - A collection of futurists, entrepreneurs,
theoreticians and humanists have organized "Accelerating Change 2003," the
first of an annual series. The conference will juxtapose cutting edge ideas
from a range of disciplines which suggest that acceleration is central to
the evolution of any complex system - computers, ecosystems, or the
metasystem of humans, technologies and society.

"Progress itself accelerates," says John Smart, Chairman of the Institute
for Accelerating Change (IAC), the host of the conference. "Our
organization exists because accelerating change is a fact, and not enough
people see its enormous implications. Focusing attention on this universal
phenomenon will be very productive for the way we - humanity - make
decisions and understand the world as it moves forward."

The conference will be held at Stanford University's Tresidder Union,
September 12-14, 2003. Admission is $395 ($150 for students), but
registrants before August 4th save $100 (students save $50).

Technological pioneer Ray Kurzweil will keynote the conference via
Teleportec's 3D Telepresence Lectern and discuss the multifold trends of
acceleration, with biologist Michael Denton and philosopher Ilkka Tuomi
critiquing.

Social theorist Howard Bloom will explore the many different kinds of
"singularities": not just cosmic black holes but also event horizons in
human life.

Nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler and genetic programming expert John
R. Koza will explore how we are harnessing, and may harness, the computing
strategies of our biology to make computers out of matter itself.

Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson will illustrate the significance of
integrating awareness of acceleration into capital funding decisions.

Journalist and scholar Robert Wright, author of _Nonzero_, will examine the
considerable evidence for the historical acceleration of cooperation in
human societies, and what this means for us today and for the future.

Key figures in biological computing, artificial intelligence, and theorists
of the human-technology interface will discuss the convergence of humans and
other types of computational systems and intelligence.

24 speakers and 300 attendees will gather for a weekend of insight and
discourse. More information is available at
http://www.accelerating.org/acc2003/conf_home.htm.

ABOUT IAC
IAC is an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Los Angeles,
California. Our mission is to help business and society examine the
potential risks and benefits of the accelerating pace of change through our
conferences, reading groups, publications, websites, and sense of community.
Media contact: Tom Bresnahan, (310) 398-1934, tombrez@....

See http://www.accelerating.org/acc2003/press.htm.