U.S. Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Meeting
Read the reaction of the U.S. Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group (SSG) to meeting with experts from the Lifeboat Foundation at http://lifeboat.com/lifeboat.navy.pdf
Our Growing AGI-08 Lineup
Tsvi Achler, Eyal Amir, Nick Cassimatis, Wlodzislaw "Wlodek" Duch, Ben
Goertzel, J. Storrs "Josh" Hall, Ari Heljakka, Matthew Iklé, John E.
Laird, Kenneth Livingston, Moshe Looks, Cassio Pennachin, Alexei V. Samsonovich, Angela Schwering, Karan Sharma, Leslie Smith, and Peter
Stone will be speaking at The First Conference on Artificial General
Intelligence at the FedEx Institute of Technology, University of Memphis
in cooperation with AAAI, March 1-3, 2008.
Session chairs will include Eric Baum, J. Storrs "Josh" Hall, Randal A.
Koene, Steve Omohundro, and Stephen Reed. The organizing committee
includes Ben Goertzel and Bruce Klein. The AGI-08 Program Committee
includes Michael L. Anderson, Eric Baum, Mark H. Bickhard, Nick
Cassimatis, Wlodzislaw "Wlodek" Duch, Ben Goertzel, J. Storrs "Josh"
Hall, Marcus Hutter, Christian Lebiere, Moshe Looks, Randal A. Koene,
Bruce Maclennan, Matthias Scheutz, and Jürgen Schmidhuber.
The Outreach Director is Natasha Vita-More and Conference Management
Software Hosting is by David Hart.
Learn more at http://lifeboat.com/upcoming
Deputy Networking Director
Michael Dickey is now our LF Deputy Networking Director. Using the
internet as his primary social-networking instrument, Michael is focused
on expanding and strengthening Lifeboat Foundation's global network of
professional and personal contacts and the active welcoming of financial
donations as well as donations in kind from this growing web of
worldwide connections.
Learn about Michael at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.michael.dickey
Blog Webmaster
Chris Haley becomes our Blog Webmaster. His main task will be to manage
spam — to remove spam that gets past our spam filters, and more
importantly, to save legitimate messages that our spam filters thought
were spam.
Activity in our blog is growing and Chris's help will be appreciated!
Learn about Chris at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.chris.k.haley
Blog
Bruce Klein joins our blog team with his first post at
http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=116
Michael Graham Richard joins our blog team with his first post at
http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=122
Rosetta@Home Team
Michael Graham Richard activates our Rosetta@Home team at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/rosetta.home
Donate the unused CPU cycles on your computer(s) to help scientists to
determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may
ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases. By
running the Rosetta program on your computer while you don't need it you
will help speed up and extend research in ways scientists couldn't
possibly attempt without your help. You will also be helping efforts at
designing new proteins to fight diseases such as HIV, Malaria, Cancer,
and Alzheimer's. (See Disease Related Research for more information).
Read news and articles about Rosetta.
Folding@Home Team
Chris Haley joins our Folding@Home team at http://lifeboat.com/ex/folding.home, working to help scientists understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases.
Facebook Causes
Thanks to Matt McGuirl, we now have three Facebook causes. They are: A-PRIZE at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631, NanoShield at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631, and AIShield at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_ca...=9007631
Lifeboat vs Skynet
The Speculist says "How about a story arc in which Sarah and John elicit
the help of the Lifeboat Foundation in warding off the rise of the
machines? I'd like to see a heavily armed paramilitary cell within the
foundation all decked out in camouflage and talking trash about 'tearing
Skynet a new memory cache' and the like."
Read more at http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/001621.html
Videos
Watch "Jesse Sullivan with the Bionic Arm" at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#jesse_sul...onic_arm
Watch "DNA Molecular Biology Visualizations - Wrapping And
Replication" at http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#dna_molec...izations
Watch "Programming DNA: A 2-bit language for engineering biology"
at http://lifeboat.com/ex/videos#programming_dna
World News
We added information to our World News page about "CIA Says Hackers Have
Cut Power Grid: Several cities outside the U.S. have sustained attacks
on utility systems and extortion demands" at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/world.news#cia_s...wer_grid
Read our InternetShield program at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/internet.shield for solutions!
AIShield
Dan Berleant improves our AIShield program enabling us to upgrade it to
a "current program".
Learn about Dan Berleant at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.daniel.j.berleant
AIShield Fund
We have launched the AIShield Fund which will be used to turn our
AIShield program into reality.
While we won't be funding the purchase of massive supercomputers,
ginormous teams of programmers, or research into quantum computers and
other computing breakthroughs in the near future, we can do something
today. Learn more at https://lifeboat.com/ex/ai.shield.fund
Correction
The following correction was made to issue 65 of Lifeboat News: "Terrestrial Peoples, Extraterrestrial Persons" by Charles Tandy. The paper's most important idea is that he suggests two new Concerts (one Terrestrial, one Extraterrestrial) and that "implementing both proposals in concert would have a synergistic effect". (Concert 1: The political structure of Earth, which is neither a Law of Peoples nor a Law of Persons, is unworkable. But at this unique point in history it is both desirable and feasible to establish a Terrestrial Law of Peoples along the lines of Kant; Rawls; and, Daalder and Lindsay.) (Concert 2: The political structure of Space, which is neither a Law of Peoples nor a Law of Persons, is unworkable. But at this unique point in history it is both desirable and feasible to establish an Extraterrestrial Law of Persons along the lines indicated herein.) Contrary to what you may have heard, the paper does NOT suggest termination or replacement of the UN. You may want to read the paper for yourself; this paper by Charles Tandy may be found in an anthology edited by him: Death And Anti-Death, Volume 5 (Palo Alto: Ria University Press, forthcoming 2007).
Membership Type
Our donor list can now be sorted by membership type as shown at http://lifeboat.com/ex/donor.membership.type.list
Growing Membership
Humberto Castaneda becomes our first Patron level member. He says "Human
survival has always been in mortal danger. It is only our slow
perception of time that has given us the illusion of stability. Whether
we call it luck, or by design, we have gotten to a point where through
technology we may escape the risk horizon on Earth. Now we have to
believe this is possible, and that we will do it, because whatever
stance we take collectively will be self-fulfilling."
Tyrone Steels II joins our LF 500 team, bringing this important group to
double digits. We now also have double digit Executive and Economy Class
members.
Being thrifty, Tyrone cuts his cost in half as he says, "I work for
Hewlett-Packard and they have added the Lifeboat Foundation into their
preferred donation database. As a result, they match all contributions."
So HP will be paying half his costs!
Here are some of the recent donations/pledges we have received since
the last newsletter:
Tyrone Steels II: $25,000,
Matt Bamberger: $2,000,
Chris Haley: $1,085,
Humberto Castaneda: $400,
Robert Citron: $300,
Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $170,
Anonymous: $140,
Colin Kline: $120,
Michael Anissimov: $85,
Eric Bauswell: $85,
Michael Dickey: $85,
Jason Gaverick Matheny: $85,
Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85,
Kenneth P. Weiss: $85,
James William Taylor: $50,
Adrian-Bodgan Morut (Adi): $40,
C M Anderson: $25,
Vincent A. Cate: $25,
Adam Dobrin: $25,
Rick Hubbard: $25,
Matthew L. McGuirl: $25,
Peter Murray: $25,
Robert Hunt Robinson: $25,
Mark A. Walker: $25,
Anonymous: $10,
Stephen Fleming: $10,
Joshua Fox: $10,
Christopher Dilkus: $10,
Sylvia Engdahl: $10,
Joseph P. Jackson III: $10,
Sheridan Layman: $10,
Glenn A. Miller: $10,
Sarah Jane Pell: $10,
John N. Philipps (Jack): $10,
Pennye Shaw: $10,
Kaj Sotala: $10,
Otto Valtakoski: $10,
Michael Vassar: $10,
and Thoughtware.TV: $5.
Our Join Us page at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us now allows you to
pay for your membership anywhere from monthly to every ten years.
