Christine Peterson

Foresight Co-Founder and Past President Christine Peterson is interviewed on the Singularity Weblog in a 47-minute tour that covers nanotechnology, the founding of the Foresight Institute, her work on personal life extension through Health Activator, open source, and the Technological Singularity. “Christine Peterson on Singularity 1 on 1: Join Us to Push the Future in a Positive Direction“:

During my Singularity 1 on 1 interview with Christine Peterson we discuss a variety of topics such as: how she got interested in nanotechnology and the definition thereof; how, together with Eric Drexler, she started the Foresight Institute for Nanotechnology; her interest in life extension; Dr. Drexler’s seminal book Engines of Creation; cryonics and chemical brain preservation; 23andMe and other high- and low-tech tips for improved longevity; whether we should fear nanotechnology or not; the 3 most exciting promises of nanotech; women in technology; coining the term “open source” and using Apple computers; the technological singularity and her take on it…

Hear Christine discuss some challenges while presenting an essentially optimistic message—a wonderful future is coming from science and technology over the next few decades—a future that encourages everyone to get involved.
—James Lewis, PhD

1)Foresighters Christine Peterson and Desiree Dudley will be speaking at NASA-Ames’ Singularity University this Monday night, August 13th, from 8-10pm. Presentations are from 8-9, and a Q&A panel with H+’s Amy Li and SU’s Jose Cordiero 9-10pm! Topics will include nanotech, biotech, life-extension, and our exciting new futurist youth outreach initiative. There will be champagne. Come out and see us! Building 583C.

2)Foresight CoFounder Christine Peterson and Director Desiree Dudley will appear in their role as mentors for the Thiel Foundation’s 20Under20 in CNBC’s documentary “20Under20: Transforming Tomorrow”. See these brilliant young people in CNBC’s upcoming documentary, 9-11pm EDT this Tuesday, August 14th! (It’s a 2-part documentary; the 1st episode actually first airs at 10pm EDT on Monday, but re-airs at 9pm EDT Tuesday before the second part at 10pm EDT.) Video trailer: http://youtu.be/F_YR7sfXjl0

January 11-13, 2013
Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto, CA USA

Over 30 speakers will present reviews and research on a wide variety of groundbreaking atomic- and molecular-scale science and technology, interesting intrinsically and for aiding the development of atomically precise technologies, devices and materials. Events will include an opening reception with a special panel discussion on Friday night and the Feynman Prize Awards Banquet on Saturday night.

Conference Co-Chairs
J. Fraser Stoddart, Board of Trustees Professor, Northwestern University
Larry S. Millstein, President, Foresight Institute

Conference Sponsors
The Thiel Foundation
Autodesk

Sessions
Atomic Scale Devices
Chair: John Randall – President, Zyvex Labs
Molecular Machines & Non-Equilibrium Processes
Chair: J. Fraser Stoddart – Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University
Self-Organizing & Adaptive Systems
Chair: Lee Cronin – Gardiner Chair of Chemistry, Glasgow University
Commercially Implemented Single Molecule Technologies
Chair: Steve Turner – Founder/CTO, Pacific Biosciences
Computation and Molecular Nanotechnology
Chair: Alexander Wissner-Gross – Harvard and MIT Media Lab

Look for further details on the conference, the speakers and the events in the coming weeks and months. Registration will open in late July or early August.

Foresight’s Director of Development and Outreach Desiree D. Dudley will speak on a panel at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2012 conference at NASA-Ames July 26-28. Right now the schedule has the panel titled “Approaching the Tipping Point: How Emergent Technologies Will Change the Way We Look at the Future of Spaceflight” at 2pm Saturday July 28th. From the Conference home page:

The next disruptive innovation is already underway and it is in space.
The commercial space industry is building a new market with efficient business processes, a wide spectrum of technology, and almost prescient investors. It’s been said that the first trillionaires will be made through space industrialization and we’re going to show how space pioneers are creating new products and profits. NewSpace is undergoing rapid expansion, similar to the Internet explosion of the 1990′s, and needs to be filled with revolutionary businesses like yours.

The Space Frontier Foundation’s annual conference is one of the most important commercial space conferences in the nation, and will be in July in Silicon Valley. NewSpace 2012 is where networking with leaders, supporters, investors and activists evolves into enterprises that propel the industry upward. It will host a wide-range of thought-provoking panels and visionary keynote speakers that will surpass NewSpace 2011′s already highly-praised programming. …

Foresight Presents: “GENOGEN: Regenerating Skin for Life“
Dr. Nancy Mize
Date/Time: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 6:30pm in PDT
Drinks/Dinner: 6:30pm, Talk: 7:30pm
RSVP: $40 via http://www.paypal.com/ to foresight@foresight.org
Location: Ristorante Don Giovanni
235 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041

GENOGEN is developing products that activate resident skin stem cells to stimulate local areas of regeneration of skin naturally – the way children heal. GENOGEN’s first product is a re-purposed agent, currently FDA and EU approved and marketed, and used in humans for over 5 years, with significant utility in the aesthetics sector for treatment of aging skin. Localized skin delivery of the stem cell activator with a growth matrix activates local regeneration and repair in situ – with no stem cell isolation, no stem cell prep, no surgery, extraction or re-implantation – resulting in accelerated healing and young skin.

NANCY K MIZE, PhD, Scientist, Innovator, and CEO of GENOGEN Inc., has researched stem cell activators since 2000, and is the co-inventor on 11 issued patents. Dr. Mize served as the BioMarker Expert for Personalized Medicine at Pacific BioDevelopment, the Director of Protein Bioinformatics at Hyseq/Nuvelo, and Scientist, Drug Delivery Technologies at Alza Corporation. Dr. Mize holds a PhD from UCSF in Cell Biology in the department of Human Physiology, BS from UC Berkeley and has completed Postdoctoral studies at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, and Genentech.

Foresight’s Director of Development and Outreach Desiree D. Dudley was featured recently on Singularity Hub talking about Foresight and nanotechnology. Topics addressed include Foresight’s series of dinner lectures, its upcoming technical conference, a new youth outreach program, Foresight’s relationship with the general futurist community, and the balance of emphasis on near-term nanotechnology and advanced molecular manufacturing. The interview led to a discussion of the role of synthetic biology in the development of nanotechnology, and the interfaces between the materials science and the biotechnology aspects of nanotechnology. The video is available on YouTube.
—James Lewis, PhD

Join us for an intellectually stimulating evening with best-selling author and tech analyst Sonia Arrison! Dinner and drinks will be served h’orderve/tapas-style at 7pm; Sonia will present at 8pm, with personalized, small-group Q&A on the future of technology to follow.

Wednesday March 21, 2012 at Ristorante Don Giovanni, 235 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041

This is a limited-audience event; to RSVP, please Paypal $40 to foresight@foresight.org at http://www.paypal.com/

SONIA ARRISON is a bestselling author and technology analyst who has studied the impact of new technologies on society for more than a decade. Her book, 100 PLUS: How the Coming Age of Longevity will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith, is a national bestseller and has been featured in top media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox News, and the Today Show.

As a founder, academic advisor, and trustee of Singularity University, she is focused on exponentially growing technologies and their impact on society. She is also a Senior Fellow at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) and a columnist for TechNewsWorld. She is author of three books and numerous PRI studies and was also the host of a radio show called “digital dialogue” on the Voice America network.

What are reviewers saying about 100+?

NEW SCIENTIST
“Brilliant …. The chapters devoted to advances in regenerative medicine and the search for interventions that slow ageing are exhilarating. Growing new limbs, copying internal organs like a Xerox machine, exponential increases in computing power, better eyes and ears—I could read stories like this endlessly. We need such vision to help carry the science forward, and some of the most exciting advances in the scientific study of ageing are forthcoming. Arrison paints a realistic picture of the science driving the next longevity revolution, and makes the case that, if we play our cards right, humanity will reap huge dividends for the effort. In that way, this book is the most comprehensive treatment of the socioeconomic consequences of life extension that I’ve seen …. [T]he costs and benefits of life extension and, more importantly, health extension, are subjects in desperate need of open dialogue, and Arrison begins this process with elegance and style.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL
“Ms. Arrison entertainingly chronicles efforts to conquer aging and death from antiquity to today. Food, sex, exercise and alchemy have all been employed to keep the grim reaper at bay. But technology offers the most plausible route, she says, noting that biology and computing are drawing ever closer together with the sequencing of the human genome …. [Her] sunny outlook is infectious.”

SINGULARITY HUB
“Easy to read, and easy to understand, 100+ walks you through the incredible achievements in regenerative medicine we’ve already seen, projects them forward, and discusses the changes in environment, economy, family, and religion that will follow…. Arrison states her case strongly enough to convince almost anyone, and in a style that will be as accessible to your techno-phobic Uncle Walter as it is to your computer loving self.”

Remember, space is limited! To RSVP, Paypal $40 to foresight@foresight.org at http://www.paypal.com/

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing—fast. In Abundance, space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, infinite computing, ubiquitous broadband networks, digital manufacturing, nanomaterials, synthetic biology, and many other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous two hundred years. We will soon have the ability to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. …

Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge—this is a book about how we rise to meet it.

A preview of Chapter 1 and other information is available on the Abundance web site. Kudos to Diamandis and Kotler for showing why the future is brighter than it appears, and laying out a roadmap to get there.
—James Lewis