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Letās spice things up: instead of holding both Vision Weekends back to back like usual, this year, the Europe edition of Vision Weekend will be held over summer at BĆ¼ckeburg Castle in Germany, while the USA edition of Vision Weekend will be held in San Francisco in winter. This means you can easily join the growing pool of attendees joining both events.
Thank you to the Future of Life Institute for making this hackathon possible, our mentors and judges for their time, energy, and contributions, and all participants for their ambition and visions of the future ā we had some incredible proposals and prototypes built out of just 48 hours!
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The winners of this Hackathon were The Flourishing Foundation, currently known as Conscious Tech Collective. They explore the impact of a new wave of emerging technologies on human well-being. Their prototype includes a fellowship supporting innovators through early stages of exploration, the TAI for Wellness certification program (operationalize human flourishing index or the wellness index), and research and advocacy into transformative technology.
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We will release the report detailing all prototypes in the near future.
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This award, named after the visionary computer scientist Norm Hardy, recognizes Covid Watch’s development of a decentralized digital contact tracing system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Covid Watchās system allows devices to exchange anonymous codes to notify users of potential exposure without compromising privacy, exemplifing the balance between effective security measures and user-friendly design. This initiative reflects Hardy’s legacy of creating secure, accessible technologies and demonstrates a significant advancement in how we protect and inform the public in a digital age.
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Applications are rolling for our upcoming 2024 technical workshops. Each event is a unique opportunity to delve into groundbreaking topics, collaborate with leading minds, and contribute to shaping the future in critical areas of technology and science.
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AGI: Cryptography, Security & Multipolar Scenarios Workshop (May 14 – 15)Ā
Neurotech, BCI and WBE for Safe AI Workshop (May 22 – 23)Ā
Longevity Frontiers Workshop (June 28 – 29)
Space Frontiers Workshop (September 20 – 21)
Molecular Manufacturing Architectures Workshop (dates TBD.)
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The Feynman Prizes are named in honor of the physicist Richard Feynman. In 1959, Feynman gave a talk titled āThereās Plenty Of Room At The Bottomā, which is considered by many industryĀ advocates to have inspired the field of nanotechnology itself.Ā
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Security is only possible if users can understand the implications of their actions. The Norm Hardy Prize is being offered to encourage work that helps users make wise decisions. The Prize will recognize work that a) helps users understand, preferably tacitly, the security aspects of what they do, b) introduces workflows that make the secure way to do something the easy way,Ā c) develops design principles for systems that are as easy or easier to use because of their security, or d) explores ‘theory of mindā with respect to how users interact with secure systems.
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The Lander Challenge calls for ambitious young people across the globe to build self-landing rockets, with six different milestones to aim for.
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Awarding outstanding progress in longevity research to collectively improve the human experience. Three prizes with rolling applications for a) devising effective strategies to substantially increase financial backing in, for b) developing rigorous, economically scalable assessment panels for aging biomarkers, and for c) the discovery of pathways and combinations that significantly extend both the lifespan and healthspan of C. elegans.
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We believe that providing a strong network, knowledge exchange, and platform for Fellows early can significantly advance their capability to make important strides in a variety of fields. During the one year program, Fellows are selected to advance beneficial use and avoid misuse of biotech, nanotech, neurotech, computer science, and space technologies.
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Being a Fellow has āhelped me explore career opportunities, inspired new research ideas, and provided a really valuable network of connectionsā ā Previous Fellow
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If youāre interested in learning about sponsoring the Fellowship, please get in touch at [email protected]
āI became a cryonicist when I was 25 years of age and I have volunteered my time for 10 years in radical life-extension and cryonics. I have been a fully-funded Alcor member for 9 years, I am a fully funded Cryonics Institute Member as of 2023 and I am a seed round investor in Tomorrow Biostasis. I am a voting director at BRLS Society (Florida) which has funded cryonics research to the tune of 100 million in the past decade. I am also a voting director at Biostasis Technology (NYC) & Life Extension Society (Florida).ā
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ā Carrie Radomski
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Weāre excited to welcome Carrie to Foresight!
Thank you so much to Chip Morningstar for his remarkable contributions, as well as his dedication and longstanding commitment to Foresight Institute. Working with Chip has been an incredible asset to our organisation’s development.
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Chip is currently welcoming any new opportunities, so if you would like to get in touch directly, please do so: [email protected]
Our condolences to the family and friends of John Walker. He spent a lifetime inventing and striving to make the world a more engaging and interesting place to discover.
John was a good friend of Foresight since the early 1980s, and will be missed.Ā
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This month, we chat with Danielle Strachman, who is passionate about disrupting education. She cofounded Innovations Academy, was on the founding team of the Thiel Fellowship, and is a co-founder and partner at the 1517 fund.
We discuss the importance of education, community, straying out of the mainstream, emotional intelligence, and trying the “weird”.
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Acknowledging the complexities ahead, she views the journey to this future as requiring a balance between innovation and ethics. Her vision is grounded in the belief in the human capacity to navigate the unknown and transform existential risks into opportunities for growth. She calls for a culture of lifelong learning, innovation, and empathy ā aiming to solve today’s problems and unlock tomorrow’s potential.
AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable
ā Roman Yampolskiy
Congratulations to Roman on his new release, which explores the various reasons why the field of AI is so challenging, and addressing questions including the nature of intelligence, consciousness and AI personhood, values and knowledge.
Job opportunity for a Creative Tech Entrepreneur
This is a call for proposals to produce an Online Model of Democratic Enterprise:
Promoting the Socio-Economic Organization as a āStarā.
Questions,Ā submissions, and other issues should be sent to Prof. Halal at [email protected]
Unlocking the Solar System with Space Nuclear Technology
Alex Gilbert was a panellist at Beyond Earth Instituteās seminar. Topics include the state space nuclear, if and how government programs, policies, and regulations can enable a space nuclear future, as well as both the challenges and the tremendous opportunities awaiting us.
Congratulations to Dan Elton et al., whose preprint “Conformal Triage for Medical Imaging AIĀ Deployment“medRxiv, describes a way to obtain rigorous statistical guaranteesĀ regarding the true positive and false positive rates of a black box AI classifier usingĀ conformal predictionĀ methods. Conformal prediction were applied to a model detecting urgent medical conditions in head CT scans. The system classifiesĀ head CT into three categories – high, low, and no risk predictions. They plan to test this model for triage at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Ekaterina Ilin | How Exoplanet Discovery Opens a Window Into Earth’s Future
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This talk discusses the habitability of planets outside the Solar System (exoplanets) in regards to safeguarding humanity from global catastrophes.Ā
Fan Hong | Programmable Nucleic Acid Tools to Visualize and Regulate Gene Expression
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Hong aims to answer how to access massive biological information and how to design functional biomolecules to interact with biological systems.Ā
Michael Levin | Endogenous Bioelectrical Networks: An Interface to Regenerative Medicine
Levin explores body intelligence, bioelectric networks for regenerative medicine and rewriting cellular patterns for treating defects, regeneration, and cancer.
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Deepfake technology has very little benefit, while facilitating non-consensual pornography, CSAM and VCSAM, gender-based violence, fraud, and political disinformation.
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Join us in signing this public bid to criminalize deepfakes.
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Join the Plurality Book Launch with Glen Weyl, as well as an unconference on the future of collaborative technology and democracy!
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This event is co-hosted by Plurality Institute, RadicalXChange, The Society Library, AI Objectives Institute, Foresight Institute and Goodly Labs, and will be located at the Hillside School in Berkeley CA.
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Date: Friday, March 15
Location: The Hillside School in Berkeley, California
TheĀ DeSci SummitĀ returns for the third year with 5 days of events at ethDenver, the University of Colorado, AuraNova, and numerous hacker-houses. This year brings leading researchers and advocates for Open Science with keynotes by Erik Schultes from the GOFAIR Foundation, Franck Marchis from SETI, and Richard Blythman from Algovera.Ā
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Date: 23 Feb ā Mar 1, 2024
Location: Denver, Colorado
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As an active part of our community of talented scientists and technologists who expand the limit of our civilization’s capabilities, you will be at the forefront of our research, and our intriguing network.
Foresight Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so your donation is tax-deductible in the US as permitted by law. Our tax ID number is 77-0119168.
