The Singularity Institute Blog

Humanity+, the worldwide association of transhumanists, is putting on a conference at Harvard on June 12-13. Tickets are available here (be sure to use that specific URL to register so SIAI can earn 20% of ticket cost as a referral bonus). The theme is “rise of the citizen scientist”. Here is all the blurb:

The summer 2010 “Humanity+ @ Harvard – The Rise Of The Citizen Scientist” conference is being held, after the inaugural conference in Los Angeles in December 2009, on the East Coast, at Harvard University’s prestigious Science Hall on June 12-13. Futurist, inventor, and author of the NYT bestselling book “The Singularity Is Near”, Ray Kurzweil is going to be keynote speaker of the conference. Full information is at http://hplussummit.com

Also speaking at the H+ Summit @ Harvard is Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist based in Cambridge, UK, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Foundation, a California-based charity dedicated to combating the aging process. His talk, “Hype and anti-hype in academic biogerontology research: a call to action”, will analyze the interplay of over-pessimistic and over-optimistic positions with regards of research and development of cures, and propose solutions to alleviate the negative effects of both.

The theme is “The Rise Of The Citizen Scientist”, as illustrated in his talk by Alex Lightman, Executive Director of Humanity+:

“Knowledge may be expanding exponentially, but the current rate of civilizational learning and institutional upgrading is still far too slow in the century of peak oil, peak uranium, and “peak everything”. Humanity needs to gather vastly more data as part of ever larger and more widespread scientific experiments, and make science and technology flourish in streets, fields, and homes as well as in university and corporate laboratories.”

Humanity+ Summit @ Harvard is an unmissable event for everyone who is interested in the evolution of the rapidly changing human condition, and the impact of accelerating technological change on the daily lives of individuals, and on our society as a whole. Tickets start at only $150, with an additional 50% discount for students registering with the coupon STUDENTDISCOUNT (valid student ID required at the time of admission).

With over 40 speakers, and 50 sessions in two jam packed days, the attendees, and the speakers will have many opportunities to interact, and discuss, complementing the conference with the necessary networking component.

Other speakers already listed on the H+ Summit program page include:

* David Orban, Chairman of Humanity+: “Intelligence Augmentation,
Decision Power, And The Emerging Data Sphere”
* Heather Knight, CTO of Humanity+: “Why Robots Need to Spend More
Time in the Limelight”
* Andrew Hessel, Co-Chair at Singularity University: “Altered
Carbon: The Emerging Biological Diamond Age”
* M. A. Greenstein, Art Center College of Design: “Sparking our
Neural Humanity with Neurotech!”
* Michael Smolens, CEO of dotSUB: “Removing language as a barrier to
cross cultural communication”

New speakers will be announced in rapid succession, rounding out a schedule that is guaranteed to inform, intrigue, stimulate and provoke, in moving ahead our planetary understanding of the evolution of the human condition!

H+ Summit @ Harvard – The Rise Of The Citizen Scientist
June 12-13, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

When you register, please use the URL
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/648806598/friendsofhplus/4283047925 for
tracking purposes.