Introduction slides at the beginning of the UKH+ meeting on 15 Aug 2009

1. The future of energy Leadership and technological innovation Today : Saturday 15th Aug, 2pm-4pm Room 538, Birkbeck College, Torrington Square, WC1E 7HX James Woudhuysen , Professor of Forecasting & Innovation, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK http://www.woudhuysen.com : “Thinking about the future”

2. Improving personal life Improving society Improving the universe Extrobritannia: UK Transhumanist Association Technology Engineering Philosophy Ethics Commerce Markets Media Writing Arts Collective action Politics Enormous disruptive potential Informal workshop/get-together, 4pm today New thinking needed!

3. For more information about forthcoming UKTA (UK Transhumanist Association) meetings and other activities On Yahoo Groups – for online discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extrobritannia/ Meetings blog (supports RSS feed) : http://extrobritannia.blogspot.com/ UKTA website : http://www.humanplus.org.uk/ On Facebook : join the “UKH+” group Selected slides: http://www.slideshare.net/ukhplus/ David Wood on Twitter: dw2

4. Saturday 12th Sept, 2pm-4pm Room CLO 101, Clore Management Centre, Birkbeck College “ Quantum Computers & the creation of human-level artificial intelligence” Dr Suzanne Gildert, Research Fellow at University of Birmingham, UK This talk will put forward a case that quantum computers might help those who wish to achieve the goal of whole-brain emulation and exotic neural networks, and will review how this may provide insight into the currently hotly-debated topic of the role played by quantum mechanics in the brain and consciousness.

5. Tuesday 25th Aug, 7pm-9pm+ London Futurist Meetup http://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/ “ The future of the environment” The Assembly House Kentish Town Road London NW5 Only a fool would say that the environment we are dependant on is not important. Our increasingly technological lifestyles seem incompatible with our planet’s systems, and it looks like we could be poisoning ourselves. On the other hand new breakthroughs show ways we can carry on and maybe even control the environment so it doesn't let us down. Richie

6. Sat/Sun 19-20th Sept Cryonics UK Meeting Discussion and hands-on training Sheffield http://www.cryonics-uk.com/ Organiser: David Styles [email_address] Cryonics UK has regular quarterly meetings. These typically involve a semi-formal meeting, hands-on training, informative talks / presentations, and also have a social element too.

7. Thu-Sun 3rd-6th Sept SENS4 (“Ending Aging”) http://www.sens.org/ Queens’ College, Cambridge Organiser: Aubrey de Grey [email_address] Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence The purpose of the SENS conference series is to expedite the development of truly effective therapies to postpone and treat human aging by tackling it as an engineering problem: not seeking elusive and probably illusory magic bullets, but instead enumerating the accumulating molecular and cellular changes that eventually kill us and identifying ways to repair - to reverse - those changes, rather than merely to slow down their further accumulation.

8. Sat-Sun 3rd-4th Oct Singularity Summit, Singularity09 New York, NY http://www.singularitysummit.com/ Early Registration finishes on August 20th Speakers include: Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey, Peter Thiel, David Chalmers, Ben Goertzel, Stuart Hameroff, Robin Hanson, Michael Nielsen, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Anders Sandberg

9. The future of energy Leadership and technological innovation Today : Saturday 15th Aug, 2pm-4pm Room 538, Birkbeck College, Torrington Square, WC1E 7HX James Woudhuysen , Professor of Forecasting & Innovation, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK http://www.woudhuysen.com : “Thinking about the future” We need cheap, abundant energy. Here's how – More R&D, fewer red herrings