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July 19-21, 2013
Hilton Chicago Hotel
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Preconference Courses: July 18-19, 2013
Professional Members’ Forum: July 22, 2013

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WorldFuture 2013 Sci/Tech Sessions

Envisioning the Future of Technology through "Sci-Fi Scaffolding"

A whirlwind overview of how technology is changing our lives. Mr. Zappa will explain how technology and humanity are fundamentally intertwined, the presentation establishes the imperatives and trends that will drive the near future.

Michell Zappa is a global emerging technology strategist who publishes a project entitled Envisioning Technology. His focus is on explaining futurism and technological scenarios using visualizations and creativity drawn from science fiction, London, United Kingdom

From Highly Centralized to Highly Decentralized Society

Modern society depends on centralized food and energy production. But distribution is a critical link, vulnerable to natural disasters, devastating pandemics, war, and other events unlikely in the short term but risky to assume will never happen. Then modern society and many millions of people would be in serious trouble.

Daniel Berleant is a professor, University of Arkansas, author of The Human Race to the Future: What May Happen—and What to Do, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

The Future of Celebrations

Retirement. Weddings. Birthdays. What milestones will define the next horizon and how will we celebrate them? Technological innovations will intersect social changes to shift the way we highlight the extraordinary. Augmented reality, gamification, robotics, and virtual worlds will impact existing networks to drive new landscapes of interaction.

Emily Empel@localrat is a trend spotter, marketing disciple and corporate futurist, Winter Park, Florida, USA

Transition Engineering

Adapting to the exponential increase in fuel and resource consumption of the last century was challenging, but accomplished by engineering that focused on growth of infrastructure and new products to keep up with demand. What happens as growth in resource and energy supply stalls and declines over the next century?

Susan Krumdieck has worked to develop the analysis and design methods of transition engineering for more than 15 years. The new methods have now been published and deployed to reveal distinctly different future visions for various cities and organizations. Dr. Krumdieck is working with other academic and professional engineers to establish the International Society of Transition Engineers, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.
Frank Kreith, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Daniel Kenning, IMechE, Chelmsford, United Kingdom
Carey King, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA

The Rise of Citizen Science

Thousands worldwide participate in citizen science projects, from counting backyard birds to searching for extraterrestrial communication. In-person and online, this popular pastime is evolving from hobby to serious science.

Kathleen Toerpe teaches social sciences at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and is a citizen scientist, Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, USA

Digital Outcasts: Designing the Future of Health

The term “outcast” covers numerous demographic categories. It represents 54 million Americans currently living with a disability. It refers to those living in isolation with only a home-care nurse for company.

Kel Smith is a speaker, author, and practitioner on digital accessibility and technological innovation. He is the author of Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward Without Leaving People Behinda (2013), Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA

Accelerating Progress: How to Thrive in an Ever Faster, Smarter, Smaller, Richer, Freer, Stabler World

This talk will give you an overview of how and why our world gets faster and better every decade, and how to see and benefit from the next great steps in the human adventure.

John Smart (@johnmsmart) is a professional futurist. He is president of the Acceleration Studies Foundation, curator of the popular Accelerating Change conferences, 2003-2005, co-founder of the Evo Devo Universe complex systems research community and the Foresight Education and Research Network, Futures Studies and Forecasting Advisor at Singularity University, lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Leadership and Technological Change, and vice president of the Brain Preservation Foundation.

The Hackerspace Movement: Hacking the Future

In 2007 there were a handful of hackerspaces. Now there are more than 1,100 existing or forming throughout the world. All this has happened without a central organization, and with very little money. This growing movement has exploded because individuals started these supportive communities where people can explore and do what they love.

Mitch Altman (@maltman23) is a hacker and inventor best known for inventing the TV-B-Gone remote control, a keychain that turns off TVs in public places. He was also a co-founder of 3ware and of Noisebridge, a San Francisco hacker space, and president and CEO of Cornfield Electronics, San Francisco, California, USA

Faster Than You Think: Progress Toward Artificial General Intelligence

The current state of research on Artificial General Intelligence will be surveyed, including computer-science-based and brain-based approaches. Plausible pathways from the current state of the art to Singularity-enabling advanced AGI will be outlined in detail.

Ben Goertzel (@bengoertzel) is chief scientist of financial prediction firm Aidyia Holdings; chairman of AI software company Novamente LLC and bioinformatics company Biomind LLC; chairman of the Artificial General Intelligence Society and the OpenCog Foundation; vice chairman of futurist nonprofit Humanity+; scientific advisor of biopharma firm Genescient Corp.; advisor to the Singularity University and Singularity Institute, Hong Kong

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