H+ Conference

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  Humanity will be radically changed by technology in the (possibly quite near) future.

  We foresee the feasibility of redesigning the human condition, including such parameters as the inevitability of aging, limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering, and our confinement to the planet earth.

  The possibilities are tremendously broad and exciting—and the H+ Summit will provide a venue to discuss them with like-minded individuals, and hear exciting, presentations by the leaders of the ongoing H+ r/evolution.

   Secure your tickets here >> 
   

   

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  The H+ Summit is a two day event that explores how humanity will be radically changed by technology in the near future. Visionary speakers will explore the potential of technology to modify your body, mind, life, and world. 

  What will it mean to be a human in this next phase of technological development? How can we prepare now for coming changes?

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  The goal of Humanity+ is to:
  - support discussion and public awareness of emerging technologies,
  - to defend the rights of individuals to adopt technologies that expand human capacities,
  - to anticipate and propose solutions for the potential consequences of emerging technologies,
  - and to actively encourage and support the development of emerging technologies judged to have sufficiently probable positive benefit.

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  Hugo de Garis

  Presents on the future of Nanotech and Topological Quantum computing

  Hugo de Garis (born 1947, Sydney, Australia) is a researcher in the sub-field of artificial intelligence (AI) known as evolvable hardware. He became known in the 1990s for his research on the use of genetic algorithms to evolve neural networks using three dimensional cellular automata inside field programmable gate arrays. He claimed that this approach would enable the creation of what he terms “artificial brains” which would quickly surpass human levels of intelligence.

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  Sean McMullen

  Presents: “Doing it Now”

  McMullen has a degree in physics and history from Melbourne University (1974), a postgraduate degree in library and information science, and a PhD in Medieval Literature. He was a professional musician in the 1970s, concentrating on singing and guitar playing.

  His first novel was originally published in Australia as two separate books, Voices In The Light (1994) and Mirrorsun Rising (1995). They were rewritten and combined for a publication in the US as Souls In The Great Machine (1999), which, in turn, became the first volume of the Greatwinter trilogy, a unique mix of the generally anti-genres Steampunk and Cyberpunk.

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  Meredith Doig

  Presents on A rationalists view of Transhumanism and the Singularity

  President of the Rationalist Society of Australia (“We’re in favour of science and evidence as opposed to superstition and bigotry”).
  Background in blue chip corporate business; board director of companies in commercial, government and not-for-profit sectors; consultant in governance and management.
  Known as an effective moderator and speaker.
  The Rationalist Society of Australia was formed in 1908 to promote the adoption of ethical principles based on shared human values rather than religious doctrine. It defends freedom of thought and conscience, advocates separation of church and state, endorses and supports science and the scientific method, and works for the secularization of education systems.

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  Binh Nguyen

  Presents: “A talk on A-Life”

  Binh Nguyen’s focus is on evolving artificial intelligences with human like embodiments and environments. His work draws inspiration from artificial life, embodied artificial intelligence, evolutionary psychology, and human evolution. He believes that an artificial intelligence that can survive the physical and social challenges that humans face will be a step towards artificial general intelligence.
  He co-wrote with Dr. Andrew Skabar, “Evolutionary Intelligence, and Communication in Societies of Virtually Embodied Agents” in Artificial Life: Borrowing from Biology, 2009.

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  Lev Lafayette

  Presents: “More Human Than Human: The Computation of Moral Reasoning”

  Lev Lafayette is a sociologist by profession, a systems administrator by vocation and a old-school gamer for recreation. He is a doctoral candidate at the Ashworth Centre for Social Theory at the the University of Melbourne with a thesis entitled “A Social Theory of the Internet”, as well as being an MBA (Technology) student at the Chifley Business School, and is an honours graduate from Murdoch University in Politics, Philosophy and Sociology.
  He works at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), a registered research agency specialising established by a consortium of universities. He has worked for the Parliament of Victoria as a database administrator and trainer, and for East Timor’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as their ICT Advisor in their first year of independence. He is the public officer Linux Users Victoria, and founding president of the Isocracy Network.

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  Avatar Polymorph

  Presents: “The ethics of boosting animals from sentience to self-aware consciousness”

  Avatar Polymorph was born in the storeroom of a Canberra hospital on 5 May 1961, the same day that Alan Shepard became the first American to leave planet Earth and travel into space. His father’s family has been involved in South Australian and national politics for a number of generations. His mother’s family came to Australia as refugees from Lithuania in 1949. He has a history degree from Adelaide University and worked for several years as a policy adviser in the PM’s Department in Canberra and later for the Victorian Premier’s Department. He has continued to write occasional fiction and also on nanotechnology, futurology and spirituality (including under his current name, Avatar Polymorph). Ill from 1996 to 2007, he has been based around Fitzroy, Melbourne, since 1990, including for various Performance Art and other art projects.

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  James Newton-Thomas

  Presents: The Computational Extension of Consciousness

  James is an early developer of AI systems in Australia engineering loan officer systems used in the major banks in Australia in the 80s using neural networks and adaptive expert systems. This work was extended through the 90s into high energy laser development including phased array lasers and adaptive vision systems. His later interests and area of work is in the engineering of machine consciousness, specifically the phenomenology of consciousness, and the development of quantum Turing architectures.
  He currently works in Melbourne and is (slowly) giving himself time to work towards his PhD.

  James presented at the Singularity Summit AU in 2010.

The first Australian H+ Summit (And in the southern hemisphere) will be held in Melbourne 2011 H+ conference in June.
This is your chance to hear world-class speakers, and meet Australian enthusiasts, geeks, transhumanists, singularitarianists, skeptics, humanists, rationalists and possibly even academics and scientists in one of Australia’s most vibrant and exciting cities. At the moment, we don’t know the ticket price, it is depending on venue costs.

• Secure your tickets here >>
• View the program
• How to get there

Speakers include:

• Sean McMullen – “Doing It Now” - (As of writing, a Hugo Nominee for short story)
• Hugo de Garis – Nanotech, Femtotech – Lots of room at the bottom, | Quantum Topological Computing – Much More than Moore’s Law
• Meredith Doig – “Rationalism, Transhumanism & the Singuarlity” – (President of the Rationalist Society Australia)
• Colin Kline – “Logics - Boolean (Pascalian) logic, Fuzzy Logic and Bayes” – Academic
• Greg Adamson – “Technology and social control“ – (Chairman of the Society for Social Implications of Technology IEEE)
• Binh Nguyen – “Evolutionary AI” – (PHD)
  
• Lev Lafayette – “More Human Than Human: The Computation of Moral Reasoning” – Philosopher
  
• Slade Beard – “Architecting the Future” (Complex Systems) - (IEEE)
  
• Avatar Polymorph – “The ethics of boosting animals from sentience to self-aware consciousness”
• Tony Smith – “The Plurality: Why everyting is all over the place” – (Chaos, Complex Systems)
• Jon Oxer – “The Maker Revolution”
• Andy Gelme – “The Internet of Things”
• Jeremy Nagel – “Open Source Biotech”

and many more.

*Note, there will also be the next Singularity Summit AU on 20th-21st of August.