Tag Archives: ISEA 2011

Human enhancement, brains, and transhumanism: what does nano have to do with it?

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A Sept. 14, 2011 conversation on Slate.com about Extreme Human Enhancement started with this provocative title, Should We Use Nanotech, Genetics, Pharmaceuticals, and Augmentations To Go Above and Beyond Our Biology? The official discussants are Kyle Munkittrick, Brad Allenby, and Nicholas Agar. Here’s a little more about Kyle, Brad, and Nicholas, from page one of the the Slate discussion,

Nicholas Agar is an associate professor at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He is the author, among other things, of Humanity’s End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement (2010) and Liberal Eugenics: In Defense of Human Enhancement (2004).

Brad Allenby is the Lincoln professor of engineering and ethics; a professor of civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering; and the founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management at Arizona State University. He is co-author with Daniel Sarewitz of The Techno-Human Condition.

Kyle Munkittrick is a bioethicist and a program director at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology. He blogs at Pop Bioethics and Discover magazine’s Science Not Fiction. [Note: I have made some formatting changes.]

Nanotechnology and the other technologies are mentioned in passing, the focus of the discussion is ‘should we or shouldn’t we enhance ourselves’ along with some comments as to whether or not humans have a biological imperative to create and apply technology to the planet and to ourselves.

This Slate discussion is a way of publicizing a Future Tense event in Washington, DC being held today, Sept. 15, 2011.

This conversation is part of a Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State. On Thursday, Sept. 15, Future Tense will be hosting an event in Washington, D.C., on the boundaries between humans and machines, “Is Our Techno-Human Marriage in Need of Counseling?” [I removed the RSVP]

You can watch the livestreamed event here.

Coincidentally, Brain Gear is opening today. From the host’s (University of Groningen in The Netherlands) website page,

BRAIN GEAR, A conference in Groningen on September 15 and 16.
Neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, regulators and artists discuss the available and emerging technologies to repair and enhance the brain.

Professor Andy Miah, one of the invited speakers at Brain Gear, has made his presentation, Neurodevices for the Posthuman Mind,  available for viewing at Prezi.

I find all this quite exciting given my paper, Whose electric brain? about memristors, artificial synapses, and cognitive entanglement. I have currently raised $460 towards my presentation at ISEA 2011 (International Symposium Electronic Arts). Thank you to everyone who has given funds toward my dream at DreamBank.

DreamBank and ISEA 2011

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Here I am asking for support, good wishes, funds, and/or suggestions for how I might get to Istanbul for my Sept. 19 presentation, Whose electric brain? at the International Symposium on Electronic Arts. I’ve registered my Whose electric brain? project at DreamBank where you can read more about it.

DreamBank gives 10% of its revenues to charities and you (the dreamer) get to select one of their charities when you post your dream. I’ve selected the African Wildlife Foundation.

As for my project, I’m thrilled to say I now have $240 towards my presentation.  If you’re inclined to help support my Istanbul dream, please do whisper good luck, pass me a suggestion for how to get there, and/or visit DreamBank to help me raise funds.

Getting to ISEA 2011: crunch time

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I have been working on getting funds so I can attend the International Symposium on Electronic Arts 2011 for my scheduled Sept. 19, 2011 presentation Biosynthetics and Body – Machine. It’s a cutting edge conference and an opportunity to present my work on memristors, artificial synapses and brains, and cognitive entanglement. That last one, cognitive entanglement, is a concept I’ve developed and continue to work on. It is my contribution to the national and international discussion about nanotechnology and its possible future uses and social implications.

I have tried a number of ways to raise funds for this including posting a pitch on Crowdfunder, an all or nothing crowdfunding site. Sadly, I did not reach my target, which means the pledged money was returned to the funders. I also reached out to friends and supporters who have made many helpful suggestions, which I either couldn’t carry out (not enough time to throw a fundraising party, etc.) or which didn’t bear fruit (calling someone’s Ottawa contact and discovering that my project doesn’t fall into one of their categories, etc.).

So, if any of you have any ideas on how I might get to the conference at this late date (this time I can’t afford to self-fund), I would appreciate hearing from you.

Time is ticking on my Crowdfunder pitch: Whose electric brain?

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I have 12 days left to reach my target of 4000 GPB needed so I can present my work at ISEA 2011 in Istanbul. Here’s an excerpt from my pitch,

Whose electric brain? my presentation about memristors (a nanoelectronics concept), cognitive entanglement, and artificial brains (accepted from a field of over 2000 submissions) is scheduled for Sept. 19, 2011 in a session titled, Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Presentation.My co-presenters include an engineering team from Brazil, the director of the SymbioticA Lab (University of Western Australia (they developed the Fish & Chips project), and an artist from Montréal, Québec. You can find the description here: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/content/biosynthetics-and-body-machine-relationships

My latest work on cognitive entanglement and memristors is the outcome of thousands of hours of research and thinking. The next logical step is to share it at a cutting edge conference where the ideas will be challenged and hopefully become part of the international discussion about life, biological and/or artificial, in the 21st century. As a contributor you can be part of this journey with me to Istanbul and beyond.

Comments from Colin Milburn, author of Nanovision and Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis

… I was delighted to discover your message in my inbox, along with your outstanding paper on the memristor.  Let me hasten to say that I think this is a fascinating, provocative piece, and I am sure it will make a big impact at the ISEA conference in Istanbul.  Thank you for sending it to me — I am very glad to know of your work. In fact, I think the paper is quite polished and persuasive.

Here’s a link to the pitch.

Whose electric brain? Crowdfunder pitch

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Last I wrote (July 5, 2011) about my proposed presentation at the International Symposium on Electronic Arts in Istanbul (Sept. 14-21, 2011), I was looking for ideas on how I might fund my way there. Since then, I’ve decided to try crowdfunding. It’s like crowdsourcing, i. e., posting a question and getting ideas from a host of people but posting a pitch for money to follow through on a project.

There are a number of sites where you can upload a pitch and solicit funds: IndieGoGo, which has been around since 2008, Kickstarter, Funding 4 Learning, and Crowdfunder (the one I picked), amongst others.

Here’s a little bit About Crowdfunder,

Whether your project is big or small, hare-brained or thoughtful, serious or just for fun – we want to hear from you. Crowdfunder aims to fund all sorts of crazy, arty, funny, ingenious and jaw-dropping projects. So if you’re an artist, explorer, musician, writer, entrepreneur or thrill seeker get in touch and kick start your project with Crowdfunder today.

I chose this site partly because it has a go/no go policy. In other words, I have to reach my target (4000 GBP) to get the money. IndieGoGo for example, will let you keep whatever percentage of the funds you raise, which is not helpful to me since I either have enough money to get to Istanbul or not.

Here’s an excerpt from the Whose electric brain? pitch I’ve submitted,

You’ve heard of the ‘uncanny valley’, the point at which human beings become uncomfortable with robots because they look too much like humans?  Well, I’m taking it a step further with cognitive entanglement, a new concept I’m proposing and developing for a presentation and paper at the 17th International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA). This conference presents cutting edge academic and artistic work internationally and in 2011, it is being held in Istanbul from Sept. 14 -21 concurrently with the 12th Istanbul Biennial, considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious art festivals.

Whose electric brain? my presentation about memristors (a nanoelectronics concept), cognitive entanglement, and artificial brains (accepted from a field of over 2000 submissions) is scheduled for Sept. 19, 2011 in a session titled, Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Presentation.My co-presenters include an engineering team from Brazil, the director of the SymbioticA Lab (University of Western Australia; they developed the Fish & Chips project), and an artist from Montréal, Québec. You can find the description here: http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/content/biosynthetics-and-body-machine-relationships

My latest work on cognitive entanglement and memristors is the outcome of thousands of hours of research and thinking. The next logical step is to share it at a cutting edge conference where the ideas will be challenged and hopefully become part of the international discussion about what life biological and/or artificial in the 21st century. As a contributor you can be part of this journey with me to Istanbul.

Here’s an excerpt from how I describe my self in relation to this work,

As an independent  scholar, my current work centres on how nanotechnology is communicated and its social implications. Previous successes include, producing and writing a video on intercultural communication (Bridging the Cultural Gap) that was used as a teaching tool internationally. I also produced an event (WritingWise) which brought together songwriters, technical writers, comic book writers, games writers, new media writers, poets and others to discuss the impact that technology is having on the word in its various forms.

As for Whose electric brain?, I’ve gone just about as far as I can alone. Developing my current work further means that I need to present and discuss it with colleagues and there just aren’t that many people in the world who have the same interest. That’s why this conference is so important to me and, more importantly, the work, which pulls together concepts in electrical engineering, philosophy, physics, and literary theory, while introducing something new, cognitive entanglement.

Please pass the link on to anyone who might be interested in the topic and/or funding my presentation in Istanbul. (I hope to post a video about my paper and the symposium at the Crowdfunder website in the next few weeks and to update my pitch in other ways on a regular basis.)

Here’s the unadorned link, http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/whose-electric-brain-298#entrepreneur_details

One final note: Crowdfunder is based in the UK, so all funds are in GBP.

ISEA 2011: Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Relationships

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ISEA (International Symposium on Electronic Arts) 2011 is being held in Istanbul, Turkey from Sept. 14-21, 2011. I submitted a proposal for a paper which was accepted and I have been included in the Biosynthetics and Body – Machine Presentation (from the presentation webpage),

Art and Life: Biocybrid systems and the reengineering of reality by Diana Domingues, Adson Ferreira da Rocha, and Cristiano Jacques Miosso/ ColourBlind by Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow/ Morphogenesis by Christophe Viau/ Whose electric brain by Maryse Simone de la Giroday/ Fish and Chips, MEART and Silent Barrage, pioneering cybernetic organisms from the SymbioticA research Group by Stuart Bunt

I’m very excited about the conference and it overlaps with the 12th Istanbul Biennial, which runs from Sept. 17 – Nov. 13, 2011. My fellow presenters are quite exciting too. I’ve looked up each presenter and linked to information about them and/or their work.

Diana Domingues exhibition website providing some biographical info. in English.

Adson Ferreira da Rocha (faculty page in Portuguese?)

Cristiano Jacques Miosso (a paper on biocybrid systems he co-authored with Diana Domingues and Adson Ferreira da Rocha)

Alan Dunning (a biography of Dunning on the Fondation Langlois website; he lives in Alberta, Canada)

Paul Woodrow (faculty page at the University of Calgary [Alberta, Canada])

Christophe Viau at Biodesign (en français)

Maryse de la Giroday (me)

SymbioticA (Stuart Blunt) laboratory webpage and newsletter description of Stuart Blunt’s career at the University of Western Australia and his role at SymbioticA.

It’s an eclectic group of artists, engineers, a neuroscientist, and me (a writer). I’d love to attend although it seems unlikely. If you have any ideas for creative (or not)  fundraising for an independent scholar scheduled for a Sept. 19, 2011 presentation at ISEA 2011, I’d love to hear them.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a lengthy (34 mins.) conversation between the two curators (Jens Hoffman and Adriano Pedrosa) selected for the 12th Istanbul Biennial.

Sabanci University, nanotechnology, and ISEA 2011

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The Sabanci University’s (Istanbul, Turkey) new Nanotechnology and Application Center (SUNAC) has placed an order for an electron-beam lithography system. From the Jan. 26 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

“The EBPG5000plusES is a 100kV high performance system, which is state of the art. It will enable us to address the nanotechnology development needs of natural sciences, applied sciences and engineering programs”, says Dr. Volkan Özgüz, Director of the Nanotechnology and Application Center. “Due to its flexibility and advantages, the EBPG5000plusES is a perfect investment for the future and will help to establish SUNAC as one of Turkeys leading nanotechnology institution.”

Vistec’s EBPG5000plusES are dedicated electron-beam lithography systems, which have been developed to meet the diverse requirements for advanced nano-lithography applications in direct write for both R&D and production of GaAs devices. It enables a rapid exposure with a 25MHz rate and a minimum feature size of less than 8nm. The EBPG5000plusES system is capable to expose various substrate types including masks and dimensions up to 150mm size.

This is the first “nanotechnology in Turkey” item I’ve come across. It caught my eye since Sabanci University will be hosting the 2011 International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA), Sept. 14 – 21 2011. (I posted about my experiences at ISEA 2009 in Belfast in my Sept. 30, 2009 and Oct. 1, 2009 postings.) I didn’t get to the 2010 ISEA but have submitted an abstract of paper for 2011 in Istanbul.