In this Update: our latest Strengthening Civilization salon series video, a “how-to” guide for creating better futures, and more exciting news.Ā
Find out how we have beenĀ helping steering the future of civilization and the progress of beneficial technology in the past month:
1. watch our latestĀ salon video on institutions, civilizations and the future
2. read our guide on how to take action to co-create better futures
3. learn about our fellows who fosterĀ promisingĀ advancesĀ in nanotechnology
4. find your special invite to the upcoming Transformative Tech conference
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Foresight strives to orient forward thinking in the right direction. This month, we had the pleasure to hold “Civilization: Institutions, KnowledgeĀ and the Future”Ā a fantastic salon with sociologist Samo Burja. ThanksĀ Monument for hosting.Ā
Watch the salon videos just below:Ā
“Existential Hope: Opting in” – Allison Duettmann
“Civilization: Institutions, Knowledge, and the Future” – Samo Burja
Our salons aim at helping our civilization prosper – through a healthy critique of our current paradigms.
The monthly salon series in 2018 focuses on strengthening civilizationāan approach we first discuss as strategy for AI safety in our paper on Decentralized Approaches to Reducing Existential Risks.Ā Since itĀ is a mouthful, we divided the topic up into manageable pieces.
Topics we have discussed to date (all salonĀ videos available in this YouTube playlist):
We’re humbled that many of you want to help support our mission. To get an overview of the different ways to engage with Foresight, we created a one-pager on Getting Involved here.Ā
Please see a brief overview below:Ā
One of the ways that you can most immediately help is to support our mission financially. Foresight Institute is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible in the US to the full extent provided by law. OnĀ this pageĀ you will learn how we have used last yearās donations. You can claimĀ membership levelĀ matching the amount of your contribution.
Learning more about what we do and connecting with our community is the best way to start to engage ā by getting familiar with our mission and our activities, you are more likely to figure out how to join our efforts in an impactful way.
One essential aspect of fulfillingĀ Foresight’sĀ mission to drive the development of nanotechnologyĀ is to support humans whose work is leading advancesĀ in the field.Ā This month we would like to introduce you to two of our Fellows, Damien SluysmansĀ and Bharath Ramsundar, who outstandingly took onĀ advancing beneficial nanotechnology.Ā
Damien Sluysmans, 2018 Foresight Fellow in Single-Molecule Characterization of Molecular Machines
Bharath Ramsundar,Ā 2018 Foresight Fellow in Artificial Intelligence for Molecular Machines
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Bharath received a BA and BS from UC Berkeley in EECS and Mathematics and was valedictorian of his graduating class in mathematics. He did his PhD in computer science at Stanford University where he studied the application of deep-learning to problems in drug-discovery. At Stanford, Bharath created theĀ deepchem.ioĀ open-source project to grow the deep drug discovery open source community, co-created theĀ moleculenet.aiĀ benchmark suite to facilitate development of molecular algorithms, andĀ more. Bharathās graduate education was supported by aĀ Hertz Fellowship. Bharath is the lead author ofĀ āTensorFlow for Deep Learning: From Linear Regression to Reinforcement Learningā, a developerās introduction to modern machine learning, withĀ OāReilly Media. Today, Bharath is focused on designing the decentralized protocols that will unlock data and AI to create the next stage of the internet.
Our friends at Transformative Technology Conference are hosting their 4th annual, two-day conference this November.
The Transformative Technology Conference is a conference focused on tech functioning at the intersection of the brain, the mind, and overall human wellbeing, bringing together neuroscience, psychology, technology, and entrepreneurship.
As a friend of Foresight, you can get a $150 discount off the general admission price here.
You can expect keynotes, panels, break-out discussions, workshops, 1:1 matching, demos of cutting-edge tech from around the world, and over 500 entrepreneurs, investors, engineers, and innovators from this space.
Click here to see speakers and learn more.
Thank you,
