artificial intelligence

"We, Robot: Skywalker's Hand, Blade Runners, Iron Man, Slutbots, and How Fiction Became Fact", the new book by Robolift speaker Mark Maedows will be available just in time for christmas!

"We, Robot" explores with an irresistible blend of hard science, futurist imagination, solid statistics, pop culture, and plenty of humor how close to becoming reality are our favorite science fiction robots. And what might be the real-life consequences of their existence.

Meadows reveals robots that hunt humans, walk your dog, tidy up the house, invest your money, and campaign for your favorite political candidate. What will we see in the coming decade? Robots just like the ones in Iron Man, Blade Runner, and Neuromancer. Readers will learn about the near-future robots who dodge bullets, love you, and get hurt when you don’t love them back.

At the Robolift conference Mark Maedows will speak in the "Social implications of robotics"-session and share his experience as robotics and artificial intelligence expert. Learn more about Mark Maedows on his Robolift speaker profile.

Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist who, together with Robert Kahn, invented the Internet. His contributions have been recognized repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Turing Award, the Japan Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Vint has worked for Google as its Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist since October 2005. In this role he has become well known for his predictions on how technology will affect future society, encompassing such areas as artificial intelligence, environmentalism, the advent of IPV6 and the transformation of the television industry and its delivery model. He is also working with NASA on the implementation of an interplanetary extension of the Internet.

Why LIFT
For Vint, LIFT is an opportunity to see through many eyes the strengths and weaknesses of prediction and vision about the Future. He would like to compare with others the speculative exploration of future, unexplored landscapes and to compare those speculative explorations with the reality that emerged from the past.

What Vint expects
Vint has high expectations for the conference in February. He told us that he would like to have a much clearer sense of what the future may hold, in part to enhance imagination and also to find realistic paths towards technological progress.

The talks (sorry in french) from last week are online on klewel.ch:

http://www.klewel.ch/technoark2008.php
http://www.klewel.ch/technoark2008light.php
http://www.klewel.ch/technoark2008texte.php

[it includes videos, slide synchronisation, slide search mechanism.]

Like last year, we will profile LIFT08 speakers on the conference blog to allow you to know them in advance, and make decisions regarding the presentations you want to attend.

Kevin Warwick: Cyborg and Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University in the UK

Why we invited Kevin
Kevin's research and achievements have been widely recognised and awarded. Last year Daniela Cerqui (Anthropologist) spoke at LIFT about her research and experience at his laboratory in Reading. She has been exploring from an anthropological perspective what has led Kevin to having chips implanted into his body. So this year we invited Kevin to present us with his perspective.

What will he talk about?
Apart from sharing his insights with us from the point of view of a Cyborg and a professor of Cybernetics, Kevin will also talk about how his work is breaking physical, ethical and philosophical boundaries. For more info on Kevin and his activities, check out his biography.

Official Biography
Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics and carries out research in artificial intelligence, control, robotics and biomedical engineering. He is also Director of the University Knowledge Transfer Centre, which links the University with Small to Medium Enterprises and raises well over £2Million each year in research income for the University or Reading.
See Kevin's LIFT Profile to learn more about this groundbreaking researcher.