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Lifeboat News #147

#147

Lifeboat News

This issue published on 10/01/14. Copyright 2014 Lifeboat Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

Lord Martin Rees

Guardian Award winner Lord Martin Rees, author of "Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning", joins our Cosmology Board.
 
His other awards include the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Balzan International Prize, the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (AAS/AIP), the Bower Award for Science of the Franklin Institute, the Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation, the Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council, the Crafoord Prize (Royal Swedish Academy), the Templeton Prize, and the Isaac Newton Medal.
 
Martin holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and has received honorary degrees from a number of universities including Sussex, Uppsala, Toronto, Durham, Oxford, London, Yale, Greenwich, Melbourne, and Sydney.
 
Note that we've been giving away free copies of "Our Final Hour" to Economy class members and greater at https://lifeboat.com/ex/join.us for years. (And also copies of "The Human Race to the Future" and "The Singularity is Near".)
 
Learn about Martin's Guardian Award at http://lifeboat.com/ex/guardian2004
 
Learn more about Martin at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.martin.rees

Nikki Olson

Nikki Olson joins our Ethics Board. Nikki produced the following educational videos for the Lifeboat Foundation: "Existential Risks" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCTKsan7FT0, "Mixed and Virtual Reality" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGqjaZzp5ws, and "The AI Physician" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzo3vUxUkzY. The Existential Risks video is currently our trailer video for our YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/lifeboathq
 
Learn about Nikki at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.nikki.olson

Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Our Vasant Honavar, W. Bradley Knox, Sven Koenig, Benjamin Kuipers, Sriraam Natarajan, Peter Stone, and Matthew E. Taylor are participating in the Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-15) which will be held January 25-29, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas, USA. The purpose of this conference is to promote research in artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific exchange among AI researchers, practitioners, scientists, and engineers in affiliated disciplines.
 
Learn more at http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/AAAI/aaai15.php

Joseph F. Coates Memorial

The Lifeboat Foundation mourns the passing of our Joseph F. Coates who worked to "Safeguard Humanity" until the end of his life. Learn about Joe at http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.joseph.f.coates
 
Joe's memorial service will be held at the Mount Airy Mansion at http://www.mountairymansion.org/home.html in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on Saturday, November 8th. The memorial will begin promptly at 2 pm; you are invited to arrive shortly after 1 pm. After the memorial, everyone will enjoy drinks, snacks, and conversation until 5 pm. There will also be an opportunity to speak "as the spirit moves you". If you would like to attend and/or speak at the memorial, send an email to [email protected] with the subject "Lifeboat Foundation Memorial".
 
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that friends consider a donation to Joe's favorite charity, Covenant House New York at http://ny.covenanthouse.org/

Guardian Award

Let us know if you have any suggestions for our 2014 Guardian Award. This award is annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.
 
Past winners have included Stephen Hawking, Ray Kurzweil, Lord Martin Rees, and Jaan Tallinn.
 
You can learn more at http://lifeboat.com/ex/guardian.award
 
Send suggestions to [email protected] with the subject "Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award".

Anthology

Thanks to the success of our book "The Human Race to the Future", we will be publishing our second book. We are creating an anthology of both short fiction stories and nonfiction articles about the future. Send an email to [email protected] with the subject "Lifeboat Foundation Anthology" if you would be interested in contributing such a story or article.

2014 Fight Aging! Fundraiser

The 2014 Fight Aging! fundraiser starts now. Get your research donations tripled. Learn more at https://www.fightaging.org/archives/201...iven.php

GETAS

The Lifeboat Foundation GETAS threat level has been raised from Guarded to Elevated due to "Largest Ebola outbreak in history has spread to

USA."

Learn more about GETAS at http://lifeboat.com/ex/getas

Singularity: a Brave New Musical

Learn about "Singularity: A Brave New Musical" at https://www.facebook.com/groups/199731213562712/

Books

Read the free book "The Bitcoin Revolution" at http://diginomics.com/the-bitcoin-revolution.pdf
 
Read "A History of Life-Extensionism in the Twentieth Century" at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/150081...GFMMT4BD
 
Read "Physics from the Edge: A New Cosmological Model for Inertia" at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/981459...IWIWHWVN

Monero Donations

We now accept monero donations at monero address 42BToafqtFZDrGPVzWrTCoG2fd2joMvK4BGV3tiQFnE1HhyQ 5Ug1QzRNLL5xFHyNHc6rLZbZ8GpqV1V41FzNsaxtPbg2LJd.
 
Learn about monero at http://www.monero.cc/

Blog

Johnny Boston joins our blog team with the post "Dr. Ken Hayworth: What is the Future of your Mind?" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/09/dr-ken...our-mind
 
James Dunn joins our blog team with the post "Method of Sustainable Fuel-less Terra-forming of Venus & Mars" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/method...nus-mars
 
Nikki Olson joins our blog team with the post "2014 Longevity and Genetics Conference — Keynote Aubrey de Grey" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/2014-l...-de-grey
 
Joseph Rampolla joins our blog team with the post "Stopping the Spread of Ebola through Augmented Reality" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/stoppi...-reality
 
Frans van Wamel joins our blog team with the post "Australian digital radar innovation attracts global attention" at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/09/austra...ttention
 
Recent interesting blog posts include:
 
"3D-printing objects containing multiple metals and alloys" by Seb at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/3d-pri...d-alloys
 
"The Abolition of Medicine as a Goal for Humanity 2.0" by Steve Fuller at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/the-ab...nity-2-0
 
"FUTURISM UPDATE (October 01, 2014)" by Andres Agostini at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/futuri...-01-2014
 
"Morphing material could allow robots to switch between hard and soft states" by Seb at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/morphi...t-states
 
"Review: When Google Met WikiLeaks (2014) by Julian Assange" by Harry J. Bentham at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/09/review...-assange
 
"Towards a 'Right to Science'" by Steve Fuller at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/09/toward...-science
 
"What if your memories could live past your mortal shelf life?" by Johnny Boston at http://lifeboat.com/blog/2014/10/what-i...elf-life

Growing Membership

Recent donations/pledges we have received since our last newsletter:
 
Peg Kay: $3,000, Anonymous: $157.48 (including 100 moneros), Roy Mitsuoka: $150, James Tankersley Jr: $101.26 (composed of 0.25 bitcoins), Chris K. Haley: $100, Michael Dickey: $85, Sergio M.L. Tarrero: $85, Philippe Van Nedervelde: $85, Kenneth P. Weiss: $85, James Blodgett: $50, Allen G. Taylor: $34, André Caminoa: $25, Matthew L. McGuirl: $25, John Ratnaswamy: $25, Matthew Felsted: $22.75, Rebecca R. Cooper: $10, Thomas Dolphin: $10, Alexander Macrae: $10, Aaron Mayzes: $10, Philip Morehead: $10, Roland Schiefer: $10, Orenda Urbano Hernández: $5, Health Internetwork: $5, and Apphac: $1.
 
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.