http://h20.media.mit.edu/

Human2.0: new minds, new bodies, new identities

A One-Day Symposium, 5/9/2007 at MIT

Ushering in a New Era for Human Capability

The story of civilization is the story of humans and their tools. Use of
tools has changed the human mind, altered the human body, and
fundamentally reshaped human identity. Now at the dawn of the 21st
century, a new category of tools and machines is poised to radically
change humanity at a velocity well beyond the pace of Darwinian
evolution.

A science is emerging that combines a new understanding of how humans
work to usher in a new generation of machines that mimic or aid human
physical and mental capabilities. Some 150 million of us are over the
age of 80, while 200 million of us suffer from severe cognitive,
emotional, sensory, or physical disabilities. Giving all or even most of
this population a quality of life beyond mere survival is both the
scientific challenge of the epoch and the basis for a coming revolution
over what it means to be human. To unleash this next stage in human
development, our bodies will change, our minds will change, and our
identities will change. The age of Human 2.0 is here.

Hosts

JOHN HOCKENBERRY
award-winning journalist; distinguished Media Lab fellow

HUGH HERR
NEC Career Development Professor, MIT Media Lab

keynote
OLIVER SACKS

special guests
MICHAEL GRAVES
MICHAEL CHOROST
JOHN DONOGHUE
AIMEE MULLINS
DOUGLAS H. SMITH

The program will focus on the Media Lab's sweeping new research
initiatives for augmenting mental and physical capability to vastly
improve the quality of human life. Presenters will explore how
today's-and tomorrow's-advances will seamlessly interact with humans,
giving us a glimpse into a future where all humans will integrate with
technology to heighten our cognition, emotional acuity, perception, and
physical capabilities.

The Media Lab at the Center

In a dramatic and crucially important new initiative, h2.0, the MIT
Media Lab seeks to advance on all fronts to define and focus this
scientific realignment. The Lab will leverage a new understanding of
human cognition, emotion, perception, and movement to produce machines
that better serve humanity.

Positioning itself at the center of a confluence of new science is a
familiar place for the Media Lab. Understanding the adaptive impulse of
humans and harnessing it for the pursuit of a new generation of machines
is an endeavor as world shattering as anything the Media Lab has ever
undertaken. The goal? New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities.
Please Join Us