X-Message-Number: 22266
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 16:21:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Trans humanism <>
Subject: Acceleration Changes Everything

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Tom Bresnahan, (310) 398-1934,


ACCELERATING CHANGE: A GLOBAL FACT
Conference to Explore the Meaning of Shrinking Time
Frames In All Areas of Human Enterprise

LOS ANGELES, CA (July 29, 2003) - A collection of
futurists, entrepreneurs, theoreticians and humanists
have organized "Accelerating Change 2003," the
first of an annual series. The conference will
juxtapose cutting edge ideas from a range of
disciplines which suggest that acceleration is central
to the evolution of any complex system - computers,
ecosystems, or the metasystem of humans, technologies
and society.

"Progress itself accelerates," says John Smart,
Chairman of the Institute for Accelerating Change
(IAC), the host of the conference.  "Our organization
exists because accelerating change is a fact, and not
enough people see its enormous implications. Focusing
attention on this universal phenomenon will be very
productive for the way we - humanity - make decisions
and understand the world as it moves forward."

The conference will be held at Stanford University's
Tresidder Union, September 12-14, 2003. Admission is
$395 ($150 for students), but registrants before
August 4th save $100 (students save $50).

Technological pioneer Ray Kurzweil will keynote the
conference via Teleportec's 3D Telepresence Lectern
and discuss the multifold trends of acceleration, with
biologist Michael Denton and philosopher Ilkka Tuomi
critiquing.

Social theorist Howard Bloom will explore the many
different kinds of "singularities": not just cosmic
black holes but also event horizons in human life.

Nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler and genetic
programming expert John R. Koza will explore how we
are harnessing, and may harness, the computing
strategies of our biology to make computers out of
matter itself.

Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson will illustrate the
significance of integrating awareness of acceleration
into capital funding decisions.

Journalist and scholar Robert Wright, author of
_Nonzero_, will examine the considerable evidence for
the historical acceleration of cooperation in human
societies, and what this means for us today and for
the future.

Key figures in biological computing, artificial
intelligence, and theorists of the human-technology
interface will discuss the convergence of humans and
other types of computational systems and intelligence.

24 speakers and 300 attendees will gather for a
weekend of insight and discourse. More information is
available at
http://www.accelerating.org/acc2003/conf_home.htm.

ABOUT IAC
IAC is an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation
based in Los Angeles, California. Our mission is to
help business and society examine the potential risks
and benefits of the accelerating pace of change
through our conferences, reading groups, publications,
websites, and sense of community. Media contact: Tom
Bresnahan, (310) 398-1934, 

See http://www.accelerating.org/acc2003/press.htm.

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