Design and the Elastic Mind

If anyone happens to be dropping in to New York over the next couple of months be sure to pop in to MOMA and check out the new exhibition: Design and the Elastic Mind. It has been curated by Paola Antonelli,, who previously put together the Safe exhibition in 2006, and has much inspired this Designing Safe Living research programme at Lancaster university. As cited in the exhibition text “Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations.” I was overwhelmed by the intensity of information and the plethora of objects, photographs, video, visuals and text on show which demanded my time and concentration. There is no way any could summarise or spin this into an easy bitesize review and give it justice. So if you dont get to go to MOMA , just make sure you spend 30 mins per lunch hour reading through the online exhibition.

Dawkins + Venter discuss “Life: A Gene-Centric View” UPDATE!

WATCH the FULL LENGTH INTERVIEW!!!!

Richard Dawkins and J Craig Venter meet to discuss the future of evolution and synthetic biology entitled LIFE: A GENE-CENTRIC VIEW at the DLD (Digital Life Design), a high-level Munich conference for the digital elite.

Read the German Press reactions:

>The Future of Selection from the SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG via Edge
> Craig Venter wants to email life from Spiegel Online via Edge
>Venter Institute Scientists Create First Synthetic Bacterial Genome

The full transcript from the video:

JOHN BROCKMAN: Thank you, Steffi and thank you all for coming.

It’s not every day you have Richard Dawkins and Craig Venter on a stage together. Richard Dawkins is responsible for possibly the most important science book of the last century, The Selfish Gene, published in 1976, which set forth an agenda of the gene-centric, or gene’s eye, view of life, which has become the basic science agenda for biologists for the last quarter century. And without that worldview, you wouldn’t have Craig Venter changing the world the way he is today.

Craig Venter is the man who led the private group that decoded the humane genome in 2001. He’s working on the forefront of artificial life, synthetic biology. He’s traveling around the world on a sailboat finding millions of new genes in the oceans and in very dramatic fashion. And most recently, in June, his lab was responsible for transplanting the information from one genome into another. In other words, your dog becomes your cat. What we’ll do first is a conversation between Craig and Richard, and then if any of you have questions, please raise your hands.

Visions of the Future BBC4 series- Dr. Michio Kaku

Last November BBC 4 ran a three part series called “Visions of the Future” presented by Dr. Michio Kaku. Here he discusses a range of emerging future related topics from robots & brain pacemakers to in-vitro grown organs and meat to the theories and practices of Neil Gerschenfeld’s self fabrication bits & atoms department at the MIT. YouTube clips for each episode: intelligence , biotech, quantum

Bronislaw Szerszynski, a Senior Lecturer and Director of CSEC (The Centre for the Study of Environmental Change now based in Lancaster’s Department of Sociology) has critiqued the series.

To read the review please download from here> Szerszynski’s critique of Dr. Michio Kaku’s Visions of the Future BBC4 series

Related links:

• Risk in the 21st Century lecture series at the James Martin 21st Century School at the University of Oxford. With speakers discussing risk, time series analysis, statistical futures and the improbable. IncludingNassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Didier Sornette, Professor on the Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Leonard A. Smith<, Research Professor in Statistics, and Director – Centre for the Analysis of Time Series, Sarah Harper, Director of the Oxford Institute of Ageing
• The “Surveillance, identity and the future of privacy in the 21st century ” lecture series at the James Martin Institute of Science and Civilization is also running at Oxford University until March.
• Horizon ran a series in 2006 called Human V2.0 discussing the future of our childrens’ children and beyond Some great videos can be seen here including Ray Kurzweil, Baroness Greenfield and more.
• Ray Kurzweil’s website>