TransVision 2010, October 22-24, 2010

TransVision 2010 (Milan, October 22-24, 2010) is over. The conference has been a full 2-way “mixed-reality” event, with speakers and participants in both Milan and Teleplace. Please see the first conference report on Giulio Prisco’s blog and the more detailed article on KurzweilAI.

Video coverage – The HD videos taken in Milan will be available on the conference’s DVD and online on blip.tv, see the index on the TransVision 2010 website. Some participants have also recorded videos from Teleplace. The videos are available on telexlr8.blip.tv. Thanks to Phillip Galinsky, Next Dila Dreamhacker, G. Stephens and others.

VIDEO 1A: Day 1, Part A – 360×240 resolution, 1 hour 35 min. Francesco Verso (last part of his talk), Riccardo Campa on Italian Futurism, Antonio Saccoccio, Roberto Guerra (also with contributions from Graziano Cecchini and Vitaliano Teti).
VIDEO 2A: Day 2, Part A – 600×400 resolution, 1 hour 10 min. Aubrey de Grey (last part of his talk), Max More.
VIDEO 2B: Day 2, Part B – 600×400 resolution, 1 hour 44 min. Martine Rothblatt, Giuseppe Vatinno, David Orban.
VIDEO 2C: Day 2, Part C – 360×240 resolution, 1 hour 45 min. Mike Treder, Giulio Prisco, Emanuele Ratti.
VIDEO 2D: Day 2, Part D – 360×240 resolution, 2 hours 10 min. From Teleplace: Eugen Leitl, Robert Geraci, Natasha Vita-More.
VIDEO 2E: Day 2, Part E – 360×240 resolution, 23 min. From Teleplace: David Styles.
VIDEO 3A: Day 3, Part A – 360×240 resolution, 3 hours 29 min. Miriam Ji Sun, Dan Massey, Roberto Marchesini, Remi Sussan, David Pearce.
VIDEO 3B: Day 3, Part B – 360×240 resolution, 2 hours 59 min. Polytopia project, Anders Sandberg, Marta Rossi and Jacopo Tagliabue, Randal A. Koene, Fiorella Terenzi (by proxy).
VIDEO 3C: Day 3, Part C – 600×400 resolution, 2 hours 59 min. Polytopia project, Anders Sandberg, Marta Rossi and Jacopo Tagliabue, Randal A. Koene, Fiorella Terenzi (by proxy). Same as Day 3 part b with higher resolution.

NOTES: To download the source .mp4 video files from blip.tv, open the “Files and Links” box.

We had about 30 remote participants in the TVirtual online extension of TransVision 2010, hosted by the teleXLR8 project based on the Teleplace online telepresence platform. Remote participants have been able to watch all talks in realtime, and interact with speakers and other participants. We used two Teleplace workstations, one to stream the video and voice of the speaker and to interact with remote participants, and one to stream the speaker’s slides. For those speakers without presentations in .ppt or .pdf, we used the second Teleplace workstation to show the audience in Milan to the audience in Teleplace. In the afternoon of the second day we have reversed the procedure outlined above and shown remote talks from speakers in Teleplace to the audience in Milan.

Max Hodak on Brain-machine interfacing: current work and future directions, Teleplace, October 17

Max Hodak gave an ASIM Expert Series talk in Teleplace on “Brain-machine interfacing: current work and future directions” on Sunday October 17.

About 30 participants attended the talk and contributed to the discussion with very interesting questions and comments. For those who could not attend we have recorded everything (talk, Q/A and discussion) on video. There are 4 different videos on blip.tv:

VIDEO 1: 600×400 resolution, 57 min
VIDEO 2: 600×400 resolution, 58 min, taken (mostly) from a fixed point of view
VIDEO A: 360×240 resolution, 61 min, recorded by Phillip Galinsky
VIDEO B: 600×400 resolution, 68 min, recorded by Next Dila Dreamhacker

NOTES: To download the source .mp4 video files from blip.tv, open the “Files and Links” box.

Abstract: Fluid, two-way brain-machine interfacing represents one of the greatest challenges of modern bioengineering. It offers the potential to restore movement and speech to the locked-in, and ultimately allow us as humans to expand far beyond the biological limits we’re encased in now. But, there’s a long road ahead. Today, noninvasive BMIs are largely useless as practical devices and invasive BMIs are critically limited, though progress is being made everyday. Microwire array recording is used all over the world to decode motor intent out of cortex to drive robotic actuators and software controls. Electrical intracortical microstimulation is used to “write” information to the brain, and optogenetic methods promise to make that easier and safer. Monkey models can perform tasks from controlling a walking robot to feeding themselves with a 7-DOF robotic arm. Before we’ll be able to make the jump to humans, biocompatibility of electrodes and limited channel counts are significant hurdles that will need to be crossed. These technologies are still in their infancy, but they’re a huge opportunity in science for those motivated to help bring them through to maturity.

Max Hodak is a scientist-in-training working on brain-machine interfacing at Duke. He founded Quantios to use computing, machine learning to improve life. American, French dual citizen.

Teleplace is one of the best 3D applications for telework, online meetings, group collaboration, and e-learning in a virtual 3D environment (v-learning).

Administrative note

We are moving toward the operational phase of the teleXLR8 project as explained in “teleXLR8 Project News“. We will soon run teleXLR8 in fully operational mode on our own dedicated servers, network and support infrastructure, and open it to everyone for a very reasonable membership fee. The current beta will continue until the start of the next phase, and those who were members of the beta group at the end of September will receive one year free membership.

To those who are requesting accounts to participate in the talks, we are now offering one month trial accounts. Please contact us to convert a trial account into a full account.

Max Hodak on Brain-machine interfacing: current work and future directions, Teleplace, October 17, 10am PST

UPDATE: see Max Hodak on Brain-machine interfacing: current work and future directions, Teleplace, October 17, with pictures and full video coverage.

Max Hodak will give an ASIM Expert Series talk in Teleplace on “Brain-machine interfacing: current work and future directions” on Sunday October 17, 2010, at 10am PST (1pm EST, 6pm UK, 7pm CET). Those who already have Teleplace accounts for teleXLR8 can just ahow up at the talk. There are a limited number of seats available for others, please contact Giulio Prisco if you wish to attend.

Abstract: Fluid, two-way brain-machine interfacing represents one of the greatest challenges of modern bioengineering. It offers the potential to restore movement and speech to the locked-in, and ultimately allow us as humans to expand far beyond the biological limits we’re encased in now. But, there’s a long road ahead. Today, noninvasive BMIs are largely useless as practical devices and invasive BMIs are critically limited, though progress is being made everyday. Microwire array recording is used all over the world to decode motor intent out of cortex to drive robotic actuators and software controls. Electrical intracortical microstimulation is used to “write” information to the brain, and optogenetic methods promise to make that easier and safer. Monkey models can perform tasks from controlling a walking robot to feeding themselves with a 7-DOF robotic arm. Before we’ll be able to make the jump to humans, biocompatibility of electrodes and limited channel counts are significant hurdles that will need to be crossed. These technologies are still in their infancy, but they’re a huge opportunity in science for those motivated to help bring them through to maturity.

Max Hodak is a scientist-in-training working on brain-machine interfacing at Duke. He founded Quantios to use computing, machine learning to improve life. American, French dual citizen.

Teleplace is one of the best 3D applications for telework, online meetings, group collaboration, and e-learning in a virtual 3D environment (v-learning). Those who already have Teleplace accounts for teleXLR8 can just ahow up at the talk. There are a limited number of seats available for others, please contact Giulio Prisco if you wish to attend.

Paul McGlothin on Calorie Restriction in Humans at ImmInst 2010 via Teleplace

Paul McGlothin has given a talk on “Calorie Restriction in Humans” at the Immortality Institute International Conference 2010 on Sunday October 10 via Teleplace.

VIDEO: 600×400 resolution, 54 min

Paul McGlothin is Vice President for Research and Director of the Calorie Restriction Society and co-author of “The CR Way“.

Michael Rose on A New Immortalist Strategy at ImmInst 2010 via Teleplace

Prof. Dr. Michael Rose has given a talk on “A New Immortalist Strategy” at the Immortality Institute International Conference 2010 on Saturday October 9 via Teleplace.

VIDEO: 600×400 resolution, 1h 11 min

Prof. Dr. Michael Rose is one of the most eminent evolutionary biologists specialized in aging. He has written several books including “The long tomorrow“. Prof. Rose is Chief Scientist at Genescient.

TransVision 2010 Conference to be streamed live interactively in Teleplace

UPDATE – Please see the first conference report on Giulio Prisco’s blog and our (almost) full video coverage from Teleplace.

Those who wish to attend the TransVision 2010 conference and community convention (October 22, 23 and 24 in Milan, Italy) but cannot come to Milan will have the option to participate remotely in the TVirtual online extension, watch all talks in realtime, and interact with speakers and other participants. TVirtual, hosted by the teleXLR8 project based on the Teleplace online telepresence platform, will be a mixed-reality event similar to the recent ASIM 2010 Conference.

TVirtual tickets are available at a very reduced price. Those who register for the full 3-days TVirtual before or on Sunday, October 10, including of course those who have registered already, will receive a free yearly membership in teleXLR8. Those who register for the full 3-days TVirtual after this date will be offered a 50% discount for yearly membership in teleXLR8. Current teleXLR8 beta account holders will be welcome to participate in TVirtual.

If you choose to attend TVirtual, you will be able to watch all talks, see and talk to speakers and other participants, and attend special telepresence sessions during, before and after the conference. In the pictures above, a TV10 planning session and several TransVision 2010 speakers giving talks in Teleplace at recent events. Please see the teleXLR8 website for full video coverage of recent transhumanist talks.

For a more detailed description of the objectives of our online events program, see our mini-manifesto Telepresence Education for a Smarter World on the IEET site and the interview MIND and MAN: Getting Mental with Giulio Prisco, by Natasha Vita-More, on H+ Magazine. See also teleXLR8 Project News – a telepresence community for cultural acceleration.