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What, Who, When ...
| What: |
Foresight Brainstorming-Planning-Actionfest & NanoSchmoozathon
How much change can you process? It's coming faster every month now — nanotechnology, open source, ubiquitous surveillance, mammalian cloning, bizarre intellectual property laws, smart drugs — all mixed with a big dose of media hype. How to cope? We invite you to trade ideas with some allies — individuals who can examine these prospects without undergoing mental shutdown. |
| Who: |
80 of the most forward-looking minds on the planet — leaders and visionaries in emerging technologies and dynamic change — meeting to pool their insights and conspire on strategies for improvement, broadly defined. |
| When: |
September 17 evening through September 19, 1999
Friday, 8-10 PM, Saturday 8 AM-10 PM, Sunday 9 AM-5 PM.
Approximately. |
| Where: |
Silicon Valley, the eye of the technological
hurricane. We'll be taking over the Hotel Sofitel on San Francisco Bay — chatting in the hallways, lolling about in the spa, dashing through the lobby on our way to a demo, making deals in the schmooze room, and sometimes staying quiet long enough to hear a speaker. On Saturday evening, we party poolside in nearby Atherton. |
| How: |
With a group like this, there's only one way — we go where the ideas lead us. It's informal, impromptu, controversial, sometimes argumentative, but always polite. We have speakers, but the audience tends to speak up also, since they as a group often exceed the speaker's expertise in just about any field one can name. Meanwhile, there's always a little group off in the next room setting up YASC — yet another startup company. |
| Why: |
No matter what your values are — freedom, the biosphere, the space frontier, the third world, or your company's economic well-being — achieving your goals depends on understanding where technology is heading. It's impossible to do this alone; there's far too much going on. Let's put our heads together, examine the rush of technology, and see what is to be done about it. (And of course, have some fun while we're at it. We deserve it, right? ;^) |
Who's coming this time?
Invited and Confirmed
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- Bruce Ames: controversial biochemist, inventor of "Ames test" for mutagens, speaks out on science as spontaneous order, government, and economics
- Brian Behlendorf: web pioneer, co-founder of Apache and SourceXchange, a marketplace for open source software development
- Tom Bell: controversial legal scholar who takes on tough issues, e.g. Internet gambling made legal
- Eric Drexler: nanotechnologist, author Engines of Creation, Nanosystems
- Doug Engelbart: hypertext pioneer, computer mouse inventor, all-round visionary
- Anita Goel: a visionary physicist, molecular motors researcher, and enthusiastic proponent of bio-nanotechnology
- Robert Hambrecht: co-founder WR Hambrecht+Co; Venture Partner, Venture Strategy Partners; board member, various environmental groups
- Neil Jacobstein: President and COO of Teknowledge, and Chairman of Institute for Molecular Manufacturing
- Brewster Kahle: founder Internet Archive; co-founder Alexa; inventor WAIS, supercomputer designer
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- John Kao: author Jamming; creativity authority; CEO, The Idea Factory; production executive "sex, lies and videotape"
- Doug Lenat: founder Cycorp; author EURISKO; AI expert
- Ralph Merkle: computational nanotechnologist, cryonics expert, Xerox PARC researcher
- Mark S. Miller: language designer; ERights.Org coordinator; catalyzed open-sourcing of Xanadu hypertext
- Bruce Perens: author, Open Source Definition; publisher, Technocrat.net; former leader Debian Project
- Christine Peterson: coiner of term Open Source software; co-author Unbounding the Future, Leaping the Abyss
- Eric Schmidt: Internet pioneer, CEO Novell, former CTO Sun Microsystems
- Gregory Stock: author, Metaman; organized 1st major forum on human germline engineering; director, UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society
- Ka-Ping Yee: Creator of CritLink and front end for Udanax, now at Industrial Light & Magic
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