Natasha Vita-More chairs the Leadership: Minds event in Second Life.  Among the speakers, Giulio Prisco’s  presentation approaches the future with a sense of passion and inspiration.

TRANSHUMANISM MEETS DESIGN

Humanity+ and Parsons Present Conference Exploring the Role of Design in Transcending and Transforming Human Potential

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May 14–15, 2011, at Parsons The New School for Design

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 4, 2011 (New York, NY) – Humanity+, the world’s leading nonprofit organization advocating the ethical use of technology to expand human capabilities, announces its first conference in partnership with Parsons The New School for Design, a leading art and design school in New York City dedicated to the advancement of design thinking and education. Transhumanism Meets Design explores the role of design in transcending and transforming human potential, and will take place at The New School May 14–15, 2011. This groundbreaking conference features lectures and panels that bring together and explore the nexus of emerging technology, transdisciplinary design, culture, media theory, and biotechnology.

Transhumanism aims to elevate the human condition. Design is a process for problem solving. At Transhumanism Meets Design, these two domains will join forces as artists, designers, scientists, technologies, ethicists and philosophers explore our human future, ask questions, construct ideas, and peer over the edge into the unknown.

“Transhumanist aesthetics opens up the discussion on how we might expand persons and design new kinds of existence,” said Natasha Vita-More, vice chair of Humanity+, who co-chairs the conference with Ed Keller, associate dean of Distributed Learning and Technology at Parsons. “Recognizing that the body could be the next frontier, we are challenging designers to use the research tools developed to enhance products to engage and extend the human body,” said Keller.

• Saturday opens with “Designing Innovations” and “Radical Expressions” focusing on architecture, designing minds, life extension, designing death, and the ethics of human enhancement. The special panel “Out There – Self Organization” will look at “Non-Human Minds”. The afternoon presents “In Here – Systems of Movement”, and finishes the day off with a series of Lightning Talks.

• Sunday starts off with Lightning Talks, followed by presentations on “Design Essential – Evolving Techne” covering immersive design, human enhancement and architectural inventions. The afternoon session winds up the conference with “Design Unlimited – Animated Thinking”, with talks covering minds and societies, the art of forgetting, and distributed creativity.

For a full list of confirmed speakers and additional information about the conference, please visit the conference website: http://humanityplus.org/conferences/parsons.

To register. please visit the EventBrite page: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1089760503

Transhumanism Meets Design is one of the highlights of Parsons Festival 2011, which takes place May 7–23 and features exhibitions, interactive installations, and programs that showcase the full range of art and design thinking at Parsons. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/parsonsfestival.

Humanity+ is an international nonprofit membership organization which advocates the ethical use of technology to expand human capacities. Humanity+ supports the development of and access to new technologies that enable everyone to enjoy better minds, better bodies and better lives. In other words, Humanity+ wants people to be better than well. For more information please visit humanityplus.org.

Parsons The New School for Design is a global leader in art and design education. Based in New York City but active around the world, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the full spectrum of design disciplines. An integral part of The New School, Parsons builds on the university’s legacy of progressive ideals, scholarship, and pedagogy. Parsons graduates are leaders in their respective fields, with a shared commitment to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/parsons.

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Media Contacts:

Hal Hefner, Humanity+

Phone: 213-713-1219

Email: hal@humanityplus.org

Kate McCormick, The New School

Phone: 212-229-5667 x3794

Email: mccork00@newschool.edu

First Session, Re-Imagining Humans: Mind, Media and Methods

Conference Intro by Ben Goertzel
Information + Transformation: How Digital Media Accelerates the Future Evolution of Humanity by Robert Tercek
Exploring the Infinite Frontier by J-Walt
How Mobile Technology is Transforming the World by Amy Li
Human Enhancement: Emerging Designs for Wearable Selves by Natasha Vita-More
Problems Solved: What’s Next for H+ Magazine by RU Sirius
Mediating the Transition- can art minimize a backlash from techno-phobic fundamentalism? by Michael Masucci
Panel Discussion

Second Session, Radically Increasing the Human Healthspan

Longevity for the Long Term by Gregory Benford
Is There a Maximum Human Lifespan? by Stephen Coles
Building Methuselahs by Michael Rose
The Holy Trinity of 21st Century Biomedicine: Genomics, AI and Experimental Evolution by Ben Goertzel
Strategies for Engineering Negligible Senesence: A Response to the Previous Speakers by Aubrey de Grey
The Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry by Ryan Bethencourt
Panel Discussion

Third Session, Redefining Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence Enhancement and Substrate-Independent Minds

The 25 Watt bio-computer: Lessons for Artificial Human Intelligence and Substrate-Independent Minds by Randal Koene
Pavlov’s AI: What do superintelligences REALLY want? by Suzanne Gildert
Finding the essence of an object using a quantum annealing machine by Geordie Rose
Autocatalyzing Intelligence Symbiosis: what happens when artificial intelligence for intelligence amplification drives a 3dfx-like intelligence explosion by Alex Peake
Speculations on robots, cyborgs and telepresence by Adrian Stoica
From Cognitive Architectures to Virtual Humans by Paul Rosenbloom
Building Better Minds: A Path to, and Architecture for, Beneficial Artificial General Intelligence by Ben Goertzel
Advanced brain-machine interfaces – Experimental Data and Possibilities by Moran Cerf
Panel Discussion

Fourth Session, Business and Economy in the Era of Radical Technomorphosis

Harnessing Increasing Technological Progress in Business Performance by John Hagel
How to Optimize Disorder in Today’s Organizations and Tomorrow’s Corporate Selves by Max More
The Growth, Memory and Democratization of Science by Alex Backer
Lifehacking for Rationalists: Old Ideas + New Technology by Patri Friedman
Networks, Hierarchies and the Vingean Singularity by Michael Vassar
Re-Imagining Humans – Using video games to cultivate mind body awareness and natural intelligence by Gino Yu
Accelerating Resilience by Tom Munnecke
Personal Manufacturing and the Gada Prize by Bryan Bishop
Panel Discussion

Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction – PART 1 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.

Q&A

Genetically enhance humanity or face extinction – PART 2 from Ethics of the New Biosciences on Vimeo.