Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: "TransVision 2007! A global summit on grand challenges."

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Abstract:
WHO:The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) is hosting its ninth annual TransVision conference, a leading international gathering of science, technology and policy leaders, and will hold this yearís event at Chicagoís Fairmont Hotel from July 24 - 26, 2007. It is only the second time that the TransVision conference will be held in the United States. This yearís theme is ìTranshumanity Saving Humanity: Inner Space to Outer Spaceî with keynotes by internationally renowned visionaries William Shatner, Emmy award winning actor, environmentalist; Ed Begley Jr., actor and environmentalist; Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author and futurist; and Aubrey de Grey, acclaimed longevity scientist.

TransVision 2007! A global summit on grand challenges.

Chicago, IL | Posted on June 19th, 2007

Confirmed presenters include: Peter Diamondis, XPrize Foundation; James Gardner, author; Marvin Minsky, the father of artificial intelligence; Jerome C. Glenn, Millenium Project; Martine Rothblatt, founder, Terasem Movement; Max More, Chair, Extropy Institute; Natasha Vita-More, President, Extropy Institute; Nick Bostrom, Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute; James Hughes, Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies; Sky Marsen, Ph.D., Semiotics Expert, Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of London; Ron Bailey, Science Correspondent, Reason Magazine; Ralph Merkle, Alcor Foundation, Michael Weiner, President, Biophan Technologies; Michael Ekstract, Editor, Verdant Magazine; Barbara Marx Hubbard, Foundation for Conscious Evolution; Giorgio Gaviraghi, Mars Society Italia; and Dr. Andrew Rosenson, Heartscan Chicago.

WHAT: Speakers will address how emerging technology will give our societies the ability to solve the grand challenges facing humanity. Global health, the environment and space development will be addressed. The conference will consist of three days of intensive briefings by some of the most influential futurists, innovators, policy leaders and celebrities from the U.S. and around the globe.
- Day 1: Inner Space: Transforming Ourselves -- Aging, Life Extension, Nanotech, Nanomedicine, Bionics, Biotech, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, Cryonics
- Day 2: Meta Space: Transforming Humanity -- Environment, Global Warming, Sustainable Housing, Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Virtual Reality
- Day 3: Outer Space: Beyond the Planet -- Future Humans, Colonizing Outer space, Space Tourism, Future Civilizations

In addition, inventor, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil will be awarded the prestigious H.G. Wells Award, named after Herbert George Wells, a 19th and 20th Century English futurist and writer. The WTA will honor Ray Kurzweil for outstanding technical contributions made to humanity, at the Gala awards dinner reception on Thursday, July 26 at the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago. As one of the leading inventors of our time, Ray was the principal developer of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. Ray Kurzweil also has written five books, four of which have been national best sellers. The Age of Spiritual Machines has been translated into 9 languages and was the #1 best selling book on Amazon in science. Rayís latest book, The Singularity is Near, was a New York Times best seller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science and philosophy.

WHEN:
- Monday, July 23, 2007: Opening night reception at Chicagoís Fairmont Hotel
- Tuesday, July 24 ñ Thursday, July 26, 2007: Conference sessions
- Thursday, July 26, 2007: Gala awards dinner reception Chicagoís Fairmont Hotel

WHERE: Fairmont Hotel, 200 North Columbus Drive Chicago, Illinois; Tel: (312) 565-8000; Fax: (312) 856-1032

HOW: To register for TransVision 2007 ($575 until June 30; $175 for students; $125 for Gala dinner); visit http://www.transvision2007.com

MEDIA INTERVIEWS: For interviews with conference speakers and TransVision 2007 Conference Chair, contact Emanuela Cariolagian, 323.644.2111 or