And the message is what? I get the impression that it's the dreamy idea that we still have limitless opportunity for controlling nature without consequences. Nature would seem to be displaying diminishing returns and surprising large scale natural system blowbacks all over the place in response to man's main attempt at 'limitless control'. The Edge seems to see that as the illusion, not the idea of how hot it would be to reach for ever greater of control over things we haven't screwed up yet. Is that about right?
Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/> -- "it's not finding what people say interesting, but finding what's interesting in what they say" -- -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Randy Burge Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:08 PM To: FRIAM Subject: [FRIAM] EDGE publishes "Life: what a Concept!" transcript as a downloadable pdf book A couple of weeks ago, Paul recommended The Edge, which I checked out. Thanks Paul. The Edge has published a free pdf book online capturing the dialog around Life: What a concept! an inspired gathering held in August 2007 Edge: The Third Culture Intro page: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#life Document: http://www.edge.org/documents/life/Life_Full.pdf "I just read the Life transcript book and it is fantastic. One of the better books I've read in a while. Super rich, high signal to noise, great subject." Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, Wired EDGE PUBLISHES "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT!" TRANSCRIPT AS DOWNLOADABLE PDF BOOK [1.14.08] Edge is pleased to announce the online publication of the complete transcript of this summer's Edge event, Life: What a Concept! as a 43,000- word downloadable PDF Edge book. The event took place at Eastover Farm in Bethlehem, CT on Monday, August 27th. Invited to address the topic "Life: What a Concept!" were Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, and Seth Lloyd, who focused on their new, and in more than a few cases, startling research, and/or ideas in the biological sciences. Reporting on the August event, Andrian Kreye, Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas) Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: "Soon genetic engineering will shape our daily life to the same extent that computers do today. This sounds like science fiction, but it is already reality in science. Thus genetic engineer George Church talks about the biological building blocks that he is able to synthetically manufacture. It is only a matter of time until we will be able to manufacture organisms that can self-reproduce, he claims. Most notably J. Craig Venter succeeded in introducing a copy of a DNA-based chromosome into a cell, which from then on was controlled by that strand of DNA." Jordan Mejias, Arts Correspondent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, noted that: "These are thoughts to make jaws drop...Nobody at Eastover Farm seemed afraid of a eugenic revival. What in German circles would have released violent controversies, here drifts by unopposed under mighty maple trees that gently whisper in the breeze." Click here for the Edge feature on the "Life: What a Concept!" August event (photo album; streaming video; links). http://www.edge.org/documents/life/life_index.html
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