Hi all,

Under the "that's SO COOL!" file,  here is a link to a PDF of the report on
a team that implanted a chip in a (paralyzed) man's motor-cortex which
allowed him to operate electronic devices with his thoughts.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7099/pdf/nature04970.pdf

For those of you who aren't neurobiology geeks like me, here's the text of
the NY Times article:

July 12, 2006
Man Uses Chip to Control Robot With Thoughts
By ANDREW POLLACK

A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to
control a computer, a television and a robot using only his thoughts,
scientists reported today.

The development offers hope that in the future, people with spinal cord
injuries, Lou Gehrig�s disease or other ailments that impair movement might
be able to better communicate with or control their world.

�If your brain can do it, we can tap into it,�� said John P. Donoghue, a
professor at Brown University who led the development of the system and was
the senior author of a report published today in the journal Nature.

In separate experiments, the first person to receive the implant, Matthew
Nagle, was able to move a cursor, open e-mail, play a simple video game
called Pong and draw a crude circle on the screen. He could change the
channel or volume of a television set, move a robot arm somewhat, and open
and close a prosthetic hand.

Although his cursor control was sometimes wobbly, the basic movements were
not hard to learn. �I pretty much had that mastered in four days,�� Mr.
Nagle, now 26, said in a telephone interview from the New England Sinai
Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton, Mass., where he lives. He
said the implant did not cause any pain.

A former high school football star in Weymouth, Mass., Mr. Nagle was
paralyzed below the shoulders after being stabbed in the neck during a melee
at a beach in July 2001. He said he was not involved in starting the brawl
and didn�t even know what sparked it. The man who stabbed him is now serving
ten years in prison, he said.

There have been some tests of a simpler sensor implant in people, as well as
tests of systems using electrodes outside the scalp. And Mr. Nagle has
spoken about his experiences before.

But the paper in Nature is the first peer-reviewed publication of an
experiment using a more sophisticated implant in a human.

The paper helps �shift the notion of such �implantable neuromotor
prosthetics� from science fiction towards reality,�� Stephen H. Scott of
Queen�s University in Canada wrote in a commentary in the journal.

The implant system, known as the BrainGate, is being developed by
Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems of Foxborough, Mass. The company is
now testing the system in three other people whose names have not been
released � one with a spinal cord injury, one who had a brain-stem stroke
and one with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig�s disease.

Timothy R. Surgenor, the president of the company, said Cyberkinetics hoped
to have an implant approved for use as early as 2008 or 2009. Mr. Donoghue
of Brown is a cofounder of the company and its chief scientist. Some of the
authors of the research paper work for the company, while others work at
Massachusetts General Hospital and other medical or academic institutions.

The sensor measures 4 millimeters � about one sixth of an inch � on a side
and contains 100 tiny electrodes. The device was implanted in the area of
Mr. Nagle�s motor cortex that is responsible for arm movement, and was
connected to a pedestal that protruded from the top of his skull.

When the device was to be used, technicians connected the pedestal to a
computer with a cable. So Mr. Nagle was directly wired to a computer,
somewhat like a character in the �Matrix� movies.

Mr. Nagle would then imagine moving his arm to hit various targets, as
technicians calibrated the machine, a process that took about half an hour
each time. The implanted sensor eavesdropped on the electrical signals
emitted by nearby neurons as they controlled the imaginary arm movement.

Scientists said the study was important because it showed that the neurons
in Mr. Nagle�s motor cortex were still active, years after they had any role
to play in physically moving his arms.

Cursor control was not very smooth. In a task where the goal was to guide
the cursor from the center of the screen to a target on the perimeter, Mr.
Nagle hit the target about 73 to 95 percent of the time. When he did, it
took an average of 2.5 seconds, though sometimes much longer. The second
patient tested with the implant had worse control than Mr. Nagle, the paper
said.

By contrast, healthy people moving the cursor by hand can hit the target
almost every time and in only one second.

Dr. Jonathan R. Wolpaw, a researcher at the New York State Department of
Health in Albany, said the BrainGate performance did not appear to be
substantially better than a non-invasive system he is developing using
electroencephalography, in which electrodes are placed outside the scalp.

�If you are going to have something implanted into your brain, you�d
probably want it to be a lot better,�� he said.

Dr. Donoghue and other proponents of the implants say they have the
potential to be a lot better, because they are much closer to the relevant
neurons. The scalp electrodes get signals from millions of neurons all over
the brain.

One way to improve implant performance was suggested by another paper in the
same edition of Nature. In a study involving monkeys, Krishna V. Shenoy and
colleagues at Stanford University eavesdropped not on the neurons
controlling arm movement but on those expressing the intention to move.

�Instead of sliding the cursor out to the target, we can just predict which
target would be hit, and the cursor simply leaps there,�� said Mr. Shenoy,
an assistant professor of electrical engineering and neurosciences.

He said a patient using the system could do the equivalent of typing 15
words a minute, about four times the speed of the other devices.

Other obstacles must be overcome before brain implants become practical. The
ability of the electrodes to detect brain signals begins to deteriorate
after several months, for reasons that are not fully understood. Also,
ideally, the implant would transmit signals out of the brain wirelessly,
doing away with the permanent hole in the head and the accompanying risk of
infection.

Mr. Nagle, meanwhile, had his implant removed after a bit more than a year,
so he could undergo another operation that allowed him to breathe without a
ventilator. He can control a computer with voice commands, so he does not
really need the brain implant. But he said he was happy he volunteered for
the experiment.

�It gave a lot of people hope,�� he said.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Yo futureoids!

Here's a link to free resources on up-to-date neuroscience:

http://www.brainatlas.org/aba/

FYI

--Tim

Extremely belated greetings, Future Salonistas,

   Our resident online poker expert and student of finance, Andrew  Breese,
will be presenting a review of his current favorite book this Friday at  B&N.
He sounds pretty jazzed about it, which augers well for an  entertaining talk.
See his write-up below.  We'll look forward to  seeing some of you this
Friday.

-Lisa

In a message dated 08/03/2006 12:17:40 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
andrew@... writes:

Time: This Friday, August 4th. 7PM-9PM.

Speaker/Moderator: Andrew  Breese...and you (whenever we all look at
you expectantly, which typically  closely follows your jostling for
attention).

Subject: Shopping,  gambling, financial markets, trust & inspiration.
(At least 5 books by  different authors will be mentioned, but isn't
that always the case for  us?!)

Place: Barnes & Noble of Mira Mesa -- big area toward front of  store.

We'll walk next door to a large restaurant patio for spontaneous  small-group
conversations & a late dinner immediately after (c.  9PM).

Parking Tip:
If it's busy, you'll find it easy to park in the  other shopping center just
to the east, by the Rubio's & Jamba or down  toward the Home Depot.


This  Friday, let's birth some new insights around the psychology of
commerce. I  hope to find new useful perspectives on the famous title
question of The  Wealth of Nations.

I encountered a really spectacular new book this  month called The
Poker Face of Wall Street. It's one of my top books this  decade. It is
a sweeping history of pre-modern & modern finance, filled  with
detailed scenes & big concepts.

It's had me mulling over  how modern economic communities began to
thrive, with a view to how we  individuals today might sculpt ourselves
to thrive even  more...

Aaron Brown, the author of The Poker Face of Wall Street,  writes:

"Starbucks is not taking over the world because people always  wanted
to drink more coffee but it wasn't available. People trade when  it's
fun, and they don't trade when it isn't. I don't know if a tribe  of
self-sufficient nomads is better or worse off than commuters  hurrying
to work in a modern economy. I do know that it takes shiny,  jingly
things, or their psychic equivalents, to turn one society into  the
other.

"Gambling is an older and more powerful economic stimulus  than money.
Periods of economic innovation are invariably accompanied  by
explosions of gambling. The legal gambling industry in the  United
States today is roughly the size of the commercial banking  industry.
Toss in illegal gambling, gambling in financial markets  and
non-monetary gambling (e.g. risking one's life) and it's [a  huge
economic force worth much study].

"Or, consider that H. L. Hunt  bet every penny he had and won his first
oil well. Kirk Kirkorian won the  money for his first business in a
poker game. Bill Gates, Clint Murchison,  John Kluge and Carl Icahn all
played high stakes poker before getting rich.  I can't think of six
billionaires who got their starts from bank loans or  stock issuance.
There are few enough billionaires that this is impressive  statistical
evidence for the economic importance of poker. Gambling is  a
near-universal human activity, maybe there's a reason for  that."


A few lateral-thinking ways that pure risk creates wealth:  Capital
formation for big projects...sometimes people refuse to sell  things
but they will gamble them, and sometimes they're correct to  do
so!...poker chips as an alternative to soft money banking...a way  to
let a random several of several successful miners/loggers retire  early
from the risky profession and make way for new blood...black  market
economy incubation.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thank you for the kind introduction, Lisa!

Here's that text again, hopefully more readable:



Time: This Friday, August 4th. 7PM.

Speaker/Moderator: Andrew Breese.

Subject: Shopping, gambling, financial markets, trust & inspiration.
(At least 5 books by different authors will be mentioned, but isn't
that always the case for us?!)


Let's birth some new insights around the psychology of commerce. I
hope to find new useful perspectives on the famous title question of
The Wealth of Nations.

I encountered a really spectacular new book this month called The
Poker Face of Wall Street. It's one of my top books this decade. It is
a sweeping history of pre-modern & modern finance, filled with
detailed scenes & big concepts.

It's had me mulling over how modern economic communities began to
thrive, with a view to how we individuals today might sculpt ourselves
to thrive even more...

Aaron Brown, the author of The Poker Face of Wall Street, writes:

"Starbucks is not taking over the world because people always wanted
to drink more coffee but it wasn't available. People trade when it's
fun, and they don't trade when it isn't. I don't know if a tribe of
self-sufficient nomads is better or worse off than commuters hurrying
to work in a modern economy. I do know that it takes shiny, jingly
things, or their psychic equivalents, to turn one society into the
other.

"Gambling is an older and more powerful economic stimulus than money.
Periods of economic innovation are invariably accompanied by
explosions of gambling. The legal gambling industry in the United
States today is roughly the size of the commercial banking industry.
Toss in illegal gambling, gambling in financial markets and
non-monetary gambling (e.g. risking one's life) and it's [a huge
economic force worth much study].

"Or, consider that H. L. Hunt bet every penny he had and won his first
oil well. Kirk Kirkorian won the money for his first business in a
poker game. Bill Gates, Clint Murchison, John Kluge and Carl Icahn all
played high stakes poker before getting rich. I can't think of six
billionaires who got their starts from bank loans or stock issuance.
There are few enough billionaires that this is impressive statistical
evidence for the economic importance of poker. Gambling is a
near-universal human activity, maybe there's a reason for that."


A few lateral-thinking ways that pure risk creates wealth: Capital
formation for big projects...sometimes people refuse to sell things
but they will gamble them, and sometimes they're correct to do
so!...poker chips as an alternative to soft money banking...a way to
let a random several of several successful miners/loggers retire early
from the risky profession and make way for new blood...black market
economy incubation.



Place: Barnes & Noble of Mira Mesa -- big area toward front of store.

We'll walk next door to a large restaurant patio for spontaneous small-group
conversations & a late dinner immediately after (c. 9PM).

Parking Tip:
If it's busy, you'll find it easy to park in the other shopping center just
to the east, by the Rubio's & Jamba or down toward the Home Depot.

Details below, and here:
http://www.stemcellcommunity.org/metadot/index.pl?id=2675

    This is a talk in the Educational Community Lecture series that
Burnham has recently started, and it's pitched towards non-scientists.
I won't be able to attend as I'll be co-hosting the San Diego
Bioinformatics Forum talk that night (sdbioinfo.org :), but this
lecture is bound to be interesting!  Also note that while it's open to
the public, reservations are required.


    Gerry


The Burnham Institute for Medical Research presents

Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes: Prospects and Problems

Presented by Dr. Fred Levine, M.D., PH.D.



An Educational Community Lecture



August 8, 2006, 7:00 p.m. (doors open 6:30)

Fishman Auditorium



We invite you to attend an interactive lecture on the topic of Stem
Cell Therapy for Diabetes on August 8, 2006 at the Institute in The
Fishman Auditorium. The event begins at 7:00 pm with light
refreshments, followed by a lecture from Dr. Fred Levine, Adjunct
Professor in the Stem Cells and Regeneration Program at the Burnham
Institute for Medical Research.  The information is intended to educate
the public and will be presented in a way that is easy for people with
a non-science background to understand. The lecture will be followed by
a Q&A session. This is a free event, however, reservations are
required.



For more information, or to RSVP, please contact Jocelyn Wyndham at
858-795-5216, jwyndham@....

This just in: "The Baron" Reichart is making a special appearance this eve.

He appropriately e-mails me,
> I will be coming to your talk.
> You have been warned.


So, expect extremely keen insights from the creator of HikeTheGeek.com!


Andrew

Have fun, I won't make it tonight--I have a sister visiting from Ohio.

Try to survive without me...

--Tim

San Diego's autumn science fiction & fantasy convention,
Conjecture, has a lot of new and interesting panel topics up on
their website. Come check them out and vote for your favorites!

If there are science and technology topics you'd like to see discussed
at the convention, use their topic submission form to send in your ideas.

Conjecture was the first convention to involve attendees in the
panel topic selection this way. Some of their best panels have
come from topics suggested through their website.

http://www.conjecture.org

http://www.conjecture.org/cgi-bin/voteform.cgi

http://www.conjecture.org/cgi-bin/submit_item.cgi

Conjecture will be at the Red Lion Hanalei in Mission Valley,
September 29-October 1.

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

Conjecture (a literary-focused science fiction and fantasy convention)
is coming up; it can be a great opportunity to promote this group to the
greater geeky community in San Diego.

The Fifth Conjecture
http://www.conjecture.org
September 29-October 1
Red Lion Hanalei Hotel, Mission Valley

For organizing a promotional party, contact parties@....

To reserve a fan table, contact fantables@.... (The Mars
Society already has one. Peer pressure!)

There will be flyer tables; flyers promoting the group are welcome.

Advertising space is available in the Conjecture program book. A
full-page ad is 2.5" x 6.25", for $25. Send your 300-dpi tiff, gif or
jpeg to publications@....

If you want to see more panel programming topics related to science and
technology, go to the Rate-a-Panel page and click on the "panel topic
submission form" link to submit your ideas.

http://www.conjecture.org/cgi-bin/voteform.cgi

Using the drop-down menu, you can view panel topics by subject, see the
newest or highest-rated topics, or look over the entire list. Your votes
help determine which panels will appear on the final schedule.

I look forward to seeing the San Diego Futurists at Conjecture!

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

In January of 2005, Andrew Breese led a discussion basically on the
topic of noesis and what it was that was known through this sense.

One of the topics we discussed was near and dear to my heart:  the
Placebo Effect.  I've been consciously and successfully using the
placebo response in my own and my family's illness management for a
number of years.

A recent study led to an recent article on said study thst is now
available on MSNBC.  Enjoy!

Warmly,
Linda

MSNBC link:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14309026/

PubMed link to actual article abstracts:

Changes in brain function (quantitative EEG cordance) during placebo
lead-in and treatment outcomes in clinical trials for major
depression.
      http://tinyurl.com/zsk7a

Control over brain activation and pain learned by using real-time
functional MRI.
      http://tinyurl.com/kcp5l

Original SDFuturists announcement:

>
>
>
> SD Futurists has a lot to talk about this month!
>
> We'll open with an opportunity for sharing your recent short thoughts
> (stimulated by movies, science news, Cosmo, Car & Driver, whatever...a
> multiperspectival mindset can find inspiration from any source!), and then
> segue into this main event:
>
> Friday, January 21st @ 7PM, Barnes & Noble of Mira Mesa, special area
> toward front of store.
> Presenter/Moderator: Andrew Breese
>
> Edge.org annually composes a provocative open-ended question for about
1000
> of the...edgiest...thinkers in the world (thinkers who are "scientists and
> other empiricists who, through their work and expository writing, are
taking
> the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper
> meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.") & then publishes
> many responses.
>
> This very week, they published this year's batch. The NYT, Arts & Letters
> Daily, leading science/econ bloggers, and other opinion leaders rightly
> applaud the insights & stimulating speculations.
>
> At least two SD Futurists independently found ourselves so drawn in that
> we've each now looked at them all.
>
> I'm excited about focusing our January meeting around considering many of
> their...edgiest...responses.
>
> The Question: "Great minds sometimes guess the truth before they have
either
> the evidence or arguments for it (Diderot called it having the 'esprit de
> divination'). What do YOU believe is true even though you cannot prove
it?"
>
> I've carefully arranged the passages I judge clearly worth our
consideration
> (though I don't think they're all on the right track; for one, they often
> contradict each other!) in an order I find especially evocative. I'll
expect
> you to have at least skimmed over them here in e-mail at your leisure --
and
> ideally to have printed yourself a copy for the meeting...
>
>
> JOHN R. SKOYLES (neuroscience researcher, author): We've evolved a range
of
> capacities for fighting disease and recovering from injury, including a
> variety of 'sickness behaviors'. Most "illness" is the body's response
> [(self-defense)]. A rise in body temperature, for example, kills many
> bacteria and changes the membrane properties of cells so viruses cannot
> replicate. The pain of a broken bone [exists to make you] let it heal or
> rest. Nature supplied our bodies in this way with a first-aid kit; but,
> unfortunately like many medicines, bodies' "treatments" are unpleasant
[and
> also often life-threateningly costly]. Evolution therefore has put these
> responses under some control from our minds. [This is mostly how placebos
&
> witch doctors work, and maybe much of how even our doctor visits work!]
>
>
> DONALD HOFFMAN (cognitive scientist, author):  The world of our daily
> experience-the world of tables, chairs, stars and people, with their
> attendant shapes, smells, feels and sounds-is a species-specific user
> interface to a realm far more complex. Evolutionary pressures dictate that
> our species-specific interface, this world of our daily experience, should
> itself be a radical simplification, selected not for the exhaustive
> depiction of truth but for the mutable pragmatics of survival.
Consciousness
> is a fundamental. The mind-body problem will be to physicalist ontology
what
> black-body radiation was to classical mechanics: first a goad to its
heroic
> defense, later the provenance of its final supersession.
>
>
> MARTIN NOWAK (biological mathematician):  Cooperation and language define
> humanity. Every special trait of humans is derivative of language.
>
>
> MARC D. HAUSER (psychologist, author): What makes humans uniquely smart?
> Here's my best guess: we alone evolved a simple computational trick with
far
> reaching implications for every aspect of our life, from language and
> mathematics to art, music and morality. The trick: the capacity to take as
> input any set of discrete entities and recombine them into an infinite
> variety of meaningful expressions.
>
> Thus, we take meaningless phonemes and combine them into words, words into
> phrases, and phrases into Shakespeare. We take meaningless strokes of
paint
> and combine them into shapes, shapes into flowers, and flowers into
> Matisse's water lilies. And we take meaningless actions and combine them
> into action sequences, sequences into events, and events into homicide and
> heroic rescues. [...] open ended systems of expression.
>
>
> ESTHER DYSON (editor of Release 1.0; Trustee, Long Now Foundation;
author):
> We're living longer, and thinking shorter. Businesses focus on short-term
> results; politicians focus on elections; school systems focus on test
> results; most of us focus on the weather rather than the climate. Everyone
> knows about big problems, but their behavior focuses on the here and now.
> "Mental diabetes": We're living in an information-rich, time-compressed
> environment that often seems to replace imagination rather than stimulate
> it. I posit that being fed so much processed information-video, audio,
> images, flashing screens, talking toys, simulated action games-is akin to
> being fed too much processed, sugar-rich food. It may seriously mess the
> information metabolism and our ability to process information for
> themselves. How do we stay motivated to discern cause and effect, to put
> together a coherent story line, to think scientifically?
>
>
> DAVID GELERNTER (computer scientist; Chief Scientist, Mirror Worlds
> Technologies; author): We will soon understand the physiological basis of
> the "cognitive spectrum," from the bright violet of tightly-focused
analytic
> thought all the way down to the long, slow red of low-focus sleep
> thought-also known as "dreaming." We'll understand why we can't force
> ourselves to fall asleep or to "be creative"-and how those two facts are
> related. They'll understand why so many people report being most creative
> while driving, shaving or doing some other activity that keeps the mind's
> foreground occupied and lets it approach open problems in a "low focus"
way.
> In short, they'll understand the mind as an integrated dynamic process
that
> changes over a day and a lifetime, but is characterized always by one
> continuous spectrum. You trace out some version of the spectrum every day.
> You're most capable of analysis when you are most awake. As you grow less
> wide-awake, your thinking grows more concrete. As you start to fall
asleep,
> you begin to free associate. (Cognitive psychologists have known for years
> that you begin to dream before you fall asleep.) We know also that to grow
> up intellectually means to trace out the cognitive spectrum in reverse:
> infants and children think concretely; as they grow up, they're
increasingly
> capable of analysis. (Not incidentally, newborns spend nearly all their
time
> asleep.)
>
>
> JARON LANIER (musician, computer scientist): While we're confessing
> unprovable beliefs, here's another one: The study of the genetic
components
> of pecking order behavior, group belief cues, and clan identification
> leading to inter-clan hostility will be the core of psychology and
sociology
> for the next few generations, and it will turn out we can't turn off or
> control these elements of human character without losing other qualities
we
> love, like creativity. If this dark guess is correct, then the means to
> survival is to create societies with a huge variety of paths to success
and
> a multitude of overlapping, intertwined clans and pecking orders, so that
> everyone can be a winner from equally valid individual perspectives. When
> the American experiment has worked best, it has approximated this level of
> variety. Virtual worlds of post-symbolic communication could provide the
> highest level of variety to satisfy the dangerous psychic inheritance I'm
> guessing we suffer as a species.
>
>
> ALEX (SANDY) PENTLAND (computer scientist): Together with my research
group
> I have built a computer system that objectively measures a set of
> non-linguistic social signals, such as engagement, mirroring, activity,
and
> stress, by looking at 'tone of voice' over one minute time periods. [From
> just that data,] we accurately predict the outcomes of salary
negotiations,
> dating decisions, hiring preferences, empathy perceptions & and interest
> ratings. Even for lengthy interactions, we make accurate predictions by
> observing only the initial few minutes of interaction, even though the
> linguistic content of such 'thin slices' of the behavior have very little
> predictive power. [I surmise that] a very large proportion of our behavior
> is determined by unconscious social signaling, which sets the context,
risk,
> and reward structure within which traditional cognitive processes
proceed -
> [something I've started thinking of as a] Tribe Mind[!].
>
>
> More JARON LANIER (musician, computer scientist): I believe the potential
> for expanded communication between people far exceeds the potential both
of
> language as we think of it (the stuff we say, read and write) and of all
the
> other communication forms we already use.  Suppose for a moment that
> children in the future will grow up with an easy and intimate virtual
> reality technology and that their use of it will become focused on
invention
> and design instead of the consumption of pre-created holo-video games,
> surround movies, or other content. Maybe these future children will play
> virtual musical instrument-like things that cause simulated trees and
> spiders and seasons and odors and ecologies to spring up just as
> manipulating a pencil causes words to appear on a page. If people grew up
> with a virtuosic ability to improvise the contents of a shared virtual
> world, a new sort of communication might also appear. It's barely possible
> to imagine what a "reality conversation" would be like. Each person would
be
> changing the shared world at the speed of language, all at once, an image
> that suggests chaos, but often there would be a coherence, which would
> indicate meaning. A kid becomes a monster, eats his little brother, who
> becomes a vitriolic turd, and so on. This is what I've called
"post-symbolic
> communication," though really it won't exist in isolation of or in
> opposition to symbolic communication techniques. It will be something
> different, however, and will expand what people can mean to each other.
> Post-symbolic communication will be like a shared, waking state,
intentional
> dream. Instead of the word "house", you will express a particular house
and
> be able to walk into it, and instead of the category "house" you will peer
> into an apparently small bucket that is big enough inside to hold all the
> universe's houses so you can assess what they have in common directly. It
> will be a fluid form of experiential concreteness providing similar but
> divergent expressive power to that of abstraction. Why care? The
acquisition
> of post-symbolic communication will be a centuries-long adventure, an
> expansion of meaning, something beautiful, and a way to seek cool,
advanced
> technology that focuses on connection instead of mere power. It will be a
> form of beauty which also enhances survivability; Since the drive for
"cool
> tech" is unstoppable, the invention of provocative cool tech that is
lovely
> enough to seduce the attention of young smart men away from arms races is
a
> prerequisite to the survival of the species. Some of the examples above
> (houses, spiders) are of people improvising the external environment, but
> post-symbolic communication might typically look a lot more like people
> morphing themselves into varied forms. Experiments have already been
> conducted with kids wearing special body suits and goggles "turning into"
> triangles to learn trigonometry, or molecules to learn chemistry. It's not
> only the narcissism of the young (and not so young) human mind or the
> primality of the control of one's own body that makes self-transformation
> compelling. Evolution, as generous as she ended up being with us humans,
was
> stingy with potential means of expression. Compare us with the mimic
octopus
> which can morph into all sorts of creatures and objects, and can animate
its
> skin. An advanced civilization of cephalopods might develop words as we
know
> them, but probably only as an adjunct to a natural form of post-symbolic
> communication. We humans can control precious little of the world with
> enough agility to keep up with our thoughts and feelings. The fingers and
> the tongue are the about it. Symbols as we know them in language are a
> trick, or what programmers call a "hack," that expands the power of little
> appendage wiggles to refer to all that we can't instantly become or
create.
> Another belief: The tongue that can speak could also someday control
> fantastic forms beyond our current imaginings. (Some early experiments
along
> these lines have been done, using ultrasound sensing through the cheek.
and
> the results are at least not terrible.)
>
>
> NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB (mathematical trader, author): We are good at
fitting
> explanations to the past, all the while living under mere illusion of
> understanding the dynamics of history. We severely overestimate knowledge
in
> what I call the "ex post" historical disciplines, meaning almost all of
> social science (economics, sociology, political science) and the
humanities,
> everything that depends on the non-experimental analysis of past data. I
am
> convinced that these disciplines do not provide much understanding of the
> world or even their own subject matter; they mostly fit a nice sounding
> narrative that caters to our desire (even need) to have a story. You do
not
> gain by reading the newspapers, history books, analyses and economic
> reports; you get a misplaced confidence about what you know. The
difference
> between a cab driver and a history professor is [mostly] that the latter
can
> express himself in a better way.
>
> The evidence can only be seen in the disciplines that offer both
> quantitative data and quantitative predictions by the experts, such as
> economics. Economics and finance are an empiricist's dream as we have a
> goldmine of data for such testing. In addition there are plenty of
> "experts", many of whom make more than a million a year, who provide
> forecasts and publish them for the benefits of their clients. Just check
> their forecasts against what happens after. Their projections fare hardly
> better than random, meaning that their "stories" are convincing, beautiful
> to listen to, but do not seem to help you more than listening to, say, a
> Chicago cab driver. This extends to inflation, growth, interest rates,
> balance of payment, etc. (While someone may argue that their forecasts
might
> impact these variables, the mechanism of "self-canceling prophecy" can be
> taken into account). Now consider that we depend on these people for
> governmental economic policy!
>
> This implies that whether or not you read the newspapers will not make the
> slightest difference to your understanding of what can happen in the
economy
> or the markets. Impressive tests on the effect of the news on prices were
> done by the financial empiricist Victor Niederhoffer in the 60s and
repeated
> throughout with the same results.
>
> If you look closely at the data to check the reasons of this inability to
> see things coming, you will find that these people tend to guess the
regular
> events (though quite poorly); but they miss on the large deviations, these
"
> unusual" events that carry large impacts. These outliers have a
> disproportionately large contribution to the total effect.
>
> Now I am convinced, yet cannot prove it quantitatively, that such
> overestimation can be generalized to anything where people give you a
> narrative-style story from past information, without experimentation. The
> difference is that the economists got caught because we have data (and
> techniques to check the quality of their knowledge) and historians, news
> analysts, biographers, and "pundits" can hide a little longer. Basically
> historians might get a small trend here and there, but they did miss on
the
> big events of the past centuries and, I am convinced, will not see much
> coming in the future. It was said: "the wise see things coming". To me the
> wise persons are the ones who know that they can't see things coming.
>
>
> ROBERT R. PROVINE (psychologist, neuroscientist, author): We overestimate
> the conscious control of behavior. We are misled by an inner voice that
> generates a reasonable but often fallacious narrative and explanation of
our
> actions. The beam of conscious awareness that illuminates our actions is
on
> only part of the time. Since we are not conscious of our state of
> unconsciousness, we vastly overestimate the amount of time that we are
aware
> of our own actions, whatever their cause.
>
>
> ROGER SCHANK (psychologist, computer scientist, author): I do not believe
> that people are capable of rational thought when it comes to making
> decisions in their own lives. People believe that are behaving rationally
> and have thought things out, of course, but when major decisions are
> made-who to marry, where to live, what career to pursue, what college to
> attend, people's minds simply cannot cope with the complexity. When they
try
> to rationally analyze potential options, their unconscious, emotional
> thoughts take over and make the choice for them. We do not know how we
> decide things, and in a sense we don't really care. Decisions are made for
> us by our unconscious, the conscious is in charge of making up reasons for
> those decisions which sound rational. We can, on the other hand, think
> rationally about the choices that other people make. We can do this
because
> we do not know and are not trying to satisfy unconscious needs and
childhood
> fantasies. As for making good decisions in our lives, when we do it is
> mostly random. We are always operating with too little information
> consciously and way too much unconsciously.
>
>
> Yet more JARON LANIER (musician, computer scientist):  Implicit in the
> futures I am imagining here is a solution to the software crisis. If
> children are breathing out fully realized creatures and skies just as they
> form sentences today, there must be software present which isn't crashing
> and is marvelously flexible and responsive, yet free of limiting
> pre-conceptions, which would revive symbolism. Can such software exist?
Ah!
> Another belief! My guess is it can exist, but not anytime soon. The only
two
> good examples of software we have at this time are evolution and the
brain,
> and they both are quite good, so why not be encouraged?
>
>
> JUDITH RICH HARRIS (developmental psychologist, author): I believe, though
I
> cannot prove it, that three-not two-selection processes were involved in
> human evolution. The first two are familiar: natural selection, which
> selects for fitness, and sexual selection, which selects for sexiness. The
> third process selects for beauty, but not sexual beauty-not adult beauty.
> The ones doing the selecting weren't potential mates: they were parents.
> Parental selection, I call it. What gave me the idea was a passage from a
> book titled Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, by the
anthropologist
> Marjorie Shostak. Nisa was about fifty years old when she recounted to
> Shostak, in remarkable detail, the story of her life as a member of a
> hunter-gatherer group.
>
> One of the incidents described by Nisa occurred when she was a child. She
> had a brother named Kumsa, about four years younger than herself. When
Kumsa
> was around three, and still nursing, their mother realized she was
pregnant
> again. She explained to Nisa that she was planning to "kill"-that is,
> abandon at birth-the new baby, so that Kumsa could continue to nurse. But
> when the baby was born, Nisa's mother had a change of heart. "I don't want
> to kill her," she told Nisa. "This little girl is too beautiful. See how
> lovely and fair her skin is?" [Here, culture could most directly &
> immediately affect genetic evolution.]
>
> Coupled with sexual selection, parental selection could have produced
> certain kinds of evolutionary changes very quickly, even if the
> heartbreaking decision of whether to rear or abandon a newborn was made in
> only a small percentage of births. The characteristics that could be
> affected by parental selection would have to be apparent even in a newborn
> baby. Two such characteristics are skin color and hairiness.
>
>
> W. DANIEL HILLIS (physicist, computer scientist, author; Chairman, Applied
> Minds, Inc.): I know that it sounds corny, but I believe that people are
> getting better. In other words, I believe in moral progress. People will
get
> more empathetic and more altruistic than we are. They will trust each
other
> more, and for good reason. They will take better care of each other. They
be
> more thoughtful about the broader consequences of their actions. They will
> take better care of their future than we do of ours.
>
>
> GREGORY BENFORD (physicist, author): Why is there scientific law at all?
> What constrains the nature of physical law? Evolution gave us our ornately
> structured biosphere, and perhaps a similar principle operates in
selecting
> universes. Perhaps our universe arises, then, from selection for
> intelligences that can make fresh universes, perhaps in high energy
physics
> experiments. Or near black holes (as Lee Smiolin supposed), where
space-time
> gets contorted into plastic forms that can make new space-times. Then an
> Ur-universe that had intelligence could make others, and this reproduction
> with perhaps slight variation "genetics" drives the evolution of physical
> law. Selection arises because if firm laws yield [better] conditions to
form
> new intelligent life. Once very advanced life forms realize this, they
could
> intentionally make more smart universes with the right, fixed laws, to
> produce ever more grand structures. There might be observable consequences
> of this prior evolution: If so, then we are an inevitable consequence of
the
> universe, mirroring intelligences that have come before, in some earlier
> universe that deliberately chose to create more sustainable order. The
> fitness of our cosmic environment is then no accident. If we find evidence
> of fine-tuning, then, [it would be] evidence for such evolution.
>
>
> RUPERT SHELDRAKE (biologist, author): Memory is inherent in nature. Most
of
> the so-called laws of nature are more like habits. There is no need to
> suppose that all the laws of nature sprang into being fully formed at the
> moment of the Big Bang, like a kind of cosmic Napoleonic code, or that
they
> exist in a metaphysical realm beyond time and space. Before the general
> acceptance of the Big Bang theory in the 1960s, eternal laws seemed to
make
> sense. The universe itself was thought to be eternal and evolution was
> confined to the biological realm. But we now live in a radically
> evolutionary universe. The natural selection of habits will play an
> essential part in any integrated theory of evolution.
>
>
> JONATHAN HAIDT (psychologist) : I believe that religious experience and
> practice is generated and structured largely by a few emotions that
evolved
> for other reasons, particularly awe, moral elevation, disgust, and
> attachment-related emotions. That's not a prediction likely to raise any
> eyebrows in this forum. But I further believe that hostility toward
religion
> is an obstacle to progress in psychology. Most human beings live in a
world
> full of magic, miracles, saints, and constant commerce with divinity.
> Psychology at present has little to say about these parts of life. If
> psychologists took religious experience seriously and tried to understand
it
> from the inside, as anthropologists do with other cultures, I believe it
> would enrich our science. I have found religious texts and testimonials
> about purity and pollution essential for understanding the emotion of
> disgust.
>
>
> KAI KRAUSE (Software: Concepts, Artwork & Interface Design): I always
felt,
> but can't prove outright: Zen is wrong. Then is right. Everything is not
> about the now, as in the "here and how", "living for the moment". On the
> contrary: I believe everything is about the before then and the back then.
> It is about the anticipation of the moment and the memory of the moment,
but
> not the moment. Make plans and take pictures. I have no way of proving
such
> a lofty philosophical theory, but I greatly anticipate the moment that I
> might... and once I have done it, I will, most certainly, never forget.
>
>
>
> Whew. So much delicious thought food! I look forward to saying more.
>

Friday, September 8, 2006, 6:30 PM

San Diego Air & Space Museum
2001 Pan American Plaza in Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 234-8291

Admission is free, but an RSVP is required.
Contact Gerry Williams, filmist [at] mac [dot] com

SEX IN SPACE, by author Laura S. Woodmansee, balances the
giggle factor with the more serious scientific questions that
arise when we think about the possibilities of sex and
reproduction in space. This lecture covers everything that you
think it does, and a lot more. This provocative account reveals
the truth about romantic rendezvous in Earth orbit and beyond.

Learn what the space agencies are too embarrassed to talk
about. SEX IN SPACE separates the hard facts from the sci-fi
stories.

Can a child be conceived in space? Discover how children born
on the Moon, Mars, or space colonies might differ from Earth-
born humans. The age of space tourism is just beginning and
honeymoons in space have already been booked. Imagine making
love among the stars. What might your future space hotel suite
be like?

These questions, and more, are thoughtfully answered, while
science fiction myths about interstellar intercourse are
dispelled. SEX IN SPACE is for anyone with a natural curiosity
about sex and an interest in the future of humanity in space.

The Mars Society - San Diego will host a multimedia lecture,
discussion and book signing with Laura Woodmansee at its
monthly meeting on Friday, September 8th at 6:30pm at the San
Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park.


ABOUT LAURA S. WOODMANSEE
She is a Science Journalist, Entrepreneur, and volunteer JPL
Solar System Ambassador. Her goal is to reawaken the public's
interest in what our exciting Universe has to offer. A member
of the National Association of Science Writers, Laura earned
her Master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from USC's
Annenberg School for Journalism. Apogee Books is releasing
Laura's latest book, SEX IN SPACE, in August 2006, (ISBN
1894959442). She has also authored the books, WOMEN ASTRONAUTS
(Apogee, 2002), and WOMEN OF SPACE: COOL CAREERS ON THE FINAL
FRONTIER (Apogee, 2003).
http://www.LauraWoodmansee.com

ABOUT THE MARS SOCIETY
THE MARS SOCIETY is dedicated to promoting the advancement of
human spaceflight and the exploration of the planet Mars
through scientific, technical, political, and educational
means. The SAN DIEGO chapter is a local grassroots group
supporting these goals.
http://MarsSanDiego.org

ABOUT THE SAN DIEGO AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
Home to the Command Module from the Apollo 9 mission on loan
from the National Air and Space Museum, the San Diego Air &
Space Museum celebrates the history of aviation and space
flight, educates the public in aerospace technology, and
inspires people of all ages to excel in math and the sciences.
The San Diego Air & Space Museum, an affiliate of the
Smithsonian Institution, is a non-profit organization and the
first aero theme museum to receive accreditation by the
American Association of Museums in 1986.
http://www.sandiegoairandspace.org

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

We are not hosting a meeting/event this Sept. (Lazily taking the month off!)

There is a superb event in 2 weeks @ Via de la Valle & the 5 though...

September 14, Thursday, MIND BRAIN SERIES with Terry Sejnowski � the
newest and latest in brain science: Neuroeconomics.
http://www.book-works.com/Events_authors/event_sejnowski.htm

I've read Liars, Lovers & Heroes (his recent popular book), and do recommend it.

The Book Works actually brings many great speakers in our Future Salon
tradition, one every couple months lately. The store's new owner is
herself a charmingly cheerful cognitive scientist who's kept her day
job & her UCSD-and-beyond Rolodex.

There's a Pannikin right next door -- and a Taste of Thai around too
-- for conversations we might have after the event.

Enjoy!

Andrew

SUMMARY: There's a fun intellectual event next Thursday! (And Yahoo
Groups failed to e-mail this last week?)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrew Breese <andrew@...>
Date: Sep 1, 2006 9:53 AM
Subject: September happenings
To: sdfuturists@yahoogroups.com


We are not hosting a meeting/event this Sept. (Lazily taking the month off!)

There is a superb event in 2 weeks @ Via de la Valle & the 5 though...

September 14, Thursday, MIND BRAIN SERIES with Terry Sejnowski � the
newest and latest in brain science: Neuroeconomics.
http://www.book-works.com/Events_authors/event_sejnowski.htm

I've read Liars, Lovers & Heroes (his recent popular book), and do recommend it.

The Book Works actually brings many great speakers in our Future Salon
tradition, one every couple months lately. The store's new owner is
herself a charmingly cheerful cognitive scientist who's kept her day
job & her UCSD-and-beyond Rolodex.

There's a Pannikin right next door -- and a Taste of Thai around too
-- for conversations we might have after the event.

Enjoy!

Andrew

An FYI from a speaker we had a while back...


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Evidently forward didn't work too well...so here's the text of the  message:


Dear Lisa:
I hope you’ve had a great  summer!
As you know, “Science and Society”  — _www.scienceandsociety.net_
(http://www.scienceandsociety.net/)  — has  been on temporary hiatus.
Recently, we’ve
established STATE CHANGE PRODUCTIONS,  a California 501(c)3 nonprofit
corporation, to support the show’s operations and  programming. State Change
Productions is now able to receive contributions and  urgently needs your
support.
Why “Science and Society”? The  show’s tagline says it all — “Our
world.
Our well-being. Our future.” The dual  missions of “Science and Society”
are to
promote and enhance math and science  education and present weekly
conversations with the scientists, researchers, and  educators doing the
frontline work
in medicine, energy, the environment, and  space exploration.
Why math and science education? We  can meet the challenges of the 21st
century only if we’re paying attention and  taking meaningful action. Thomas
L.
Friedman reports in the 10/14/05 New York Times, “U.S. 12th graders recently
performed below the international average for 21 countries in math and science.
. . . The world is racing us to the top, not the bottom, and we are quietly
falling behind.”
The National Academy of Sciences,  The National Academy of Engineering, and
the Institute of Medicine have  recently released Rising Above the Gathering
Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic  Future, a
500-page report. Rising  Above the Gathering Storm states, “The critical lack
of
technically  trained people in the United States can be  traced to poor K-12
mathematics and science instruction. Few factors are more  important than
this.”
Enter “Science and Society”. The  show’s programming provides a complete
pre-packaged real-world science  curriculum, ranging from biology to chemistry
to
physics to computer science to  engineering and back again.
“Science and Society” programming  is what’s happening in math and science
TODAY, described in fascinating,  engaging, and highly personal detail by the
men and women doing the work — Nobel  Laureates. National Science Foundation
CAREER Award winners. National Science  Foundation Young Investigator Award
winners. Presidential Award for Excellence  winners. Best-selling authors. The
very best role models any young person could  have.
Whether a student is interested in  designing a knock-your-socks-off video
game, or helping develop alternative  energy sources, or finding effective
treatment for life-threatening cancers,  “Science and Society” provides a
rich set
of resources for
·        Research projects
·        Homework and class  assignments
·        Curriculum development and  design
·        Invention, inspiration,  imagination, creativity, and new solutions
to the challenges facing humanity in  the 21st century
We know the challenges  —
·        Successful therapy for cancer,  diabetes, heart disease, infectious
and tropical diseases, and genetic diseases  such as sickle cell anemia
·        Renewable energy
·        Solutions to climate  change
·        Eliminating starvation and  illiteracy worldwide
·        Space exploration
Our present generation of  scientists will soon need the support of the next
generation. There needs to be  a next generation of scientists.
State Change Productions and  “Science and Society” intends to help meet
this need. 2006/2007 activities will  include
·        A public awareness campaign to make  “Science and Society” content
available to school districts  nationwide
·        A high school science writing  contest — in New York City and San
Diego County  (additional cities will be added in 2007/2008)
·        Launch of a transcript service,  providing a written supplement to “
Science and Society” radio  programming
·        Preparation for the “Science and  Society” 2007/2008 First Annual
“
Tomorrow’s Science Leaders Today”  Conference
Lisa, State Change  Productions and “Science and Society” need your support
to be able to make a  difference in the world. Please call today to make a
credit card donation  or please mail a check to State Change Productions at the
address  below.
·        Contributions by MasterCard or Visa  may be made by phone —
619-540-9038
·        Contributions may also be mailed  to
State  Change Productions
c/o David  Lemberg
662 Sweet  Pea PL
Encinitas, CA 92024
Thank you, Lisa. We gratefully  appreciate your contribution and support.
And, would you be so kind as to  forward our request to your friends and
colleagues who might be interested in  supporting the work of State Change
Productions.
I look forward to sharing news of  our Fall 2006 activities.
Best regards,
David
David Lemberg
President, State Change  Productions
Executive Producer, SCIENCE AND  SOCIETY
_www.scienceandsociety.net_ (http://www.scienceandsociety.net/)
619-540-9038


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thursday, September 14, 2006, 7:00 PM

The Book Works
Flower Hill Promenade
2670 Via De La Valle, Suite A230
Del Mar, CA 92014

http://www.book-works.com/Events_authors/event_sejnowski.htm

Book discussion and signing. Terrence Sejnowski, director of
the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk
Institute, joins forces with Steven R. Quartz, director of the
Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Cal Tech, to
explore why humans fall in love, create art, and make war in
their new book Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain
Science Reveals About How We Become Who We Are.

"Challenging the view that human brains are hardwired for
certain behaviors, they believe instead that "[y]our experience
with the world literally helps build your brain." In this wide-
ranging and relatively nontechnical overview, the authors show
how the human brain evolved to maximize flexibility, enabling
us to thrive in a wide variety of circumstances. They discuss
intelligence and learning, emotions, motivation, violence, and
the importance of social bonds, linking cutting-edge
neuroscience with social history and popular culture... Quartz
and Sejnowski conclude with a thought-provoking chapter on the
challenges of postmodern culture and globalization, suggesting
that the findings of cultural biology can point the way toward
creating societies that better meet our basic needs for
positive social engagement. Their views, engagingly presented
if sometimes controversial, will open up a hitherto specialized
subject for a wider audience. " (Publishers Weekly)

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

Dear San Diego Futurists:

Having good feelings for Francis Crick then heading the Salk Institute, I
offered $30,000 to Salk if my fellow scientist, T, Sejnowski would have lunch
with me, and more to come in my will when I pass away.

Colleagues at Salk expected this to be the proverbial slamdunk. They expected
the good doctor to have lunch with me. What difference does it make to
democratic science that he is a theorist on the digital model of the brain while
I favor the analog. My data provocatively comes from 20,000 dreams analyzed then
reverse-engineered to form the foundation for Chronomics, or multiple-cycle
genetic version of the human brain and the mind.

Those of you attending his talk on September 14 may want to read any of my
Chronomics papers by using Google and typing in"Mental Chronomics." Then you can
access my favorite at the Jerry E. Pournelle website. Type in Google Monthly
Emotional Cycle" -- the article is archived as "Thinking and Feeling Machines."

My professor friends at Salk claim that Dr. Sejnowski need not respond to me and
my group -- Newport Neuroscience Center (NN Center) -- who may hold the key to
progress in Chronomics during the next 5-10 years. The good doctor  is connected
to the male power structure. What is $30,000 to a professor who can bring in
millions to Salk due to connections with corporations, governments and the
charitable foundations.

This is what my professor friends say, except I don't believe them. Rather, I
believe that the problem is that my group suspects that that male consciousness
is analog therefore womanly. For the  competitive, power-seeking
digital-thinking males who bring our nation such lovely wars, what can be gained
by listening to a scientific heretic who insists that the manly brain is merely
an unfinished womanly brain.

Therefore T.S. may be caught in public embarrassingly with his pants down -- a
great reason not to go out to lunch with me.

Enjoy his talk!

Respectfully,

David Goodman, M.S. (Chicago) Ph.D. (Irvine), in Neuroscience


---------------------------------
  All-new Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello all,

   San Diego Future Salon will be hosting a presentation on a very comprehensive
web-based tool for project management (and more) called ‘qtask”.  An early
version is up & running & I have successfully used it on a couple of small tasks
and one larger project.
   Northrop Grumman Spectrum Center has graciously agreed to provide top-quality
meeting space for this presentation.

When: Friday October 6th, 7 pm
Where: California Room (just off the main entrance lobby to the right) Northrop
Grumman Spectrum Center 9326 Spectrum Center Blvd., San Diego, CA 92123.  Anyone
who is not a Northrop Grumman employee will need to check in at the front desk &
get a visitor badge.

To really pique your interest, here is the write-up provided by our speaker, the
company’s CTO, a fascinating fellow who some of you have likely met at
previous San Diego Future Salon events:

The future of information “Whole Life Management”

Short version

Baron R.K. Von Wolfsheild returns to speak to the Futurists. It has been several
years, and he and his team have been very busy building a bold new software
service.

Lying somewhere between project management and social networking, and referred
to as “Big Brother” by those that have already been given a glimpse of the
system, Von Wolfsheild will take us on a tour of this new system that blurs the
boundaries between technologies, as well as business and personal software.
Already in use by military and government agencies, come learn where the Web is
going and what this means to all of us. - Presentation with Q&A.

Long version

We started with a simple question, “What can one button do?”

For example, an elevator really only needs one button… “send a car here and
get me.” It has two buttons because if the elevator knows which direction you
are going, it might be able to get you a car even faster. What would be involved
to reduce the elevator to one button, and retain the same functionality?

If the elevator already knew where you were going, then this would be easy. So,
what would that entail? Clearly a lot more than a simple chromium switch on the
wall. In fact, the technology needed to make that possible would be quite
impressive, and if done well, should even make it possible to get rid of the
buttons all together. Wouldn’t that be nice? You begin walking towards the
elevator and it is already waiting for you when you get there.

For this to work, the elevator needs to know a lot about you. It needs to know
where you go, and where you are right now. It might seem a like a big leap from
PIM software to elevators, but this is a philosophy, a philosophy that asks the
bigger question of what we want computers and technology to do for us. It turns
out that many of these questions about the technology link back to a fundamental
need for the management and tracking of people.

* I have a meeting downtown, what else can I get done while I’m there?
* It’s my friend’s birthday; what did I get him last year?
* Has everyone seen the file I uploaded?

To answer these questions, the system needs to wash away boundaries and
integrate normally disparate software. The system needs to be pervasive in ways
not possible with software that must be installed, and manually maintained. It
must treat all devices equally, regardless of manufacturer, or religion, and be
accessible from your own equipment, or someone else’s.

We made a daring decision to build a technology delivery method on top of a
simple rendering language (HTML) and a brutally simple programming language
(JavaScript). We began carving out a Web 2.0 system that delivered a user
experience more like that of a stand alone application than that of the common
brochure-like experience of the web.

What happens when the Web becomes the platform, and the software constantly
improves to meet the user’s needs? We can show a glimpse of this future.

Speaking for Prolific is Baron RK Von Wolfsheild.

Von Wolfsheild is an industry veteran with over 25 years in software and
hardware design, the founder of Prolific Publishing, for which he serves as
Chief Technology Officer.

He has appeared in magazines such as Time, Life, and Business Week, and is
frequently quoted in computer magazines. He has made appearances on "Regis &
Kathy Lee," MTV, C-Net and All Games Radio, and was featured on "Entertainment
Tonight." In addition to lecturing at universities, he often speaks on industry
panels.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
-------------------------------

I'll hope to see some of you on the 6th....

-Lisa

________________________________________________________________________
Check out the new AOL.  Most comprehensive set of free safety and security
tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free
AOL Mail and more.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello,

     A little reminder for you about this Friday's  presentation by the CTO of
Prolific Publishing.  Don't forget - we're  meeting in a different location
this month.   Come check out this  cutting-edge time management software!

-Lisa


When: Friday October  6th, 7 pm
Where: California Room (just off the main entrance lobby to the  right)
Northrop Grumman Spectrum Center 9326 Spectrum Center Blvd., San Diego, CA
92123.
Anyone who is not a Northrop Grumman employee will need to check in at the
front  desk & get a visitor badge.


Synopsis:


Baron  R.K. Von Wolfsheild returns to speak to the Futurists. It has been
several  years, and he and his team have been very busy building a bold new
software  service.

Lying  somewhere between project management and social networking, and
referred to as  “Big Brother” by those that have already been given a
glimpse of
the system, Von  Wolfsheild will take us on a tour of this new system that blurs
the boundaries  between technologies, as well as business and personal
software. Already in use  by military and government agencies, come learn where
the
Web is going and what  this means to all of us. - Presentation with  Q&A.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Final Reminder!


Northrop Grumman Spectrum Center is providing top-quality meeting
space for this presentation.

When: Friday October 6th, 7 pm
Where: California Room (just off the main entrance lobby to the right)
Northrop Grumman Spectrum Center 9326 Spectrum Center Blvd., San
Diego, CA 92123. Anyone who is not a Northrop Grumman employee will
need to check in at the front desk & get a visitor badge.

Here is the write-up provided by our speaker, the company's CTO, a
fascinating fellow who some of you have likely met at previous San
Diego Future Salon events:

The future of information "Whole Life Management"

Short version

Baron R.K. Von Wolfsheild returns to speak to the Futurists. It has
been several years, and he and his team have been very busy building a
bold new software service.

Lying somewhere between project management and social networking, and
referred to as "Big Brother" by those that have already been given a
glimpse of the system, Von Wolfsheild will take us on a tour of this
new system that blurs the boundaries between technologies, as well as
business and personal software. Already in use by military and
government agencies, come learn where the Web is going and what this
means to all of us. - Presentation with Q&A.

Long version

We started with a simple question, "What can one button do?"

For example, an elevator really only needs one button� "send a car
here and get me." It has two buttons because if the elevator knows
which direction you are going, it might be able to get you a car even
faster. What would be involved to reduce the elevator to one button,
and retain the same functionality?

If the elevator already knew where you were going, then this would be
easy. So, what would that entail? Clearly a lot more than a simple
chromium switch on the wall. In fact, the technology needed to make
that possible would be quite impressive, and if done well, should even
make it possible to get rid of the buttons all together. Wouldn't that
be nice? You begin walking towards the elevator and it is already
waiting for you when you get there.

For this to work, the elevator needs to know a lot about you. It needs
to know where you go, and where you are right now. It might seem a
like a big leap from PIM software to elevators, but this is a
philosophy, a philosophy that asks the bigger question of what we want
computers and technology to do for us. It turns out that many of these
questions about the technology link back to a fundamental need for the
management and tracking of people.

* I have a meeting downtown, what else can I get done while I'm there?
* It's my friend's birthday; what did I get him last year?
* Has everyone seen the file I uploaded?

To answer these questions, the system needs to wash away boundaries
and integrate normally disparate software. The system needs to be
pervasive in ways not possible with software that must be installed,
and manually maintained. It must treat all devices equally, regardless
of manufacturer, or religion, and be accessible from your own
equipment, or someone else's.

We made a daring decision to build a technology delivery method on top
of a simple rendering language (HTML) and a brutally simple
programming language (JavaScript). We began carving out a Web 2.0
system that delivered a user experience more like that of a stand
alone application than that of the common brochure-like experience of
the web.

What happens when the Web becomes the platform, and the software
constantly improves to meet the user's needs? We can show a glimpse of
this future.

Speaking for Prolific is Baron RK Von Wolfsheild.

Von Wolfsheild is an industry veteran with over 25 years in software
and hardware design, the founder of Prolific Publishing, for which he
serves as Chief Technology Officer.

He has appeared in magazines such as Time, Life, and Business Week,
and is frequently quoted in computer magazines. He has made
appearances on "Regis & Kathy Lee," MTV, C-Net and All Games Radio,
and was featured on "Entertainment Tonight." In addition to lecturing
at universities, he often speaks on industry panels.

Well I guess if they're already nicknaming it "Big Brother", then they
won't take offense at my posting this as food for discussion:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google
15 September 2006
Bruce Sterling
http://tinyurl.com/s9gl5

Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 5:30 PM

"Conscious and Unconscious Memory Systems of the Mammalian
Brain"

Larry Squire, Ph.D., of UCSD's School of Medicine, speaks in
the Grey Matters: From Molecules to Mind lecture series.

http://greymatters.ucsd.edu/

The medial temporal lobe is essential for declarative memory.
Brain systems outside the medial temporal lobe support
nondeclarative, nonconscious learning abilities including habit
learning, simple forms of conditioning, and the phenomenon of
priming. Learn about recent research that identifies a robust
system for the acquisition of habits-both good and bad-which
occurs gradually and outside of conscious awareness.

San Diego Natural History Museum
http://www.sdnhm.org/
1788 El Prado (Balboa Park)
San Diego, CA 92101
619.232.3821

Registration at 5:30
Lecture at 6:00
In the Auditorium

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

Hello,

    Just wanted to give y'all an update on my progress trying to  find a
speaker for this coming Friday - I've invited three folks - Paul  Churchland of
UCSD, Vernor Vinge of Rainbows End & many other books, and a  fellow named Karl
Roth, suggested by Lisette as a potential speaker on the topic  of solar power.
  So far, none of them have accepted an invitation  to speak this coming
Friday.  So, I am hoping they will agree to speak  later on in December or next
year.
    In the meantime, I am still looking for a speaker and/or topic  for this
Friday.  Do any of you have suggestions?  We could talk about  one of my
current favorite books - right now I'm reading Accelerando (finally),  The
Fourth
Turning, and taking a second pass through The True  Believer.  None of these are
new books.   Yesterday I  also picked up a copy of Rainbows End, which is a
new book, & will  start that.  I do have a bad habit of reading good Science
Fiction to the  exclusion of sleep...so I am being a bit cautious opening that
new box of brain  candy!
    Thanks for your suggestions & feedback...

-Lisa


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello,

   Well, I was a little embarassed to have to post this week that I
did not have a speaker for the upcoming meeting, but flabbergasted by
the response.  Several folks emailed suggestions & even volunteered
themselves for later talks.  Wow!  What a great community of
Futurists!!!
   So, thanks to Beth, who has never even been to one of our events,
but who adventurously discovered our group on her own by searching
for local science & technology oriented groups on the web, we have a
speaker for tomorrow night!  Beth put me in touch with a fellow named
Brian Ostosh who is part of a new company producing a solar fuel
cell.  I've chatted him up a bit and he says he'll come by tomorrow
night & talk about the Past, Present, & Future of Manufacturing, plus
touch on the solar fuel cell project at the end.  He says he's a baby
boomer that was sold a vision of the future where people would build
spaceships, so he actually did that - worked on the space shuttle.  I
did a brief google search on Brian & can see he's into some pretty-
high tech milling of metal and such.  He'll give an informal
presentation - looking forward to some fun discussion.  I think
manufacturing will be transformed by nanotechnology; he says he'll
believe that when he sees it.  :)
    We'll do the typical meet at 7 pm at the Mira Mesa Barnes & Noble,
then go across the street for food, drink, and more conversation.
    See y'all tomorrow night.

-Lisa

Hello all,

How I wish i had experience with SAP so I could snap this up!  Alas, I
am not, but I do love to share so here ya go:

I know a pair of gentlemen whose company is in the middle of an SAP
implementation.  They are seeking someone for a full time position
who, after the hand-over, can be responsible for the entire installed
product.  They require someone who is strong in SAP but is versatile:
comfortable and competent in system and database administration all
the way to end-user support and training. For the right person, they
wish to hire immediately.

The company is located in San Carlos.

If you (or someone you know) is interested, please send a resume in
confidence to me at lmaepa@....  (If the resume is not
coming from someone on SD/LA/BA Futurists, please do let me know who
on the Futurists' lists I
should thank for the resume.)

Thank you!

Warmly,
Linda

As a mother, my first response to this body of work is:

Nurturing Genius, a How-To Guide

I'd love to get into a conversation about _that_.

Linda

On 11/9/06, John Smart <johnsmart@...> wrote:
>
>   Hi Futurists,
>
> A fantastic article that came out in the 15 Sept *New Scientist*, "How to
> Be a Genius", which I strongly recommend, if you want the short version of
> some really great insights on expertise:
>
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~djtaylor/genius.htm<http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/%7E\
djtaylor/genius.htm>
>
>
> In addition to great stories, it quotes the work of a fascinating band of
> psychologists and cognitive scientists who study the development of expert
> performance. *K. Anders Ericsson* is one of the pioneers of this new
> discipline, and he has just edited a 900 page book, *The Cambridge
> Handbook of Expertise and Expert
Performance*<http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Handbook-Expertise-Expert-Performan\
ce/dp/0521600812/>
> **, 2006 ("the long version" of these insights), that compiles all the
> latest cog sci research on the subject of becoming an Expert/Genius/Great
> Performer. I have ordered it and will do a mini book review on it at an
> upcoming future salon, as I think it is super relevant to being a futurist.
>
> Books like these should be read and reread once a year by anyone
> interested in being a great performer. They help us understand how much
> qualities like self-regulation, breadth of skill, good networks, and lots of
> practice are involved in being excellent at anything!
>
> If any of you bright minds would like to do a book review, find us a
> speaker, demo a tool, or otherwise contribute to the next future salon,
> please let me know at johnsmart{at}accelerating{dot}org. The last several
> meetings we have been dedicating a full hour at the beginning for article
> sharing, book reviews, etc.  When we meet at uWink in December, or for those
> going to BarCamp this weekend (http://barcamp.org/BarcampLA-2 )  it would
> be great to see you there, sharing whatever you have found that is cool.
>
> Finally, feel free to post your best finds to this
> low-volume-but-high-quality Events and Notices list once or twice a month as
> well!
>
> Cheers,
>
> John Smart
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
--------------->
> President, Acceleration Studies Foundation | A 501c3 Nonprofit
> johnsmart{at}accelerating{dot}org | www.accelerating.org
> e-News: www.accelerating.org/atsignup.html
> 2227 Amirante, San Pedro, CA 90732
> 310.831.4191
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Friday, November 10, 2006, 6:00 PM

http://chapters.marssociety.org/sandiego/#EVENTS-2006

The next regular monthly meeting of the Mars Society will be a
multimedia public lecture, "TEN YEARS OVER MARS", with Dr.
Michael Caplinger, Senior Scientist at Malin Space Science
Systems in San Diego.

There are currently six active spacecraft at Mars: four in
orbit and two roving the red planet. Dr. Caplinger operates
cameras onboard three of these orbiting spacecraft, and the
images he has captured over the last ten years have
dramatically changed the way we look at and study our
neighboring planet. We guarantee the views will be spectacular!"

"TEN YEARS OVER MARS" will take place at the Reuben H. Fleet
Science Center's Lecture Hall in Balboa Park from 6:00pm to 8:
30pm. Admission to this program is free to the public with a
Science Center Exhibit Gallery or IMAX Theater ticket (and free
to Mars Society members).

The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center  http://rhfleet.org/
1875 El Prado
Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101

--
Allison Lonsdale
cross-pollinating San Diego fandom 'cause it keeps me out of trouble
http://scifi.meetup.com/31/about/
http://www.grandmothersplace.com

Driving up to B&N in Mira Mesa on a Friday night last week reminded me
that I want to see what y'all think about changing the day and/or venue.
At our current time-space location, traffic and parking are just about
as bad as they can get.  Our speaker & I waited for 20 minutes AT THE
MIRA MESA EXIT to get off the I-15.  I did hear suggestions from those
in-the-know about better alternative routes, but new people won't know
& shouldn't have to endure trial-by-traffic to join our Salon.
My preference is Sunday evening, 7 pm.  I would still prefer to go with
the first weekend of the month.  With a group of our size, it's
unlikely we'll come up with a day that everyone likes, but I'd like
your feedback on 1st Sunday 7 pm.  For now, assume it'll still be at
B&N.  After we change the day, I'll check if B&N can accomodate us.  If
so, we'll do a couple of months of traffic assay to determine if just
getting away from Friday evening solves the problem.
Please let me know if you can make Sun 7 pm.  If not, let me know your
next top two preferences out of these choices are Sunday 4 pm,
Mon/Tue/Wed 7 pm.  The only other alternative is Friday 7 pm at a
different TBD location, so you could have that as a preference as well.
Thanks.

-Lisa

At the risk of adding something to my already overburdened schedule, I
rather like the idea of a first Sunday at 7 p.m. meeting date at B & N -- I
might even make some of those meetings!

Pam Stevens


----- Original Message -----
From: "tanseylisa" <lisaware@...>
To: <sdfuturists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 8:47 PM
Subject: [sdfuturists] Soliciting input on date/venue change


> Driving up to B&N in Mira Mesa on a Friday night last week reminded me
> that I want to see what y'all think about changing the day and/or venue.
> At our current time-space location, traffic and parking are just about
> as bad as they can get.  Our speaker & I waited for 20 minutes AT THE
> MIRA MESA EXIT to get off the I-15.  I did hear suggestions from those
> in-the-know about better alternative routes, but new people won't know
> & shouldn't have to endure trial-by-traffic to join our Salon.
> My preference is Sunday evening, 7 pm.  I would still prefer to go with
> the first weekend of the month.  With a group of our size, it's
> unlikely we'll come up with a day that everyone likes, but I'd like
> your feedback on 1st Sunday 7 pm.  For now, assume it'll still be at
> B&N.  After we change the day, I'll check if B&N can accomodate us.  If
> so, we'll do a couple of months of traffic assay to determine if just
> getting away from Friday evening solves the problem.
> Please let me know if you can make Sun 7 pm.  If not, let me know your
> next top two preferences out of these choices are Sunday 4 pm,
> Mon/Tue/Wed 7 pm.  The only other alternative is Friday 7 pm at a
> different TBD location, so you could have that as a preference as well.
> Thanks.
>
> -Lisa
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

1st Sunday at 7:00pm sounds good to me. Remember that December is Mall
Shopping Month, so this next meeting could be just as bad traffic-wise if
we meet at the mall even on a Sunday.

--
Carolyn Ray, Ph.D.
www.supersaturated.com          The mind is a terrible thing.