io9’s head honcho Annalee Newitz talks about the relationship of science fiction and technological innovation at Webstock09. “Just two decades ago, the Web and public internet were the stuff of science fiction. Creators like William Gibson, who coined the term “cyberspace” in his novel Neuromancer, helped define the terms of social life online, as well as inspiring many of the inventions (like smartphones) that we take for granted. But what is today’s science fiction telling us about where our technology will go tomorrow? I’ll talk about the stories today’s scifi creators are telling about the Web and internet, and how their ideas create a fantastical map of what people are seeking in their online lives.”
Dr. J. chats with David Koepsell, Asst. Prof. of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology, about his book Who Owns You? The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes. They discuss the absurd legal rationales for the patenting of the human genome, and disastrous consequences for biotech innovation that the patent mess has wrought. (MP3)
For all the ability of genes and even memes to battle for survival against one another, human beings are just as likely to share and cooperate as they are to cheat and compete. But the ascendance of market rhetoric in America and Britain was accompanied by the assertion of some decidedly antiromantic science. University anthropologists seemed determined to correct the hopeful impressions that so many still clung to of peaceful, vegetarian gorillas enjoying one another’s company in the jungle. Like stories of supposedly peaceful aboriginal tribes as yet untainted by corrupt Western civilization, such visions—according to the new social Darwinists—were pure fantasy.
David Koepsell is an author, philosopher, and attorney whose recent research focuses on the nexus of science, technology, ethics, and public policy. He is Assistant Professor, Philosophy Section, Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management at the Technology University of Delft, in The Netherlands, and Senior Fellow, 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology, The Netherlands. He is also the author of The Ontology of Cyberspace: Philosophy, Law, and the Future of Intellectual Property, as well as numerous scholarly articles on law, philosophy, science, and ethics. His latest book is Who Owns You? The Corporate Gold Rush to Patent Your Genes.
In this interview with D.J. Grothe, David Koepsell discusses the implications of corporations patenting parts of the human genome, and how current patent practices negatively impact basic scientific research in genetics. He reviews the history of the practice of patenting genes and contrasts private ownership of gene sequences found in nature with that of the public ownership of the work of the Human Genome Project. He contrasts discovery with invention, and argues that patents should apply only to the latter. He details the relationship of human genes being patented with the practices of big agribusiness owning engineered crops, such as Monsanto’s “terminator corn.” He discusses the ACLU’s recent lawsuit against Myriad Genetics on behalf of scientists and cancer patients, and how it may lead to one of the most important legal battles in the history of biotechnology. He talks about “upstream” and “downstream” patents, and how this impacts genetic research. And he discusses various solutions currently proposed for the problems resulting from private ownership of naturally occurring gene sequences.
Jonathan Moreno on The use of neuroscience by the US military, Douglas Rushkoff on the need to train citizens in digital combat arts, the relationship of disgust sensitivity to conservatism, and Greg Beato’s defense of memory deletion in the participatory panopticon. (MP3)
Dr. J chats with Ed Klonoski, the president of Charter Oak State College, a leading distance learning innovator. They discuss the way students use online learning, the changing and emerging technologies, and the challenge of open sourcing education. (MP3)
In July 2008 the Future of Humanity Institute hosted a number of leading experts on different global catastrophic risks.
The conference provided delegates with an overview of the key risks, and the state of current thinking on each of them. It brought scholars together from many different disciplines to discuss the common problems and methodologies which affect the study of global catastrophic risks.
Topics treated included nuclear terrorism, cosmic threats such as supernova, comets and asteroids, the long term fate of the universe, pandemics, nanotechnology, ecological disasters which drastically reduce biodiversity, climate change, biotechnology and biosecurity, the cognitive biases associated with making judgements in the context of global catastrophic risk, social collapse, and the role of the insurance industry in mitigating and quantifying risk.
In this talk Chris Phoenix of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) and IEET Managing Director Mike Treder, then Executive Director of the CRN, speak to the emerging risks and benefits of molecular manufacturing.
IEET Fellow Douglas Rushkoff is author of, among his dozen books, Playing the Future, Open Source Democracy and Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, the novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy, and the graphic novels Club Zero-G and Testament. He has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries, and is working on a third, Digital Nation. He hosts a weekly radio show the Media Squat. We discuss his most recent book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back (lifeincorporated.net). (Part 2 of 2)
IEET Fellow Douglas Rushkoff is author of, among his dozen books, Playing the Future, Open Source Democracy and Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, the novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy, and the graphic novels Club Zero-G and Testament. He has written and hosted two award-winning Frontline documentaries, and is working on a third, Digital Nation. He hosts a weekly radio show the Media Squat. We discuss his most recent book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back (lifeincorporated.net). (Part 1 of 2)
In this video Jamais Cascio talks about Mobile Intelligence (”Your Brain’s Future, Mobilized”). This is about the Augmented Future: augmented awareness, augmented society, augmented environments… He sketches 3 possible futures: participatory, interconnected and leapfrog - all with different features and also why it is matters to be aware of this.
Social critic Douglas Rushkoff is ready to think big in response to the economic crisis still rocking the U.S. and the world. Really big.
Rushkoff thinks we got off track as a society a ways back. About 400 years back.
He’s not against capitalism. But the form we fell into –corporate capitalism – is killing us, he says. Killing values and communities. Turning us into the “brand that is me.” Turning homes into investments and 401k balances into cold barometers of success or failure.
It doesn’t have to be this way, he says.
This hour, On Point: Douglas Rushkoff rethinks our corporatized lives.
A few “bugs” in society from hundreds of years ago have had profound consequences for society today, according to author Douglas Rushkoff. In this presentation from the Web 2.0 Expo he points out two false assumptions about the world, their medieval origins, and how the internet has provided a brief window where we can fix them.
One myth is that corporations promote free market capitalism, but they were originally monopolies granted by royalty to prolong and fund monarchy. The other myth is that currency is money, but national currency has prevented thriving trade among peers that existed in ancient times. The new opportunity the internet provides is to make a living by building and keeping businesses that create value for other people, rather than large corporations.
“The real key to genetic engineering is control of intellectual property of the food crops that we depend on,” says author Michael Pollan of companies like Monsanto. He advocates an open source GE model.
Although this is an Onion news piece (ergo parody) the issue is real. In some states couples that want to get married have to have been different genders at birth, while in others they only have to be different genders when asking for the permit, which has meant that trans-women can only marry women in some states, but can only marry men in others.
Christopher Dye spoke at Gresham College in London March 26, 2009. It was thought that the dramatic extension of life spans during the 20th century eliminated natural selection, but new evidence shows that to be false. Will selection always be natural, or could postmodern also mean posthuman? Christopher Dye is Director of Health Information in the Office of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization and Gresham Professor of Physic in the City of London.
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