Subject: Re: [ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 47, Issue 6

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:53:20 +0200

Probably I got lost in a wrong universe, my idea of transhumanism is that mankind wil transform in a better specie
a sort of human robot. My idea is not to be frozen in order to wait for that but to give my body to science or experiments by life. Hopefully some day our brains will be put in a perfect machine which can go to another planet. Another option has been suggested on discovery channel about being put in a deep sleep to survive and escape to another planet. Who has ideas that correspond with this? Respond to [email-masked] or just on this site of course. Greetings, Wim.

________________________________

Van: [email-masked] namens [email-masked]
Verzonden: ma 13-8-2007 19:57
Aan: [email-masked]
Onderwerp: extropy-chat Digest, Vol 47, Issue 6

Send extropy-chat mailing list submissions to
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of extropy-chat digest..."

Today's Topics:

   1. (no subject) (alicia hamilton)
   2. Re: (no subject) (Jef Allbright)
   3. Re: (no subject) (Bryan Bishop)
   4. Re: (no subject) (Gina Miller)
   5. Re: Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 (BillK)
   6. Re: Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 (scerir)
   7. Re: Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
      (Damien Broderick)
   8. Re: (no subject) (Alan Brooks)
   9. to paraphrase Mark Twain (Alan Brooks)
  10. OUTSIDE THE GATES OF SCIENCE (Damien Broderick)
  11. you cn't always get what you wnt (Jeff Davis)
  12. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (David C. Harris)
  13. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (BillK)
  14. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (David C. Harris)
  15. Defy/Deny the Data (Michael M. Butler)
  16. Re: Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
      (Michael M. Butler)
  17. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (Jeff Davis)
  18. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (Damien Broderick)
  19. The Singularity Summit 2007, September 8th-9th, San
      Francisco,        CA - $50 to Attend (Tyler Emerson)
  20. Re: ExI (no subject) (Natasha Vita-More)
  21. Re: you cn't always get what you wnt (Alan Brooks)
  22. Ben G's TransVision talk (Benjamin Goertzel)
  23. Re: (no subject) (Alan Brooks)
  24. Re: Ben G's TransVision talk (Damien Broderick)
  25. Exponentially unlikely fetishes (Amara Graps)
  26. Re: Ben G's TransVision talk (Michael M. Butler)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:22:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: alicia hamilton <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] (no subject)
To: [email-masked]
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the recent posts, perhaps a bit in over my head.  I came upon this group during an internet search that I have been conducting for the past few months. I am looking for ways to better myself and, well I guess... the world. I used to exceed in school and positively loved college. I read everything on could get my hands on pertaining to religions, science, physics, theories and the human condition, both past and present. Now, as a working single mother, I feel like my brain has atrophied.  I am looking for a sort of jumping off place to begin. Again. Any ideas?
      
---------------------------------
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally,  mobile search that gives answers, not web links.
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:31:06 -0700
From: "Jef Allbright" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

On 8/10/07, alicia hamilton <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the recent posts, perhaps a bit in
> over my head.  I came upon this group during an internet search that I have been
> conducting for the past few months. I am looking for ways to better myself and, well I
> guess... the world. I used to exceed in school and positively loved college. I read
> everything on could get my hands on pertaining to religions, science, physics, theories
> and the human condition, both past and present.

Welcome Alicia!  Your interests appear to be in excellent alignment
with the extropy list.

> Now, as a working single mother, I feel like my brain has atrophied.  I am looking for a
> sort of jumping off place to begin. Again. Any ideas?

Well, can you name some projects that you've been passionate about in
the past?  Maybe we can help you to apply an extropian perspective.

My own key interest here is the evolution of increasingly effective
systems of cooperation.

- Jef

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:36:34 -0500
From: Bryan Bishop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="utf-8"

On Friday 10 August 2007 14:22, alicia hamilton wrote:
> Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the
> recent posts, perhaps a bit in over my head.  I came upon
> this group during an internet search that I have been
> conducting for the past few months. I am looking for ways
> to better myself and, well I guess... the world. I used to
> exceed in school and positively loved college. I read
> everything on could get my hands on pertaining to
> religions, science, physics, theories and the human
> condition, both past and present. Now, as a working single
> mother, I feel like my brain has atrophied.  I am looking
> for a sort of jumping off place to begin. Again. Any ideas?

Two humble suggestions:

1) Read widely (and madly?). I usually do this over the
internet to help hunt down like minded individuals.

2) Journaling and 'minutes' of your thoughts, activities,
events. I have even begun the construction of my own device
to keep track of my (flood of) thoughts through my days- a
portable keyboard hooked up to an eight gigabyte flash card.
This helps me keep track of what's going on and remembering
the collective output of my brain from day to day, week to
week, etc. to etc.

I look forward to seeing what the extropians have to say on
this subject. Welcome to the list.

http://www.extropy.org/faq.htm

And a reading list I found with a quick search:
http://www.etext.org/Politics/Extropy.Institute/johnson.091792

- Bryan

http://heybryan.org/

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:01:59 -0700
From: "Gina Miller" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <006601c7db9a$2df69610$0200a8c0@Nano>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Welcome to the group Alicia we are glad to have you here.

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com <http://www.nanoindustries.com/> 
Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com <http://www.nanogirl.com/> 
Animation Blog: http://maxanimation.blogspot.com/
Craft blog: http://nanogirlblog.blogspot.com/
Foresight Senior Associate http://www.foresight.org <http://www.foresight.org/> 
Nanotechnology Advisor Extropy Institute  http://www.extropy.org <http://www.extropy.org/> 
Email: [email-masked]
"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: alicia hamilton
  To: [email-masked]
  Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 12:22 PM
  Subject: [ExI] (no subject)

  Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the recent posts, perhaps a bit in over my head.  I came upon this group during an internet search that I have been conducting for the past few months. I am looking for ways to better myself and, well I guess... the world. I used to exceed in school and positively loved college. I read everything on could get my hands on pertaining to religions, science, physics, theories and the human condition, both past and present. Now, as a working single mother, I feel like my brain has atrophied.  I am looking for a sort of jumping off place to begin. Again. Any ideas?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  extropy-chat mailing list
  [email-masked]
  http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
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Message: 5
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:59:31 +0100
From: BillK <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 8/9/07, Damien Broderick wrote:
<snip>
> I gather that Vista has speech recognition bundled.# If so, anyone
> had any luck with it? I have to say that after training it I found
> DNS quite accurate--part of the training being of *me*, as the
> program shapes my enunciation toward crisper clarity.
>

NY Times review says Dragon Naturally Speaking v9 is better.
<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/telling-your-computer-what-to-do/>

LifeHacker seems to agree.
<http://lifehacker.com/software/speech-recognition/using-windows-vista-speech-recognition-240730.php>

The user comments below both articles are interesting to read also.

------------

Footnote:
Please don't think about upgrading to Vista.  You will enter a world
of computer pain. The web is full of reports about Vista problems.

This new article gives a good overall summary.
<http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/broken_windows.html>

Quotes:
The Vista experience is broken. It's long past time to fix it.
Not since Windows ME or Mac OS X 10.0 have I observed a more troubled
consumer operating system.
etc.

BillK

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:16:57 +0200
From: "scerir" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <002601c7dc33$0aa38580$b0bb1f97@archimede>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

> NY Times review says Dragon Naturally Speaking v9 is better.
>
<http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/telling-your-computer-what-to-do/

Dragon improves speech-recognition software - USATODAY.com
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-08-08-dragon-software
_N.htm

------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:08:37 -0500
From: Damien Broderick <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 06:16 PM 8/11/2007 +0200, Serafino wrote:

>Dragon improves speech-recognition software - USATODAY.com
><http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-08-08-dragon-software_N.htm>

Hmm--a link or 2 took me to

<https://www.knowbrainer.com/storefront/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=55>

where an upgrade from 8 to 9 can be had for $50 after rebate.

My problem is not with dictating, but with User profiles becoming
inaccessible after I ran Win System Restore. As BillK and others
confirmed, this is known to kill something crucial, and recovering is
a long and winding road. Since in my experience it's inevitable that
sometime I *will* need to Restore again, this is dire news. I don't
get the impression that DNS 9 or 9.5 has fixed this. Sigh.

Damien Broderick

------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:29:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Brooks <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Alicia, many have started their interest in that which is future-oriented by reading about and practicing life extension; but caveat emptor, read the signature at the bottom.

 On 8/10/07, alicia hamilton  wrote:
> Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the recent posts, perhaps a bit in
> over my head.  I came upon this group during an internet search that I have been
> conducting for the past few months. I am looking for ways to better myself and, well I
> guess... the world. I used to exceed in school and positively loved college. I read
> everything on could get my hands on pertaining to religions, science, physics, theories
> and the human condition, both past and present.

---------------------------------
Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
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Message: 9
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:11:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Brooks <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] to paraphrase Mark Twain
To: [email-masked]
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

to paraphrase Mark Twain, future-oriented books are like diet tomes-- you might die of a misprint

---------------------------------
Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell.
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Message: 10
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 01:35:33 -0500
From: Damien Broderick <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] OUTSIDE THE GATES OF SCIENCE
To: "'ExI chat list'" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed

I see that Publisher's Weekly has run a review on
my book about psi. I'm quite happy with their
assessment. Any of the (other) skeptics here had
a chance to read it yet? (Of course, I do regard
myself as a skeptic, even if a persuaded one in this case.)

Damien Broderick

============
Editorial Reviews
 From Publishers Weekly
Broderick, best known as a science-fiction
writer, returns to nonfiction (after 2001's The
Spike) to evaluate various research programs
investigating "psi phenomena." Divided into two
branches, psi phenomena cover anomalous
cognition, which includes telepathy, remote
viewing and other forms of "non-material"
communication; and anomalous perturbation,
psi-mediated action or psycho-kinetics. Broderick
remains analytical and objective throughout,
reviewing the work of such laboratory programs as
the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
group, the Science Applications Incorporated
Corporation and the CIA-backed Stargate;
recounting their experiments' designs, methods
and procedures, Broderick then goes on to examine
rigorously the resulting data. He concludes that
while the evidence for various kinds of psi
phenomena is strong, there are unknown (and
possibly unknowable) factors that make classical,
reductionist methods of testing it unpredictable
and irreproducible (the reason, he suspects, that
the CIA gave up on such research in 1995).
Gratifyingly, Broderick connects the search for
psi phenomena to larger philosophical questions
while remaining skeptical and delightfully rational throughout.
Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division
of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

------------------------------

Message: 11
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:43:36 -0700
From: "Jeff Davis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Is this old news?

Stanford researchers find culprit in aging muscles that heal poorly

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/sumc-srf080607.php

--
Best, Jeff Davis

               "Everything's hard till you
                     know how to do it."
                              Ray Charles

------------------------------

Message: 12
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:59:49 -0700
From: "David C. Harris" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Executive summary:  young blood contains something that makes at least
some tissues act younger.

I don't know for sure if it's old news (see Jeff's message below), but I
didn't know this observation, even though I have graduate training in
biochemistry/molecular biology/health services administration, and
follow stem cell issues relevant to my investment in Geron.

Did others recognize the implications of this pair of quotes?:

> "The work was done with live mice whose circulatory systems were
> joined, and in lab dishes with young cells immersed in serum from old
> blood."
and
> "... confirmed their earlier research showing that the ability of
> muscle stem cells to regenerate tissue depends on the age of the
> cells' environment (including the age of the blood supplying the
> tissue), not the age of the stem cell.
>
> Although Rando's research focused on the repair of acute trauma to
> muscles, he suspects that the same sort of problem arises on a lesser
> scale in repairing damage that results from the normal wear and tear
> of aging."
>
As I read that, with my creative streak being exposed, it suggests
vampires had it wrong in their search for immortality.  Rather than
DRINKING blood, they should have arranged transfusions of young
blood!    ;-)

Putting on my health care hat (I'm trained as a biochemist and health
administrator) to say it directly, those two quotes suggest that aging
might be slowed by getting transfusions of young blood (or a factor that
might be extracted or synthesized by genetic engineering methods),
perhaps available at a high price NOW.  The FDA couldn't stop an
underground trade in young blood.

As a research endeavor, I wonder if the blood bank records allow one to
track the age of blood donors, and the subsequent speed of recovery of
transfusion recipients.

Obviously we could do some original work with purebred mice (so no
problem of transfusion rejection) of various ages.  And I wonder if
umbilical cord blood, which is rarely harvested now, might have enhanced
effect per volume.

In the general search for regeneration and enhanced longevity, this
discovery suggests a flood of productive searches for factors that
activate regeneration of human tissues.  Blood is easy to isolate and
infuse.  And as a matter of policy, I think it's time to allow the open
and well regulated sale of blood, and later other tissues and organs. 
With a radio frequency ID (RFID) chip going along with each
well-characterized blood unit, healthy donors can ask for higher
payments, and the "blood shortages" will disappear as supply comes up to
meet demand.

  - David Harris, Palo Alto, California.

Jeff Davis wrote:
> Is this old news?
>
> Stanford researchers find culprit in aging muscles that heal poorly
>
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/sumc-srf080607.php
>
>  

------------------------------

Message: 13
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:19:52 +0100
From: BillK <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 8/12/07, David C. Harris wrote:
> As I read that, with my creative streak being exposed, it suggests
> vampires had it wrong in their search for immortality.  Rather than
> DRINKING blood, they should have arranged transfusions of young
> blood!    ;-)
>
> Putting on my health care hat (I'm trained as a biochemist and health
> administrator) to say it directly, those two quotes suggest that aging
> might be slowed by getting transfusions of young blood (or a factor that
> might be extracted or synthesized by genetic engineering methods),
> perhaps available at a high price NOW.  The FDA couldn't stop an
> underground trade in young blood.
>

That's a great marketing image!

Transhumanists as withered old vampires draining the blood of young virgins.

We'll be swamped with join applications.

Can't you bring sex into it somewhere as well?

BillK   ;)

------------------------------

Message: 14
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:10:11 -0700
From: "David C. Harris" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I'm probably going to regret this, but I thought of the old slogan
"Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do".     ;-)

Much better, think of it as purchasing blood donations from willing
sellers at a price that might even help them pay for college!  It
wouldn't be radically different from the "donate blood to get money to
buy whiskey" tradition of the impoverished people of large cities (once
impolitely called "bums").  But in an orderly legal market, living a
healthy life would be rewarded by higher prices for one's blood,
improving the life quality of both seller and buyer.

BTW: Virgins would not be necessary.  Condom use would be sufficient. 
But all those conservative Christians who perpetuate illness by
discouraging stem cell research could make up for it by doing something
beneficial, like donating life-extending blood while "waiting until
marriage".

Just a couple thoughts.

  - David

BillK wrote:
> On 8/12/07, David C. Harris wrote:
>  
>> As I read that, with my creative streak being exposed, it suggests
>> vampires had it wrong in their search for immortality.  Rather than
>> DRINKING blood, they should have arranged transfusions of young
>> blood!    ;-)
>>    
> ...
> That's a great marketing image!
>
> Transhumanists as withered old vampires draining the blood of young virgins.
>
> We'll be swamped with join applications.
>
> Can't you bring sex into it somewhere as well?
>
> BillK   ;)
>  

------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:23:35 -0700
From: "Michael M. Butler" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] Defy/Deny the Data
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Eliezer Yudkowsky promotes occasional provocative assertions in
research contexts:

http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/08/i-defy-the-data.html

Some of the comments are quite good, too.

--
         Michael M. Butler  :  m m b u t l e r  ( a t )  g m a i l . c o m
         "I'm going to get over this some time. Might as well be now."

------------------------------

Message: 16
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:27:07 -0700
From: "Michael M. Butler" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Help needed--with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 8/11/07, Damien Broderick <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Since in my experience it's inevitable that
> sometime I *will* need to Restore again, this is dire news. I don't
> get the impression that DNS 9 or 9.5 has fixed this. Sigh.

Scylla and Charybdis, mate. You are aware, are you not, that System
Restore is abused by some clever malware, and more than one antivirus
maven recommends disabling it?

Just sayin'.

--
         Michael M. Butler  :  m m b u t l e r  ( a t )  g m a i l . c o m
         "I'm going to get over this some time. Might as well be now."

------------------------------

Message: 17
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:44:27 -0700
From: "Jeff Davis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 8/12/07, Jeff Davis <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Is this old news?
>
> Stanford researchers find culprit in aging muscles that heal poorly
>
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-08/sumc-srf080607.php

In posting the link, I restrained myself from saying more.  I was
tempted, but thought to avoid embarrassing myself.

It seemed to me that a modest extrapolation of the salient point --
the effect of Wnt  becomes destructive with age -- leads to a rather
dramatic notion/tentative implication:  Hooray! Yippee! (Jumping
around wildly, waving arms, vocalizing uncontrollably (laughing,
chirping, and gibbering while intermittantly drooling and broadcasting
spittle with a degree of  radial symmetry) We've  found it!  We've
found it!  The fountain of youth!  The secret to eternal life!!
Immortality is ours!!

Suppress the Wnt signal.

Quoting from the article:

"...one could envision this becoming a therapeutic."

How very discreet that.

Rando said many drugs can block Wnt signaling. "Theoretically, given
the number of ways to block Wnt and Wnt signaling, one could envision
this becoming a therapeutic," he said. "You could potentially enhance
the healing of aged tissues by reducing this effect of Wnt signaling
on the resident stem cells."

"Enhance."  Yeah, that's the ticket.  Enhance me.  Please.

--
Best, Jeff Davis

               "Everything's hard till you
                     know how to do it."
                              Ray Charles

------------------------------

Message: 18
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:02:47 -0500
From: Damien Broderick <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

The odd thing is that this idea (sans the wnt element) has been a
commonplace of sf for at least half a century, and very probably much
longer. It's the basis of James Gunn's THE IMMORTALS [1958] (I think
his mutant on the run has a hematopoietic SNP), and of Norman
Spinrad's once notorious BUG JACK BARRON, also infamous for its many
scenes of fellatio (a sort of vitalistic vampiric subtext, doncha
know). And I seem to recall that the non-Howard family humans in
Heinlein's Future History eventually gain equal longevity by sprucing
up their blood.

Damien Broderick

------------------------------

Message: 19
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:12:12 -0700
From: "Tyler Emerson" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] The Singularity Summit 2007, September 8th-9th, San
        Francisco,      CA - $50 to Attend
To: [email-masked]
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence is thrilled to invite
you to the Singularity Summit 2007, to be held Saturday and Sunday,
September 8th and 9th, at the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts in San
Francisco, California. The theme is "Artificial Intelligence and the Future
of Humanity."

http://www.singinst.org/summit2007/

We've organized the Summit to be low cost (only $50) to bring in a large
number of attendees to raise awareness and understanding of an important
21st century issue. Normally this kind of event would cost hundreds of
dollars to attend.

A ticket can be purchased online at the Summit website, which includes your
reserved seating for both days, two lunches, and the Saturday night
reception.

We hope you will join us!

-Tyler

--

NEWS RELEASE

August 13, 2007

Contact:
Tyler Emerson, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence:
650-353-6063, [email-masked]

Press Pass:
Contact Tyler Emerson for a press pass

Online:
http://www.singinst.org/summit2007/

 <http://www.singinst.org/summit2007/>The Singularity Summit to address
promise and peril of advanced AI to future of humanity

What are the major challenges to achieving advanced AI? What are the
benefits and dangers? How far are we from self-improving AI? How should we
prepare for this potentially powerful innovation?

These are among the questions that 17 outstanding thinkers will explore and
debate at the Singularity Summit, to be held Saturday and Sunday, September
8-9, at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. The summit is
organized by the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a
501(c)(3) not-for-profit institute in Silicon Valley for the study of safe
advanced AI.

"Advanced AI has the potential to impact every aspect of human life. We are
in a crucial window of opportunity where we have temporary but powerful
leverage to influence the outcome," said Tyler Emerson, chair of the summit
and executive director of the Singularity Institute for Artificial
Intelligence. "Only a small group of scientists are aware of the central
issues. It is essential to expand discussion of this critical 21st century
issue, which is why I have created the summit."

Tickets can be purchased online for $50 at
http://www.singinst.org/summit2007/tickets/.

Peter Thiel, PayPal Cofounder, Clarium Capital President, and Facebook's
initial investor, will MC the summit and present his new ideas on financial
markets and the Singularity. "It's clear that the term 'AI' means a lot of
different things," said Thiel. "It's one of these terms that has been
bandied about a great deal, and has been misused a lot. It has been
predicted for a long time that AI is right around the corner, and it's
taking longer than many people thought it would, with many disappointments
along the way. However, it's clear that there's a massive set of issues
happening, and people who don't think there's something important going on
are living in a fantasy, and need to wake up."

Confirmed Summit speakers include:

* Dr. Rodney Brooks, famous MIT roboticist and founder of iRobot
* Dr. Peter Norvig, director of research at Google
* Paul Saffo, Stanford, leading technology forecaster
* Sam Adams, distinguished engineer within IBM's Research Division
* Jamais Cascio, cofounder of World Changing and creator of Open the Future
* Dr. Ben Goertzel, director of research at SIAI and founder of Novamente
* Dr. J. Storrs Hall, author of Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the
Machine
* Dr. Charles L. Harper, Jr., senior VP at John Templeton Foundation
* Dr. James Hughes, executive director of Institute for Ethics and Emerging
Technologies
* Neil Jacobstein, prominent AI expert and CEO of Teknowledge
* Dr. Stephen Omohundro, founder of Self-Aware Systems
* Dr. Barney Pell, founder and CEO of Powerset
* Christine Peterson, cofounder of Foresight Nanotech Institute
* Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and founder of Clarium Capital
* Wendell Wallach, author of Machine Morality: From Aristotle to Asimov and
Beyond
* Eliezer Yudkowsky, Friendly AI pioneer and cofounder of SIAI
* Peter Voss, founder and CEO of Adaptive Artificial Intelligence

"To any thoughtful person, the Singularity idea, even if it seems wild,
raises a gigantic, swirling cloud of profound and vital questions about
humanity and the powerful technologies it is producing," said Douglas R.
Hofstadter at last year's Singularity Summit at Stanford, author of G?del,
Escher, Bach, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980. "Given this mysterious and
rapidly approaching cloud, there can be no doubt that the time has come for
the scientific and technological community to seriously try to figure out
what is on humanity's collective horizon. Not to do so would be hugely
irresponsible."

About the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI):
SIAI is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institute in Palo Alto, California, with
three long-term goals: furthering the nascent science of safe advanced AI
(self-improving cognitive systems) through research and development,
research fellowships, research grants, and science education; furthering the
understanding of its implications to society through educational outreach,
such as the annual Singularity Summit; and furthering education among
students to foster an interdisciplinary field for the study of safe advanced
AI. Learn more by visiting SIAI at http://www.singinst.org <http://www.singinst.org/> .

--
Tyler Emerson
Executive Director
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
P.O . Box 50182, Palo Alto, CA 94303 USA
650-353-6063 | [email-masked] | singinst.org
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Message: 20
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:19:55 -0500
From: Natasha Vita-More <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] ExI (no subject)
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 02:22 PM 8/10/2007, Alicia wrote:

>Hi everyone. I am new to this group and, from reading the recent
>posts, perhaps a bit in over my head.  I came upon this group during
>an internet search that I have been conducting for the past few
>months. I am looking for ways to better myself and, well I guess...
>the world. I used to exceed in school and positively loved college.
>I read everything on could get my hands on pertaining to religions,
>science, physics, theories and the human condition, both past and
>present. Now, as a working single mother, I feel like my brain has
>atrophied.  I am looking for a sort of jumping off place to begin.
>Again. Any ideas?

Hi Alicia, welcome.  My suggestion is to simply read the Principles
of Extropy at http://www.extropy.org <http://www.extropy.org/>  and some of the articles written
by transhumanists.

There are many women who you can read about and whose works have been
meaningful to the development of transhumanism.  Many post to the
list.  Amara Graps, Barbara Lamar, Gina Miller, PJ Manning, Sky
Marsen, Tanya Jones, Christine Peterson, Samantha Atkins, Fiorella
Terenzi, and Anna Taylor are just a few of who have been involved in
transhumanism for just a few years to well over a decade.

One way to better ourselves is to remember that the more
interconnected we are, and the more compassionate we are toward each
other, the more hope we can instill in ourselves and our
children.  Essential to this is being able to offer and accept
constructive criticism.

I think that transhumanism can take a bigger step and longer stride
in making a strong presence concerning the issues that affect all of us.

Best wishes,
Natasha

<http://www.natasha.cc/>Natasha<http://www.natasha.cc/> Vita-More
PhD Candidate, <http://www.planetary-collegium.net/about/>Planetary
<http://www.planetary-collegium.net/about/>Collegium
Situated in the Faculty of Technology, School of Computing,
Communications and Electronics,
University of Plymouth, England
<http://www.transhumanist.biz/>Transhumanist Arts & Culture
<http://www.extropy.org/>Extropy Institute

If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside the
circle, then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what
is inside the circle and everything outside the circle, then that is
an open system perspective. - Buckminster Fuller

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Message: 21
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:24:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Brooks <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] you cn't always get what you wnt
To: [email-masked]
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

There's another side to this, business encourages a do your own thing mentality, when the losers get sick the Bad ol' Guvmint will pay for it.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats/trends2005.htm

"David C. Harris" <[email-masked]> wrote:[...]But all those conservative Christians who perpetuate illness by discouraging stem cell research could make up for it by doing something
beneficial, like donating life-extending blood while "waiting until
marriage".

to paraphrase Mark Twain, future-oriented tomes are like diet books: you might die of a misprint

---------------------------------
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect.  Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.
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Message: 22
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:18:07 -0400
From: "Benjamin Goertzel" <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] Ben G's TransVision talk
To: "Novamente@Vettalabs. Com" <[email-masked]>,
        [email-masked],     [email-masked],
        [email-masked],     "ExI chat list"
        <[email-masked]>,       "Sibley Verbeck"
        <[email-masked]>,      "Tristan Swadell"
        <[email-masked]>,     "Wendy Cornish"
        <[email-masked]>,       "Brian Friedlander"
        <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi all,

A rough, partial transcript of my "AI in Second Life" talk at TransVision
2007 has been put online (along with some pretty amusing photos of me in
Second Life and AGISim ;-)

http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people/blog/?p=19

-- Ben

*

*
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Message: 23
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:45:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Alan Brooks <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] (no subject)
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Alicia, you might call Alcor Life Extension Foundation at (877) GO ALCOR and ask for a few copies of their back issues. Anyone can learn something from them-- even me!

At 02:22 PM 8/10/2007, Alicia wrote: Now, as a working single mother, I feel like my brain has atrophied.  I am looking for a sort of jumping off place to begin. Again. Any ideas?

to paraphrase Mark Twain, future-oriented tomes are like diet books: you might die of a misprint

---------------------------------
Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.
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Message: 24
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:47:32 -0500
From: Damien Broderick <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Ben G's TransVision talk
To: ExI chat list <[email-masked]>
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 06:18 PM 8/12/2007 -0400, Ben G wrote:

><http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people/blog/?p=19>http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people/blog/?p=19

where I read:

<But the point I want to make is, as awesome as Google is, if you ask
it, "How long is the gestation period of a zerbra?" It will tell you.
But if you ask it, "How long is the gestation period of a dead
zerba?" It won't tell you, because it doesn't understand anything.>

Good dog! This is terrible! Google can now tell you about zerbras?
That's a horse of a different stripe! And yet it's stumped by a
zerba? There's only one letter difference! Well, and it's dead, but I
still want to know about the gestation period of a *live* zerba.

Damien Broderick
[I know. Too much time on my hands. And look--it's 1.47am, I should be asleep]

------------------------------

Message: 25
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:30:11 +0200
From: Amara Graps <[email-masked]>
Subject: [ExI] Exponentially unlikely fetishes
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Message-ID: <p06230903c2e5c578eba1@[23.237.66.13]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Did you ever consider descrambling an egg to be a fetish? No.. ?

Exponentially unlikely fetishes
http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/08/12/exponentially-unlikely-fetishes/#more-1354
(and yes, it is safe for work)

Imagine all of the other fantasies we could enjoy, if we allowed
thermodynamics a free reign.

(And imagine all of the fantasies we could enjoy if we follow the
thermodynamics rules, too. :-)  )

Amara

--

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute (PSI), Tucson
INAF Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Roma, Italia

------------------------------

Message: 26
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:48:20 -0700
From: "Michael M. Butler" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Ben G's TransVision talk
To: "ExI chat list" <[email-masked]>
Message-ID:
        <[email-masked]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

It zerbas you right to suffer, Damien.

On 8/12/07, Damien Broderick <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
> Good dog! This is terrible! Google can now tell you about zerbras?

...snippage...

> Damien Broderick
> [I know. Too much time on my hands. And look--it's 1.47am, I should be asleep]

Poser. *I* was up 'til 5:30. Just because *I* know where they keep the
zerbas on Google. _And_ the zerbras (which zerbas wear to look nice
for their Myspace pictures).

And no, you can't have any. So don't ask. They're just for the _sophonts_.

But for the record (and it surprises me you evidently didn't know...)
one popular maker of Zerbras is named for an Australian state: NSW's
Secret. (Other readers: no, "Crocodile" is not an Australian state.)

/sleep_deprived_silliness=OFF

--
         Michael M. Butler  :  m m b u t l e r  ( a t )  g m a i l . c o m
         "I'm going to get over this some time. Might as well be now."

------------------------------

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