Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagCOSM 2021

illustration-of-red-blood-cells-with-cancer-cells-stockpack-adobe-stock
Illustration of red blood cells with cancer cells.

“Killing Disease and Living Longer” Biotech Panel Now Online

Combining information technology with microscopic nanotechnology can help us find and weaken toxic bacteria so antibiotics can destroy them

Here’s the Innovations in Biotech workshop at COSM 2021 dedicated to “Killing Disease and Living Longer,” on November 11, 2021 in Bellevue, Washington: Panelists: Matt McIlwain (Moderator) — Managing Director, Madrona Venture GroupStephen C. Meyer — Director, Center for Science and CultureJim Tour — T.t. and W.f. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Rice UniversityMatthew Scholz — CEO, Oisin Biotechnologies Attendee Casey Luskin offers an overview of this panel at Manipulating Molecules: Combining info + nano for better medicine: At COSM 2021, scientists like Jim Tour and entrepreneurs like Matt Scholz offer a window into how we are learning to manipulate the building blocks of life (November 12, 2021). For example, Tour and his team are designing light-activated nanodrills which can drill Read More ›

young-sample-plant-growing-in-test-tube-biotechnology-research-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
young sample plant growing in test tube , biotechnology research concept

What Biotech Innovations Can Help Us Live Longer, Healthier?

Jay Richards interviews venture capitalist Matt McIlwain, whose firm invests in new tech on current promising new directions

At COSM 2021, business prof Jay Richards interviewed venture capitalist Matt McIlwain, CEO of the Madrona Group, which invests in a wide range of promising software applications: McIlwain chaired a panel on innovations in biotech, “Killing Disease and Living Longer” on November 11, 2021: Matt Mcilwain (Moderator) — Managing Director, Madrona Venture GroupStephen C. Meyer — Director, Center for Science and CultureJim Tour — T.t. and W.f. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Rice UniversityMatthew Scholz — CEO, Oisin Biotechnologies Casey Luskin offers an account of McIlwain’s 2021 panel at “Manipulating molecules: Combining info + nano for better medicine”: Yesterday at COSM 2021, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer, synthetic organic chemist James Tour, and biotech entrepreneur Matthew Scholz looked at how nanotechnology Read More ›

aerial-view-over-cupertino-in-bay-area-california-on-a-sunny-day-stockpack-adobe-stock
Aerial view over Cupertino in Bay Area, California on a sunny day.

Is It Really the End for Silicon Valley or Just a Reboot?

A COSM 2021 panel looked at the effect of remote work, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, on iconic locations like the Valley

“Is It the End for Silicon Valley?” was one of the discussions at COSM 2021 (2:00 pm, Wednesday, November 11, 2021). It featured The conversation turned on whether, in the internet age, one needs to work in any specific locality, like Silicon Valley. Some of their comments relating to where people will live in relation to their work and the problems they will face are transcribed below: Work where you live or live where you work? — How can Silicon Valley keep its people together in the age of the internet? Babak Parviz: We have a title, “Is this is the end of Silicon Valley, as in the space is no longer important. It’s going to be localized and you Read More ›

thank-you-stockpack-adobe-stock
Thank You

Search Engines: Closing the Gap for Minority Languages

Thousands of the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. At COSM 2021, Phil Parker outlined a plan for giving them access to information

We’ve all consulted “Dr. Google” for a health ailment or to find a recipe or learn how to fix something perhaps. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not. But what if you asked Google something — and it didn’t even recognize your language? Phil Parker, speaking at COSM 2021, told the story of a woman in Ethiopia searching for “lump in breast,” using one of the over 80 languages or dialects spoken in the region. Her language was one of thousands spoken by only a comparatively small population. The search engine did not recognize her input and returned no hits. She tried her query in Swahili, but there was nothing she found informative about “breast lumps” in Swahili. She finally tried her search Read More ›

flag-of-china-and-clock-stockpack-adobe-stock
Flag of China and clock

Gingrich at COSM: China Is the Greatest Threat to Global Freedom

Newt Gingrich fears America will lose to China. George Gilder argues that thinking that way is self-defeating and stupid

At COSM 2021, philosopher of technology George Gilder and political analyst Newt Gingrich sparred over U.S.–China relations. Gilder and Gingrich, a former U.S. Congressman, exemplify the two predominant views on China today. Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and author Gingrich says the U.S. should decouple from China, while economist and author Gilder sees collaboration with China as our best — and only — option. Gingrich: Optimism about a more open China is waning In his opening remarks, Gingrich recalled that he was once an optimist that Chinese reformist leader Deng Xiaoping’s opening up strategy would usher in a more democratic China because Communism was incompatible with a free market economy. But, Gingrich, who has been a history Read More ›

robot assistant
Girl in orange shirt standing near house robot

Silicon Valley Insider: Why Friendly Super-AI Won’t Happen

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel talks about the Great Filter hypothesis: Why should we assume a superior artificial intelligence would be friendly?

In a wide-ranging talk at the recent COSM 2021 conference (November 10–12), Peter Thiel (a PayPal and Facebook founder) expressed concern that people worry a great deal about artificial intelligence that thinks like people (AGI) but the real push now is for massive “dumb” surveillance AI peering into every detail of our lives, for the benefit of either government or the corporate world. He went on to say that he doubts that artificial general intelligence (AGI) — “superhuman software that can do everything that we can do” — would, in any event, be “friendly.” That is, that it “won’t kill us.” If it is intelligent enough to be independent, why should we assume so? “Friendly” is a human value, hard Read More ›

COSM-2021-Niall-Ferguson-174A3305
George Gilder and Niall Ferguson at COSM 2021 on Doom

Historian Supports New Anti-Cancel Culture University

Niall Ferguson hopes that the new University of Austin will unite traditional wisdom with new technology in a spirit of free enquiry

At COSM 2021 yesterday, prominent historian Niall Ferguson talked about his decision to sign up with the new University of Austin, founded in explicit opposition to rampant political correctness and censorship on university campuses, which is beginning to affect quality scholarship. In response to a question from the floor, Ferguson, author of Doom: The politics of catastrophe (2021), outlined the seriousness of the problem: Well, it’s just been announced this week that we’re trying to create a new university, University of Austin, committed to the fundamental principles of, of academic freedom of free inquiry. And the reason we have to do this is that we see so many limitations on free inquiry and academic freedom at the established universities. The Read More ›

seattle-skyline-at-sunset-with-space-needle-stockpack-adobe-stock
Seattle Skyline at Sunset with Space needle

Venture Capital Manager at COSM 2021 to Listen and Learn

The Managing Director of Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group will moderate two panels on new technologies that can shake things up

In 2019, Madrona’s Matt McIlwain moderated a panel at the COSM 2019 Technology Summit, “AI’s Role in Unlocking Human Potential.” The panel followed tech pioneer and prophet Ray Kurzweil’s livestreamed address in which he predicted that we will merge with our computers by 2045 — The Singularity: “Our intelligence will then be a combination of our biological and non-biological intelligence,” he explained. We will be apps of our smart computers. Or will we? And if that happened, would it be progress? Already, we freak out when we can’t find our phones, or our computers crash, or the internet is down. Or the power goes off. Yet Isaac Newton changed physics with a pen and paper. So did Albert Einstein. McIlwain Read More ›

silicon-valley-traffic-sign-stockpack-adobe-stock
silicon valley traffic sign

George Gilder Asks Silicon Valley Again: What’s It All About?

As the author of Wealth and Poverty (1981), Gilder hopes to challenge both the boosters and the doomsayers on why we are doing high tech

If you make it to COSM 2021 (November 10–12, Bellevue, Washington), you won’t want to miss George Gilder, the tech philosopher whose approach to technology is COSM’s inspiration: We do technology if it helps us, not just because it helps Silicon Valley. His bestseller, Wealth and Poverty (Basic Books, 1981) probed basic questions like why we work and how we decide something has value. His Life after Google (2018) looks at what we can do with sophisticated tech when Silicon Valley no longer micromanages everything. At COSM 2019, Gilder asked Big Tech pioneers, movers, and shakers, where all this is going. What is the value? He got some good answers on, for example, the real life prospects and limits of Read More ›

ethernet-cable-on-network-switches-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
ethernet cable on network switches background

Bob Metcalfe, Mastermind Behind Ethernet, to Speak at COSM 2021

An engineer and entrepreneur, he considers his work on Ethernet his "good fortune"

This November, COSM 2021 will feature some of the best minds in business, science, and technology to tackle questions about and problems with the future intersection of these fields. Bob Metcalfe is an engineer and an entrepreneur, most famously known for his involvement in the invention of the Ethernet in the 1970s, what he has called “the plumbing of the internet to customers.” For this work, he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in addition to the IEEE Medal of Honor. He went on to co-found 3Com, formulate a law named after himself (more on that later), and become the Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches today. “The story Read More ›

Abstract tech background 3D illustration. Quantum computer archi
Abstract tech background 3D illustration. Quantum computer architecture. Futuristic technologies in global communication network

Seth Lloyd Will Take Us Into the Quantum Realm at COSM 2021

Dr. Lloyd, an MIT physicist, will tackle "Quantum Computing: Does it Change Everything, or Anything?"

Quantum physics has captured the imagination of culture, despite the fact that it upends everyday physics. Take, for instance, Marvel’s Ant Man (2015), whose creators consulted with physicists in their seemingly-absurd application of quantum physics to a fictional superhero universe. Quantum science will be one of the many topics explored at COSM 2021 this November. To aid in that exploration, physicist Seth Lloyd will be joining to discuss, “Quantum Computing: Does it Change Everything, or Anything?” Dr. Lloyd earned his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University, and is currently a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. His research interests lie in quantum information and control theory. He has authored and co-authored over 200 scientific publications, and is the author of Programming the Read More ›

old-fashioned-telephones-mounted-on-wall-stockpack-adobe-stock
Old-fashioned Telephones Mounted On Wall

COSM: The Trek From Phone to Smart Phone: What Have We Learned?

Daniel Berninger, a pioneer and activist in VOIP communications, shares his insights about keeping the internet free and accessible

Daniel Berninger, an activist in the transition from plain old telephone service (POTS) to the online world of the cell phone (“disruptive communications”), will be speaking at COSM 2021. He has been involved in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) since 1995, starting with the original assessment of VoIP at Bell Laboratories and was a founder of the VON Coalition, “keeping IP communications free from government regulation.” He is a frequently cited resource on regulatory, antitrust, and VoIP issues (for example, in Business Week, WSJ, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, Forbes, Associated Press, Dow Jones, Info World and the trade press). He is also a founder of VCXC (Voice Communication Exchange Committee). His interests and approach: ➤ the decline of the Read More ›

empty-cinema-hall-with-red-seats-movie-theatre-stockpack-adobe-stock
Empty cinema hall with red seats. Movie theatre

Ari Emanuel, COSM 2021: Movie Nite’s Changed; It’s Not Just COVID

How are both streaming services and the global pandemic changing the way we watch movies?

The movie-going experience was already changing before the COVID-19 shutdowns of 2020, due to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. But the global pandemic may be changing how we watch movies forever. “The pandemic has changed everything, and that will be reflected on screen,” writes HuffPost. Headlines have roundly been indicating the same. From Quartz: “Coronavirus is pushing an already vulnerable film industry closer to the edge.” From FEE: “To Survive COVID-19, Movie Theaters Will Have to Change.” What will that change look like? Hollywood maven Ari Emanuel will be at COSM 2021 this November to explore that question. Emanuel is a businessman and super-agent (having represented names like Oprah Winfrey, Martin Scorsese, and even Donald Trump). He is the CEO Read More ›

time-stockpack-adobe-stock
time

CEO Seeking Fountain of Youth to Speak at COSM 2021

OISIN Biotechnologies seeks to make the hope of perpetual youth reality through advanced technology and medicine

COSM is described as “an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it.” What fits that description more than a company working to extend human life using advanced technology? This November, Matthew Scholz – CEO and co-founder of OISIN Biotechnologies – will be one of the many accomplished leaders in science, technology, and business to speak at COSM 2021. Based in Seattle, OISIN Biotechnologies is dedicated to “ameliorating age-associated degeneration and disease.” How so? Explains GeekWire: [OISIN is] currently developing preclinical therapies that target and kill damaged cells that have been biologically turned off or are “senescent” and supposed to die. But as people get older, the cells can persist as “zombie cells” that Read More ›

creative-ideaconcept-of-idea-and-innovation-stockpack-adobe-stock
creative idea.Concept of idea and innovation

Meet Your Host for COSM 2021, Steve Buri

Buri, President of the Discovery Institute, has been active in Washington public life for decades and looks forward to hosting thoughtful high tech pioneers

Attendees of COSM 2021 (November 10–11), where Big Tech pioneers will sit down together to think and talk about where AI is going, will have as their hos, Steve Buri. Buri, President of the Discovery Institute since 2011, will be emceeing and moderating throughout, with the goal of sharing the mission of Discovery Institute as it relates to an understanding of natural and artificial intelligence. A couple of things about Steve: He was born and raised in the small farming community ofColfax, Washington, and graduated from Washington State University with a double major in political science and criminal justice in 1994. After graduation, he was active in local politics, serving as senior staff member to U.S. Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) Read More ›

-stockpack-adobe-stock
矢印 方向転換

Love him or hate him, Newt Gingrich will be speaking at COSM!

Foes and fans on both sides of the aisle agree, he’s never just dull and wishy-washy

Newt Gingrich is one of the best known — and more controversial — figures in U.S. politics. Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, he is currently Chairman of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. Gingrich is well known as the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994, creating the first conservative majority in the House in 40 years. He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2012. He is also a podcast host (Newt’s World at Fox) and syndicated columnist, as well as the author of 40 books, including 18 fiction and nonfiction New York Times bestsellers. The bestsellers include Read More ›

quantum-computer-closeup-stockpack-adobe-stock
quantum computer closeup

Quantum Physicist Julie Love to Speak at COSM 2021

She fell in love with physics in high school, and continues to pursue that love today at Microsoft

She may not be a household name, but Dr. Julie Love works with technology that could have massive implications on our economy, in our industry and agriculture, and on society at large: Quantum computing. At this year’s COSM conference in Bellevue, Washington, Love will be addressing quantum computing and the question, “Does it change everything, or anything?” First, what exactly is quantum computing? “Quantum computing applies the properties of quantum physics to the processing of information,” Love explains in a Youtube series produced by Microsoft exploring the impact of the technology. “This exponentially faster and more powerful computing will accelerate the development of new sustainable materials, improved healthcare, methods to address food production, and combat climate change.” You can watch Read More ›

influencer-marketing-concept-of-information-and-influence-propagation-in-social-networks-stockpack-adobe-stock
Influencer Marketing, Concept of Information and Influence Propagation in Social Networks

Erik Larson To Speak at COSM 2021, Puncturing AI Myths

A programmer himself, he is honest about what AI can and can’t do

If you’ve ever got the sense that we are all being played by the people marketing “Soon AI will think just like you or me!”, you may want to catch Erik J. Larson’s talk at COSM 2021 (November 10–12). Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do (Harvard University Press, 2021), is a computer scientist and tech entrepreneur. The founder of two DARPA-funded AI startups, we are told that he is currently working on core issues in natural language processing and machine learning. He has written for The Atlantic and for professional journals and has tested the technical boundaries of artificial intelligence through his work with the IC2 tech incubator at the Read More ›

downton-bellevue-washington-with-mt-rainier-stockpack-adobe-stock
Downton Bellevue, Washington with Mt. Rainier

Meet Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft Executive and COSM 2021 Speaker

Pall has flourished as a developer and a leader in the world of artificial intelligence and speech recognition

“I believe the world is ready for autonomous systems,” says Gurdeep Singh Pall, a Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Pall will be joining the impressive lineup of speakers at COSM 2021 this November. Pall has been with Microsoft since 1990 – a long and fruitful thirty-one years in which he rose from a software design engineer to the Corporate VP for the Information Platform and Experience team. In that time, he has worked on several noteworthy projects, including Windows NT 3.1, Windows XP, Skype for Business (now Teams), and many others. Pall was born in Chandigarh, India. In later adolescence, he considered following in his Brigadier father’s footsteps by joining the Indian army. “There was something inside me that kept Read More ›

silicon-valley-and-green-hills-at-dusk-monument-peak-ed-r-levin-county-park-milpitas-california-usa-stockpack-adobe-stock
Silicon Valley and Green Hills at Dusk. Monument Peak, Ed R. Levin County Park, Milpitas, California, USA.

Is Silicon Valley Doomed? Hear Walter Myers III at COSM 2021

His experience and knowledge ranges from philosophy to biology to state policy
Is it the end for Silicon Valley? That's the question Walter Myers III will be addressing this November at COSM 2021 – an exclusive national summit in Bellevue, Washington. Read More ›