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Alan Brooks
Alan Brooks was born in 1956, discovered futurism in 1976, and transhumanism in 1989.
IEET > Contributors > Jason C. Stone
Jason C. Stone
Jason C. Stone holds an M.S. in Computer Science from The University of Texas Dallas. His professional work experience includes software development, network security and digital forensics. He is an amateur inventor with a focus on additive manufacturing, personal-scale technology, intelligent systems and distributed systems. His philosophical interests include anarchism, communism, ethics, technology, and the interaction between science and spirituality.
IEET > Staff > Alex Pearlman
Alex Pearlman
Alex Pearlman, MA, is the Managing Director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. She received her Masters in Bioethics & Society at Kings College London and her research centers on the intersection of ethics and policy with emerging science and technology, with a specific focus on issues of justice and access around health technologies.
Alex has written widely on issues such as the ethics of assisted reproductive technologies, human enhancement, self-experimentation, and biohacking. Alex has a decade of experience as a journalist and editor, and her reporting and commentary on issues in bioethics and human rights regularly appears in the mainstream press in outlets such as Stat, New Scientist, International Business Times, Medium, Vice, Motherboard, Al Jazeera, PRI's The World and elsewhere. She is a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative. (PENDING)
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Ojochogwu Abdul
Ojochogwu Abdul
Ojochogwu Abdul is a researcher, writer, speaker, and lecturer in Philosophy at Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. As philosopher and transhumanist, he is co-founder of the philosophy club Thinkers Pub Abuja, founder of the Transhumanist Enlightenment Café (TEC), co-founder of the Enlightenment Transhumanist Forum of Nigeria (H+ Nigeria), and currently serves as the United States Transhumanist Party's Foreign Ambassador in Nigeria. His hobbies include listening to music, jogging, and enjoying creative conversations.
IEET > Contributors > Francis X. Remedios
Francis X. Remedios
Francis X Remedios is author of Legitimizing Scientific Knowledge: Steve Fuller's Social Epistemology and numerous articles on Steve Fuller and social epistemology.
IEET > Contributors > Loredana Terec-Vlad
Loredana Terec-Vlad
Loredana TEREC-VLAD has graduated from the Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences within Petre Andrei University of Iasi, and is an expert in Organizational Ethics and Ethical Auditing at Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava. She has published various scientific papers in field such as bioethics, transhumanism and technoethics . She is PhD Student at Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava and associated research assistant at Lumen Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Romania.
IEET > Contributors > N.A. Turner
N.A. Turner
On Turnerstories.com, writer N.A. Turner shares one short story every month, accompanied by an illustration. The stories can be described as a mix between Black Mirror meets The Brothers Grimm. These stories are places where reality meets fantasy. From a magic tree, technology gone bad, societies shaken to time travel.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Oleg Semyonov
Oleg Semyonov
Oleg G. Semyonov was born in 1944 in Siberia, Russia. After his graduation from high school, he was admitted to Department of Physics of Moscow State University and in 1967 he was graduated from the university as MS and was accepted for a position of Research Scientist at Institute of Experimental Physics, Russia. In 1975, he went to work at Lebedev Institute of Physics, Moscow, Russia as Senior Scientist, where he made his Ph. D. in 1981. He immigrated in USA in 1997 and was admitted to Research Foundation of State University of New York at Stony Brook as Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator. He retired in 2013 but still active at the University as a Research Professor. He published more than 50 scientific articles on physics and astronautics in the respected journals and a book.
IEET > Contributors > Steven Parton
Steven Parton
Steven Parton is a programmer and transhumanist author/philosopher obsessed with exploring the depths of consciousness, culture, and technology. His goal is to use storytelling and thought-provoking content to expose and inspire the progressive philosophical and sociological conversations that will be necessary as we engineer a new evolution of the human condition.
To ensure an open-minded perspective in this endeavor, he has spent the past decade immersed in the study of both the scientific and the philosophical. On one end, this has resulted in extensive research into the fields of psychology (especially Jungian), Taoism/Buddhism, and even alchemy and occultism. This is balanced out by his degree in Computer Science and the subsequent years as a programmer, during which time he's been continually researching practical applications of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and even quantum physics.
His current areas of focus revolve around the ethical questions, philosophical insights, and social consequences that brain-computer interfaces, AR, and VR present as they become mainstream. He's also actively working on several artistic projects that utilize these new technologies to create immersive experiences that allow for new forms of entertainment and altered states of consciousness.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Laurens Vaddeli
Laurens Vaddeli
Laurens Vaddeli has one degree in History of Art, one in Anthropology, and he finished in 2016 his master's degree in Cultural Studies at the Sorbonne University. During the last two years his main subjects were transhumanism and posthumanity, focusing on different issues such as robotics, disabilities and sensory substitution. He did a fieldwork on the Body Hacking movement and the magnet implant for his research paper. He is also interested in sci-fi literature especially the post apocalyptic narratives who reflects the anxieties of our time.
IEET > Contributors > Terence Ericson
Terence Ericson
Member of the AFT-Technoprog association, I am primarily a neuroscience student. I am passionate about this field, as well as the exciting and important questions it offers: Where does consciousness come from? How can we improve our happiness or our intelligence? How to re-create a consciousness artificially? I define myself as optimist and sometimes utopian about the potentialities of human increases. It is in this sense that I joined the association AFT-Technoprog to promote a fair, stable, social and above all a sustainable transhumanism. To contact me: email@example.com
IEET > Contributors > Russell Jaffe
Russell Jaffe
As a student at Oberlin College, Russell Jaffe majors in neuroscience, with a minor in creative writing. He has assisted with research each year of his enrollment, working in the fields of plant biology, disease ecology and more. He publishes op-eds regularly as a columnist of the Oberlin Review, and his work can also be found in the Synapse and the Plum Creek Review. His graphic novel, Scalpel, is featured in the New Canaan Public Library. Additionally, his metalworking sculpture, Antiquity, is currently on display at the Oberlin Public Library.
Recently, he has begun work to publish his first science fiction novel.
Email: email@example.com
IEET > Contributors > Julien Varlin
Julien Varlin
Julien Varlin is a sympathizer of the french association Technoprog, and an anticapitalist militant, trying to promote a technophile, socialist and ecologist perspective. He works in the field of environment.
IEET > Contributors > David J. Kelley
David J. Kelley
Former CTO of a multinational software engineering firm with 20+ years of experienced focused on engineering 'experience' design and human machine interfaces where he also had to be a futurist and set technology strategy setting long term corporate vision around technology as well as leading high end research having helped show case technology in various keynote talks by people like Bill Gates, Ray Ozzie, Steve Ballmer and winning the industry award of MVP in the Microsoft world for 8 years straight. Career high lights include designing the Nike Touch wall in NYC, Entertainment Tonight/Emmy Awards Streaming and more. A published author and speaker; now the principal researcher for Artificial General Intelligence Inc a new startup building around a private research project on emotion based cognitive architecture for AGI systems and taking products based on AGI systems to market.
IEET > Contributors
Stephen Yearwood
Stephen Yearwood, born in Atlanta, GA, U.S.A. in 1952, was awakened intellectually in college (Georgia Southern in Statesboro, GA) when he read The Water Lords, a product of a Ralph Nader project about paper companies operating in Georgia. He considered but ultimately rejected Marxism, then developed a market-based economic model using the ethical structure of political democracy as a template. In 1984 he entered graduate school (Atlanta University) in political economy to check the validity of that model. His Master's Thesis (1988) included a Review of the Literature of the academic debate concerning 'distributive justice' spurred by John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) and, in an appendix, a summary of the academic discussion (prior to the Great Depression) of 'neutral money' (initiated by those who would found the Austrian school in economics, F.A. Hayek et al.). He has continued reading philosophy and economics while developing his ideas and attempting to share them through a book (A Just Solution), a Web site (www.ajustsolution.com), and essays and articles published in various media.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Hadrian Pourbahman
Hadrian Pourbahman
Hadrian Pourbahman is 26 years old. He studied Law into Franche-Comté's University where he was graduated in private law. After that, he joined a degree which was specialized in Health and Biotechnology law at Paris-Saclay's University in Paris (Master Level 2) and has just finished his training.
He's interested in the interactions between laws and technology, and more especially interactions between laws and biotechnology.
IEET > Contributors > Charles Bell
Charles Bell
Charles Bell is currently working on his writing career while residing in Los Angeles. He generally covers topics in the realm of technology, but he also enjoys writing about anything related to video games, movies, and literature. In his downtime, he enjoys reading, cooking, and finding new bike trails to explore in the surrounding areas. He also hopes to one day launch his own startup, but he's not ready to talk about that just yet.
IEET > Contributors
Thijs Turèl
Thijs Turèl is program manager of the Democracy by Design program at Alliander; a publicly owned energy grid operator based in the Netherlands. He is working both on smart grid innovations and the societal implications of the energy transition. Thijs is interested in the relationship between the application of information technology for solving global challenges and the distribution of wealth and power. In the program 'Democracy by Design' Thijs is working on a set of design guidelines to implement technology in our 'smart' cities in a fair, inclusive and democratic way.
Aside from considering the broader societal implications of smart city technology, Thijs is developing new grid services for charging electric mobility. Central to this is finding a way to align the interests of electric vehicle drivers, charge point operators, grid operator, energy providers, municipalities and society as a whole.
Previously, Thijs worked as a scenario planner at Futureconsult. At Futureconsult he advised clients in dealing with long term uncertainty in their strategic process. Thijs has worked in a wide variety of sectors such as health, energy, logistics, housing, education and national government.
IEET > Contributors > Brynn Arborico
Brynn Arborico
Brynn Arborico is a B.S. candidate at Harvey Mudd College, pursuing a combined physics-computer science degree in Physical Systems Modeling with a concentration in Environmental Analysis. She is passionate about climate mitigation, preservation of biodiversity, and ethical animal agriculture. Her curiosity has led her to explore a wide variety of related topics from wolverine habitat connectivity to lab grown meat. Raised in Seattle, Washington, she currently works as an intern on Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise security team.
IEET > Contributors > Fran Villalba Segarra
Fran Villalba Segarra
Fran Villalba Segarra did the International and Spanish Baccalaureates in Science. He's studying at the Rotterdam School of Management. He has worked managing diverse web hosting companies (ie Hostinger International). He plans to create his own company and contribute in relevant topics such as the one on aging and defeating death.
IEET > Contributors > Jonathan Kolber
Jonathan Kolber
Jonathan Kolber is the author of A Celebration Society and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: a 21 st Century Translation and Commentary. He is a member of the TechCast Global panel of Expert forecasters, and co-designed its recent study on AI and Future Jobs. He has an MBA in finance from the Carlson School. He edited the Emerging Capital Report, an investment advisory focused on "bleeding edge" tech startups, and has written about the social implications of breakthrough technologies.
Jonathan is deeply concerned that a massive wave of technological unemployment will soon hit humanity, with highly disruptive consequences unless fundamentally new solutions have been prepared.
He is an award-winning Toastmaster, and available for media interviews and speaking engagements.
Email: email@example.com
Twitter IEET > Contributors > Alexander Karran
Alexander Karran
Alexander Karran became, in May 2015, the first candidate to run for election in a UK general election with a purely technoprogressive transhumanist agenda. This was in the seat of Liverpool Walton. Alexander has a broad academic background, holding a PhD in Psychology (focused on bio-cybernetic loops and physiological computing), a Masters degree in Computer Network Security (focused on cyber-security and digital forensic analysis) and an undergraduate degree in computer science.
Alexanders's research spans Digital Forensics Frameworks, Machine Learning applied to psychophysiological data, classification tasks and evaluating the use of A.I. in education, human cognitive bias and decision support.
Alexander is a public speaker who advocates for longevity science, artificial intelligence in education and governance, and the wise application of technology to the problems faced by modern society. He is also a keen follower of current trends in accelerating technologies and their potential to transform human behaviour.
IEET > Contributors > John C. Havens
John C. Havens
John C. Havens is a regular contributor on issues of technology and wellbeing to Mashable, The Guardian, HuffPo and TechCrunch and is author of Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity To Maximize Machines and Hacking Happiness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World.
John was an EVP of a Top Ten PR Firm, a VP of a tech startup, and an independent consultant where he has worked with clients such as Gillette, P&G, HP, Wal-Mart, Ford, Allstate, Monster, Gallo Wines, and Merck. He was also the Founder of The Happathon Project, a non-profit utilizing emerging technology and positive psychology to increase human wellbeing.
John has spoken at TEDx, at SXSW Interactive (six times), and as a global keynote speaker for clients like Cisco, Gillette, IEEE, and NXP Semiconductors. John was also a professional actor on Broadway, TV and Film for fifteen years.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Jules Hamilton
Jules Hamilton
Jules Hamilton is a Popperian fallibilist, skeptic, libertarian, polyamorous, transhumanist. A renaissance man, Jules launched himself on Kickstarter after graduating from NYU with a sci-fi film about neuroplastic surgery, the ability to customize minds. Then he became social media director of Siegelvision, working closely under branding legend Alan Siegel. Jules transitioned building his first company producing videos for Siegelvision, Tinder, Suitcase Magazine, Cornell University School of Engineering, and SXSW. He participated in the BAFTA award winning UK reality show Made in Chelsea to spread information, co-founding culture & lifestyle blog Polyglamorous. Under his umbrella company Innomatic Studios he hosts a monthly panel The Futurist Sessions at NYC's SoHo House, speaking alongside entrepreneurs and philosophers, with alumni Zoltan Istvan and Gray Scott. Jules is a proud ambassador for A Generation Empowered and Lifespan.io.
IEET > Contributors > Christina Scannapiego
Christina Scannapiego
Christina Scannapiego lives in San Diego and has a BA from Colby College and BFA from The Academy of Art. She has been a healthcare, wellness and active lifestyle writer and editor for more than 10 years. Christina has published material for American Mobile Healthcare, MedTravelers, Staff Care and NursesRX Healthcare as well as for the San Clemente Times, the Dana Point Times, FOAM magazine and ESPN.
IEET > Contributors > Marie Miguel
Marie Miguel
Marie Miguel is an avid internet researcher and she likes to write about a lot of topics namely, social media marketing, healthcare and business. She has a college degree in Communication with Specialization in Integrated Marketing Communication. She has more than 10 years work experience in various fields namely, social media marketing, as well as, research for fast-moving consumer goods. Currently, she is working as a Marketing Associate in the fast growing industry of solar energy. In her free time, she writes content for different websites and blogs, so that she can share her knowledge of her field and of other topics that she is interested in. Marie also likes to travel and her adventures allow her to have a broader world view. Finally, she has four kids, who inspire her with her work and her writing.
IEET > Contributors > Kalluri Subba Rao
Kalluri Subba Rao
Prof. Kalluri Subba Rao, Ph.D., D.Sc (IISc), FAS-AP, FAMS, FNASc, FNA., is an Indian National Science Academy Honorary Scientist, working at the School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India. He has worked as a Professor of Biochemistry/Neurobiology at the University of Hyderabad, and as an INSA-Senior Scientist/Honorary Scientist & Professor at the Centers for Biotechnology and Innovative Research, Institute of Science and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kukatpally, Hyderabad. His research interests include Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the developing and aging brain with special reference to DNA-damage and its repair. He has more than 120 research publications in national and international journals and books. His contributions include establishing the link between aging and decreased DNA repair, particularly the base excision repair, in the brain. He is presently working on a monograph containing the latest scientific information about the process of aging in higher organisms and also examining the available related traditional Indian (Vedic) concepts. He has advocated for the establishment of Institutes or Centers for multidisciplinary scientific study of the phenomenon of aging and the associated diseases in India.
IEET > Contributors > Audrey Arendt
Audrey Arendt
Audrey Arendt has a Master degree in Philosophy (Analytical Phi and Social epistemology) and a Master degree in Institutional Communications. She's a transhumanist and a technoprogressivist, co-founder of the Transhumanist Party France and member of the AFT Technoprog! She also likes writing social science fiction pieces and spending time in Second Life.
IEET > Contributors
Rory Viner
Rory Viner is a sound artist and experimental composer based in Tokyo, Japan. His works have been featured in Wired Magazine, Vice's Motherboard & The Japan Times as well as various other international news outlets. His current work focuses on synesthesia (the mixing of senses), sensors, data and sound.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Preston Martin
Preston Martin
Preston Martin was raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, and has since lived and studied in both the D.C. metropolitan area and the UK. Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he is a Director at the International Coalition for Human Action and one of the founders of the Startup Societies Summit. His areas of interest include international relations, Western history, sociology and transhumanism.
IEET > Contributors > Woody Evans
Woody Evans
Woody Evans is a native Mississippian who has lived and worked in the UK, Taiwan, and the UAE. He is a librarian, and his research interests include cultural issues in information literacy, the politics of comics, and transhumanism. He lives now in North Texas, where he whittles, walks, and winterizes. His work appears in American Libraries, Journal of Evolution and Technology, Boing Boing, Motherboard, Blunderbuss Magazine, Rain Taxi Review, h+ Magazine, The Future We Deserve, and others.
Twitter IEET > Contributors > Nicoletta Iacobacci
Nicoletta Iacobacci
Nicoletta Iacobacci has a B.A. in Fine Arts, moved to US where she stayed until 2002. Producer/reporter covering US and Central America she got an MCA at New York Institute of Technology, majoring in Computer graphics and studying the convergence between Radio/TV and online properties. Managed several R&D labs while teaching Interactive storytelling and production. Head of Strategy and Future Media at the European Broadcasting Union until November 2014 she now works on ethics and the exponential progress of technology. Ph.D. (summa cum laude) she's a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Director of Singularity U Geneva, Consultant at Hyperloop Transportation technologies and she curates TEDxTransmedia.
IEET > Site Control Categories > Contributors
Robert Bruce
Robert Bruce is an American mortician who has worked in all aspects of funeral service with Great Lakes Caskets in the state of Ohio. He has a passion for lending his voice towards multiple issues involving the funeral and memorial industry, so when he's not taking care of the dead, he enjoys his hobby as a writer. His most recent interests center around the use of technology in the modern funeral industry.
IEET > Contributors > Johan Nygren
Johan Nygren
Johan Nygren is a natural born creative who abandoned med.school to pursue a career in the digital revolution. He's currently focused on the ongoing decentralization of everything and what is often called "the 4th industrial revolution", and how humans will leverage these P2P technologies to create something that is larger than themselves. Most of all, he's interested in social resilience and fairness, and he wants to see individuals empowered to stand up against oppressive and coercive machines. He loves nature and is curious about the future of evolution.
IEET > Contributors > Alexey Matveyevich Olovnikov
Alexey Matveyevich Olovnikov
Alexey Matveyevich Olovnikov graduated from Moscow State University, and received his PhD in Immunochemistry at the Gamaleya Institute for Epidemology and Microbiology of Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in 1966, when he worked in Department of immunology and oncology of this institute (Head of Dept. was Prof. Lev A. Zilber and scientific supervisor was Prof. Aron E. Gurvich); theme of Ph.D. thesis was "The detection of antigens and antibodies using immunosorbents". Additionally, Dr. Olovnikov is best known as the author of the concept of the telomeres, Nobel Prize nominee.
IEET > Contributors > Peter Caramico
Peter Caramico
Peter Caramico is a self taught nutritional supplement and pharmaceutical enthusiast, Lead Navigator of LongeCity.org, prolific volunteer elsewhere, and interested in actionable and available rejuvenation, perennial youth, and life extension strategies. Peter's education comprises over 200 college and university credits in communications, business, management and leadership and more. He is concerned with the safe and effective use of nutritional supplements and the accessibility of rejuvenation and perennial youth technologies to the masses. He's also fond of the study of personal genotyping for high performance nutrition, self improvement, and use of genomics to tailor expectations and best practices in the work place to improve work life balance and performance.
IEET > Contributors > Chris Hables Gray
Chris Hables Gray
Chris Hables Gray, Ph.D., a Continuing Lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, is the author or editor of five books and has written over 200 articles for academic and popular journals. He was lead editor of The Cyborg Handbook and has written three major books: Postmodern War, Cyborg Citizen, and Peace, War and Computers. Currently he is writing about information theory (Infoisms: Aphorisms on Information), evolution, contemporary war, cyborgs, big data, and other issues in the cultural studies of science and technology. His website is: http://www.chrishablesgray.org. He can be reached at email@example.com.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Brett Gao
Brett Gao
Brett Gao is an undergraduate student at Washington University in St. Louis studying biochemistry and economics. He believes that in 20 years, modern medical technology will be able to extend the healthy, productive human lifespan to 150-200 years and positively transform people's lives and our society.
A Barbara S. Schaps Thomas & David M. Thomas Scholar, Brett works at Dr. Sheila Stewart's lab, a part of the ICCE (Integrating Communication within the Cancer Environment) Institute that leads cutting-edge biomedical research on cancer and telomeres. He was involved in 2015 TEDxWustl as the director of public relations, and is currently the publicity director of IDEA Labs, a national bioengineering design and entrepreneurship incubator founded at Washington University School of Medicine. In 2014, aiming to facilitate technology transfer in the St. Louis area, Brett co-founded Washington University Popular Science, a journal that finds and delivers the latest university research and technology innovation to students, entrepreneurs, and investors. He is currently serving as the journal's vice president.
IEET > Contributors > Angelika Domschke
Angelika Domschke
Dr. Angelika Domschke is a visionary and scientist with 20 years of experience, at the forefront of innovation in biomedical devices for large medical device companies and start-ups. She holds a Ph.D. degree in polymer chemistry and has extensive expertise in program management, from concept to product launch. She has been awarded 26 patents, which generated significant revenue encompassing medical devices, nano sensors, implants, and materials testing methods.
IEET > Contributors > Margaret Morris
Margaret Morris
Margaret Morris devised the GEO-DMF System (geopolymerization + diamond microcircutiry film + a power source) for robotically building virtually permanent automated solid rock outer space facilities (using indigenous resources) on the Moon, Mars, etc., as described in her book 'Moon Base and Beyond' (Scribal Arts – 2013). Margaret worked for decades as an assistant to Dr. Joseph Davidovits, the award-winning founder of the chemistry of geopolymerization (which produces artificial rock at ambient temperatures and without high pressure). She worked with the late Dr. Edward J. Zeller, Head of the former NASA-funded Radiation Physics Laboratory (RPL), at the Space Technology Center of the University of Kansas, on the testing of archaeological samples to help prove the case for ancient synthetic rock (today called geopolymers), and with Zeller and his successor at the RPL, physicist Dr. Gisela A.M. Dreschhoff (the inventors of DMF) on commercializing DMF and innovating new applications. Margaret served as assistant director to the former Institute For Applied Archaeological Sciences (IAPAS), established at Barry University. She served as an associate editor of Drew University's 'Journal of Higher Criticism' and has published books and in science and technical journals, including the 'Journal of Geological Education.' All profits from her 'Moon Base and Beyond' go towards funding the GEO DMF System for the purpose of being able to create an enormous space economy that can provide everyone with a guaranteed income in perpetuity in coming generations.
IEET > Contributors > Frank Boehm
Frank Boehm
Frank Boehm serendipitously encountered the concept of nanotechnology on the internet in ~1996 and immediately become fascinated with its virtually limitless potential, particularly as relates to the field of medicine. He passionately proceeded to autodidactically absorb knowledge on almost every aspect of nanotechnology and nanomedicine and began to evolve, and textually articulate, a number of advanced concepts and designs for near-term (~3 to 5 years) and longer-term (~10 to 20 years) nanomedical components, devices, and systems. Concomitantly, he initiated correspondence-based relationships with myriad research scientists and thought leaders from across the globe, in the disciplines of nanotechnology and nanomedicine.
In recognizing the immense potential of nanomedicine to impart positive paradigm shifts across the medicine domain (e.g., precisely targeted drug delivery, vascular and neurological plaque removal, non-invasive surgical procedures, physiological system and longevity enhancement) he was deeply motivated to write more extensively on the topic. In 2005, he garnered a published contract with CRC Press (Taylor & Francis), and over the ensuing eight years compiled a book manuscript (along with seven contributing authors) entitled: Nanomedical Device and Systems Design, Challenges, Possibilities, Visions. In parallel, he managed to engage the interest of several researchers in the US and Canada in his nanomedical concepts and in 2009 he formed the startup, NanoApps Medical, Inc. The aim of this company is to investigate and develop advanced, innovative, and cost effective nanomedical diagnostic and therapeutic devices and systems for the benefit of individuals in both the developing and developed worlds.
The larger picture would be to eventually attain a situation of "global health care equivalency", where any individual on the planet might have access to the same advanced and cost effective, nanomedical diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, no matter where they happen to reside, or under what conditions they live. The attainment of this condition might serve to significantly reduce the perception of individuals in the developing world of being marginalized, at least in terms of health care, which may ultimately translate to conflict reduction. In the developed world, this condition would serve to dramatically reduce health care expenditures across the board. Frank is planning to articulate this vision in a future book with the working title: Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, and AI: Toward the Dream of Global Health Care Equivalency.
IEET > Contributors > Gerd Leonhard
Gerd Leonhard
Gerd Leonhard is a futurist, focusing on near-future, 'nowist' observations and actionable foresights in the sectors of humanity, society, business, media, technology and communications.
Gerd is also an author, an executive 'future trainer' and a strategic advisor. He is the co-author of The Future of Music, the host of the web-TV series TheFutureShow and the CEO of TheFuturesAgency.
The Wall Street Journal called Gerd 'one of the leading Media Futurists in the World', and the Wired Magazine listed Gerd as #88 of the top 100 influencers in Europe in 2015.
Gerd is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (London) and a member of the World Future Society. A native German, Gerd resides in Basel, Switzerland, and maintains an office in San Francisco. He presents both in English as well as in German.
URLs: www.futuristgerd.com (blog) . www.gerdtube.com (videos) . www.gerdcloud.com (all of Gerd's shared files) . www.thefuturesagency.com (company) . www.slideshare.net/gleonhard www.gerdleonhard.de (German-language site)
Contact: mobile +41 79 793 53 84 email@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Armand Ngaketcha
Armand Ngaketcha Njafang
Armand Ngaketcha Njafang is a young Cameroonian researcher in bioethics and philosophy of technology. He holds a Master's degree in philosophy; he recently published an essay in PAF titled Human nature and regenerative therapies. Progressive Bioethics Essay. He also wrote 'Some ethical issues related to the epidemic of Ebola virus'' (Editor Dir. Pr. Lépold Gustav Lehman), national winner of the 2011 essay contest on crops and traditional values in Cameroon. Recently, he has been involved in the field of transhumanism by identifying progressively with the Cameroonian culture,factors that contribute critically to the emergence of the transhumanist discussion in francophone Africa.
IEET > Contributors > Pedro Villanueva
Pedro Villanueva
Pedro Villanueva born in Havana, 1974. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro. Then he exhibited his artworks in Europe, Belgium, France and Romania.
He comes to settle in Chile and was nationalized. He works in the city of Punta Arenas as manager of cultural projects and art educator for the community.
In Chilean Patagonia, he is dedicated to studying contemporary philosophy for five years, with the online libraries of the University of Paris, Madrid and Buenos Aires.
In his research on modern society is inclined to the ideas of transhumanism, studying the works of Nick Bostrom, David Pearce and Kurzweil. From their findings, he analyzes the dialectical philosophy of Kant, Hegel, Marx, but with technological development, dialectical philosophy is obsolete. He writes a thought known as Pluslectic, which is in line with today's world and the vision towards the future.
IEET > Contributors > Anthony Miccoli
Anthony Miccoli
Anthony Miccoli is the Director of Philosophy and an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Communication Arts at Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado. He holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Albany.
Dr. Miccoli is a posthumanist and postphenomenologist, and his work focuses primarily on the interface between the human and the topologies the human occupies, as well as the artifacts within them. Dr. Miccoli's first book, Posthuman Suffering and the Technological Embrace (Lexington 2010) was the culmination of nearly a decade of research that began in the field of literary theory and eventually led him to the then-evolving field of posthumanism and the philosophy of technology. Posthuman Suffering contends that posthumanism portrays technology as an "other" to be embraced, and consequently loses sight of the basic realities of the human/technological boundary. Technology becomes a superior model of information processing to which humans aspire. We do not embrace technology to expand and augment our selves, we embrace technology so that it may embrace us. The posthuman view reconceptualizes the human being to be made more compatible with computerized systems or possible artificial intelligences.
Dr. Miccoli's most recent work, "Posthuman Topologies: Thinking Through the Hoard," appears in Design, Mediation, and the Posthuman (2014), part of Lexington Books' "Postphenomenology and the Philosophy of Technology" series. "Posthuman Topologies" continues Dr. Miccoli's work, maintaining that the process of cognition is contingent upon the physical topologies a consciousness occupies. Each human being literally thinks through the particular material environments he or she inhabits at any given time. Thus, every object around us becomes an aspect of mindedness.
His current research explores the current state of cybernetic and AI research, specifically through the lens of distributed consciousness theories and new materialism. For more on Dr. Miccoli's current work, visit his academic blog, Posthuman Being.
IEET > Contributors > Ian Worrall
Ian Worrall
Ian Worrall is a 21-year-old serial entrepreneur and investor who grew up outside of Raleigh, North Carolina where his parents Mark and Mary Ellen still live. His younger brother, Aidan, is at school in Connecticut on a Hockey scholarship. Ian has a strong passion for finance which stemmed from beginning to trade equities at age 14 and became the driving force that led him to the blockchain industry. Growing up he played several sports which brought him to the University of South Carolina which he said he chose immediately after visiting for a football game, and that UNC and Duke where too close to home. During his Junior year he made the decision to leave school to pursue his entrepreneurial ventures full time after exiting from two small companies and relocated to Charlotte, NC where he currently lives and began growing the area's first blockchain-specific company, Encrypted Labs, which he will not disclose much detail about what they are working on behind closed doors but mentioned it is in the field of p2p banking. He also plays an active role in the large e Commerce platform thecryptostore.com, Tech AllStarz – a local technology partner for mid-cap companies, Blockchain Clothing & Accessories, and stays engrained in the community through investment activities, educational gaming, and is helping launch Charlotte's first Blockchain incubator (Incubitor.io) with a planned launch of early 2016. He sees a major place for blockchain in the future of world economies and desires to help facilitate adoption.
IEET > Contributors > Jason Hope
Jason Hope
Jason Hope is a entrepreneur, futurist, philanthropist, and investor located in Scottsdale, Arizona with a passion for technology and giving back to his community. As an Arizona native, Jason grew up in Tempe and received a degree in finance from Arizona State University, and an MBA from ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business. Along with his philanthropic and business initiatives, Jason has a dedicated interest in politics as related to business throughout the state of Arizona as well as nationally.
IEET > Contributors > Eliott Edge
Eliott Edge
Eliott Edge is an international lecturer, multidisciplinary artist, and author of '3 Essays on Virtual Reality: Civilization, Overlords, and Escape.' Edge describes his alter ego OddEdges as "A prolific noösphere squatter spreading Awareness Awareness." Edge's primary occupations include cyborg anthropology, universal free education, simulism and digital mechanics, virtual reality and media literacy, psychedelics and psychology, ethical transhumanism, culture jamming, liminality, esoterica, meditation, and consciousness. Edge's work has appeared in the Museum of Computer Arts, Stevens Institute of Technology, Anthology Film Archives, and The C.G. Jung Center. He is on the advisory board of The Lifeboat Foundation, a member of Das Unbehagen, and the founder of EducatingEarth. He is also a poet, blogger, and YouTuber.
IEET > Contributors > James Ledford
James Ledford
James Ledford attended the University of Arizona for Nuclear Engineering. He is an Instructor at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station just west of Phoenix Arizona where, in his words, "we tap into the nucleus of the atom to provide an energy source a million times more concentrated than that of previous sources. We convert nuclear energy to electrical energy to power the Southwest. 30 years ago I helped design the operator training program and now I implement the program by teaching nuclear physics, thermodynamics, process control systems and reactor operation. This training program has grown in recognition as the very best in the world indicated by our reactor operator class through-put, nuclear safety record, and actual power plant capacity factor." James is the co-founder of the Christian Transhumanist Association.
IEET > Contributors > EMG
EMG (born 1983) works as an architect in Paris. He started developing virtual worlds on the internet in 1998, and never ceased to build environments and lifelike programs in what he believes is his generation's new continent. A supporter of open science, artificial life and brain emulation initiatives in particular, his ambition is to achieve body-brain emulation before the 2031 World Women's Curling Championship. In his collaborative anticipation blog Bourgogne-Matin he tries to deride transhumanist myths like superintelligence or technological singularity.
IEET > Contributors > Stefan Morrone
Stefan Morrone
Stefan Morrone is a graduate of the Ryerson School of Journalism. Based out of Toronto, Stefan enjoys writing about a variety of topics and harbors a passion for telling stories. Some topics he enjoys writing about are science, philosophy, news and entertainment. He has written for a variety of publications such as the National Post and PanoramItalia Magazine, and specializes in creating online content.
IEET > Contributors > Alexandre Maurer
Alexandre Maurer
Alexandre is a spokesperson of the French Transhumanist Association (Technoprog). He is also a researcher in algorithmics and artificial intelligence.
He gave many conferences and participated in several round tables on transhumanism. He also wrote a book called "Pourquoi le transhumanisme ?" ("Why transhumanism?"). He regularly writes papers for Technoprog. More information on his personal page.
To contact him : email@example.com
Home Page | IEET > Contributors
Stephen T. Asma
Stephen T. Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is also Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture
Asma is the author of ten books, including The Evolution of Mind with Rami Gabriel (Harvard University Press, forthcoming), Against Fairness (University of Chicago Press), On Monsters: an Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (Oxford University Press), Buddha for Beginners (For Beginners), and The Gods Drink Whiskey (HarperOne).
He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Skeptic magazine. He has also written for the Sunday Times, the Chicago Tribune, Aeon magazine, Big Think, and many others. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Hebrew, Czech, Romanian, Hindi, Portuguese, Korean, and Chinese.
In 2003, he was Visiting Professor at the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia, and in 2007 he lived and studied in Shanghai China. Asma also researched Asian philosophies in Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Laos. And in 2014, he was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching philosophy in Beijing, China.
Asma has been an invited lecturer at Harvard University, Brown University, the Field Museum, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Fudan University (Shanghai), Xi'an Jiaotong University, University of Macau, School of the Art Institute, and many more.
Stephen Asma is also a blues/jazz musician who has played onstage with many musical artists, including Bo Diddley and Buddy Guy.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Isa Elegbede
Isa Elegbede
Isa Olalekan Elegbede is a PhD candidate in Environmental Sciences at the Chair of Environmental planning, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany. He obtained a Bachelor's degree B.Sc. (Hons) in Fisheries and Aquatic Biology at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Nigeria. He also had a Master's degree (M.Sc.) in Marine Sciences (Marine pollution and management) at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He further obtained a second Master's degree (M.Sc.) in Environmental and Resource Management (ERM) at the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany.
He worked at Lafarge Nigeria Ltd, Ewekoro, Nigeria as the Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Officer (Internship), also as a Fisheries Officer (Internship) at Lanfam fisheries, Dalemo, Ogun state, Nigeria. He is proficient at using MS Office, Corel Draw, Adobe Page Maker, SPSS, MATLAB, VENSIM software, SIMA pro; ArcGis.
He is a member of some international organizations namely; American Fisheries Society (AFS), USA; Association for the Science of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), USA; The International Society of Environmental Indicators (ISEI); International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), Hartford, USA and the Friends of the Earth, Germany (Bund fur Umwelt und Naturschutz, Deutschland).
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Emilie Whitaker
Emilie Whitaker
Dr Emilie Morwenna Whitaker is an interdisciplinary researcher operating at the intersection between sociology and social policy. Her work centres on welfare and care – cultures, practices and policies across the lifecourse. This interest has led to her initial work on the sociology of organising within social welfare departments, exploring the marketisation and commodification of care. Her PhD is in Social Policy from the University of Birmingham, UK. She now holds a lectureship in social science at Cardiff University, UK.
Her current work focuses upon the changing temporal and cultural landscapes of care. She is engaged in several projects exploring what she has called the 'new necropolitics' which considers generative cultures of death and dying beyond institutional organisation and professional practice. She has hosted a 'death café' to provide a supportive, informal yet creative space to encourage participants to talk about death and dying. Topics discussed included the idea of 'social death' online, to their concerns of 'warehousing' older people and the ongoing challenge of being practitioners within a changing bio-ethical framework. She has recently hosted a symposium to consider the future of the lifecourse seen through the prisms of trans and post-humanism which brought together leading British academics.
Her interest with the cultures of care necessarily leads to a concern with temporality and futures – what next for the responsibility for care and welfare and how do science and technology transform the contours of intimacy. Core issues of interest are the future of relationships, gender, sex, childhood and family life. She is concerned that the techno-progressive community takes issues of inequality and diversity seriously as they pursue their philosophical, political and practical projects. She works within the interpretivist tradition in theory and method – utilising insights from hermeneutics, ethnography and interactionism.
IEET > Contributors > Michael Hrenka
Michael Hrenka
Michael Hrenka is a philosopher from Germany who studied mathematics and physics. During his explorations of futurism in general, and transhumanism in particular, he increasingly got interested in related economic issues and has written about the topic of Universal Basic Income, which he avidly supports. To enable a state of full digital abundance, he developed a reputation economy system called Quantified Prestige. He is hosting the Fractal Future Network, which is dedicated to envisioning and creating a better future. In 2015 he became a founding member of the Transhuman Party Germany (TPD). Occasionally, he presents the most interesting of his thoughts and ideas on his personal blog Radivis.com.
IEET > Contributors > Evie Kendal
Evie Kendal
Evie Kendal is a feminist bioethicist and literary critic from Melbourne, Australia. She started working at Monash University in 2011 and has held various positions across the faculties of Medicine, Science, Arts and Business and Economics. She joined the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in 2012 and currently works as an Assistant Lecturer for the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the Alfred Hospital Centre, teaching into the Bachelor of Health Science and Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree programs. Evie also teaches medical ethics and philosophy at Monash and is a seminar leader at Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics Summer Institute where she teaches a course on bioethics and biotechnology.
Evie's research focuses on the representation of ectogenesis and other reproductive biotechnologies in popular culture and the impact this has on public policy and the bioethical debates surrounding these technologies. She is the author of Equal Opportunity and the Case for State Sponsored Ectogenesis (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and "Utopian Visions of 'Making People': Science Fiction and Debates on Cloning, Ectogenesis, Genetic Engineering, and Genetic Discrimination" in Patricia Stapleton and Andrew Byers (eds) Biopolitics and Utopia: An Interdisciplinary Reader (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Home Page | IEET > Advisory Board > Randal A. Koene
Randal A. Koene
Dr. Randal A. Koene has been focusing on the functional reconstruction of neural tissue since 1994. He introduced the multi-disciplinary field of whole brain emulation and is lead curator of the scientific roadmap with which its technological development is promoted. Working with the VU University Amsterdam, Dr. Koene led the creation of NETMORPH, a computational framework for the simulated morphological development of large-scale high-resolution neuroanatomically realistic neuronal circuitry.
Dr. Koene is CEO and Founder of the science foundation Carboncopies.org and neural interfaces company NeuraLink Co. He is Science Director of the 2045 Initiative and advises several neurotechnology companies and organizations. In previous roles, Dr. Koene was Director of Analysis at Silicon Valley nanotechnology company Halcyon Molecular (2010-12) and Director of the Department of Neuroengineering at Tecnalia, the third largest private research organization in Europe (2008-10). Dr. Koene was a research professor at Boston University's Center for Memory and Brain.
He earned his Ph.D. studying memory mechanisms at McGill University, after obtaining an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with a specialization in Information Theory at Delft University of Technology. Dr. Koene's publications, presentations and interviews are available at http://randalkoene.com.
IEET > Contributors > Gareth John
Gareth John
Gareth John lives in Mid Wales; he's an ex-Buddhist priest with a MA in Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol, and has performed studies on non-monastic traditions of Tibetan tantric Buddhism.
Twitter IEET > Contributors > James Cross
James Cross
James Cross has a degree in Anthropology. He has traveled extensively in Latin America and worked with shamans from Ecuador and Peru. He speculates on the big topics of mind, consciousness, and the future of humanity at Broad Speculations.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Cyril Gazengel
Cyril Gazengel
Cyril Gazengel is one of the staff members of French Transhumanist Association. Computer science engineer in the banking industry, he made a talk in Paris in 2013 about automation and its consequences for employment. He was also amongst the speakers of TransVision 2014 on the same subject. He also appeared in the French television documentary Robolution about robotic revolution and was interviewed on transhumanism by French radio Radio France International and other local parisian web-radios. His main concern about transhumanism focuses on artificial intelligence, man-machine fusion and the consequences of that on our societies.
IEET > Contributors > Richard van Hooijdonk
Richard van Hooijdonk
Trend watcher Richard van Hooijdonk futurist lectures have been attended by over 300,000 people. He works with RTL, BNR and is guest lecturer at several universities. Hooijdonk and his international team research 'mega trends' such as robots, drones, the internet-of-things, 3D/4D printing, Big Data and biomimicry and how new technology affects many industries. Richard van Hooijdonk started his career as marketing director at banks, publishing companies and technology companies where he held strategic advisory positions, was part of management teams and sat on various boards of directors.
Home Page | IEET > Site Control Categories > Advisory Board > Rachel Edler
Rachel Edler
Rachel Edler is an accomplished graphic artist living in Sonoma County, California. She comes from a diverse background of product development, packaging and web design. Rachel began her career at promotional product companies designing items for brands such as Lucas Arts and Showtime. After receiving her A.A. in Graphic design, she moved on to the wine industry where she took on many exciting marketing and brand development projects. She is passionate about graphic design as well as science. In her free time she volunteers her design and marketing skills for several scientific and political organizations including the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science and The Transhumanist Party. She is also a media sponsor for the Secular Coalition of America. A lifelong learner, Rachel is currently pursuing degrees in anthropology and philosophy.
IEET > Contributors > Kaj Sotala
Kaj Sotala
Kaj Sotala holds a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Helsinki and is working on finishing his MSc in Computer Science. He has previously worked full-time for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and published several papers relating to artificial general intelligence. These include a comprehensive survey and analysis of various arguments in the AI risk debate, an analysis of the accuracy of AI timeline predictions, and a proposal on how to make AI systems learn human-like concepts and values. The last one was the basis for a grant proposal that received funding from the Future of Life Institute's "keeping AI robust and beneficial" grant program.
IEET > Contributors > Leah Carr
Leah Carr
Leah Carr is a philosophy PhD candidate at the University of Queensland. Her current project aims to understand Spinoza's philosophical therapy through the lens of both Hellenistic philosophy and modern cognitive science. Since the notion of philosophical therapy turns on a philosophical anthropology, she is also exploring the question of "what it means to be human?" particularly in the context of Spinoza's post-teleological relational ontology.
IEET > Advisory Board > Liz Johnson
Liz Johnson
Liz Johnson formerly worked as a news anchor, reporter, and PR specialist. She currently works with the Complex Systems Institute in Charlotte, NC. and has been conducting research and publishing on complex systems for over 5 years in the areas of policy, nanotechnology, human-centrism for species survival, education, sports, agent-based modeling, AI, hybrid engineering, qualitative research, learning, and theory. She approaches research problems combining qualitative, quantitative, network science, and agent based modeling methodologies. She teaches critical thinking, as well as courses internationally on complexity at conferences and academic institutions. Johnson co-founded the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems and serves as the managing editor. She holds masters in human development/learning and ethics/applied philosophy. She is finishing a doctorate in educational policy and leadership and earning a masters certificate in data science and business analytics.
IEET > Advisory Board > David Orban
David Orban
David Orban is an investor, entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author. He's the Managing Partner of Network Society Ventures, an early stage venture capital investment firm, advisor of Dotsub, which he led as CEO from 2011 to 2015. He's the Founder and Trustee of Network Society Research, a London-based think tank with representatives in over 30 countries. He is also on the Faculty of, and Advisor to Singularity University, he's a mentor at the Thiel Fellowship, he's former Chairman of the Board of Humanity+, and a Scientific Advisory Board Member for the
IEET > Advisory Board > Brian Hanley
Brian Hanley
Brian Hanley is the founder of Butterfly Sciences, a company developing gene therapies for aging. He has a range of papers in biosciences, economics, policy and terrorism, in addition to a recent text on radiation treatment. He obtained his PhD in microbiology with honors from UC Davis, has a bachelors degree in computer science, is a multiple entrepreneur and guest lectured for years to the MBA program at Santa Clara University. Brian brings a unique vision of the future woven from multiple disciplines tempered in decades of practical implementation.
IEET > Contributors > Jack Smith IV
Jack Smith IV
Jack Smith IV is a reporter covering tech business in New York City, and trends in tech innovation.
IEET > Contributors > Calum Chace
Calum Chace
Calum Chace is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, primarily on the subject of artificial intelligence. In March 2015 he published "Pandora's Brain", a techno-thriller about the creation of superintelligence. He is a regular speaker on artificial intelligence and related technologies and runs a blog on the subject at www.pandoras-brain.com.
Prior to writing "Pandora's Brain", Calum had a 30-year career in journalism and business, in which he was a marketer, a strategy consultant and a CEO. He maintains his interest in business by serving as chairman and coach for a selection of growing companies. In 2000 he co-wrote "The Internet Startup Bible", a business best-seller published by Random House. He studied philosophy at Oxford University, where he discovered that the science fiction he had been reading since boyhood was philosophy in fancy dress.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Andrés Gómez Emilsson
Andrés Gómez Emilsson
Andrés Gómez Emilsson is the co-founder and former president of the Stanford Transhumanist Association. He has an undergraduate degree on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science from Stanford, and a Masters in Computational Psychology, also at Stanford. He has worked at AI companies such as Kanjoya and Klout, and his current research topic is emotional classification with computational techniques and pragmatics. He intends to establish the field of consciousness engineering in the near future. He has represented Mexico in international math and science Olympiads, and accidentally won the first place in the Norwegian Mathematics Olympiad.
IEET > Contributors > Michael Cerullo
Michael Cerullo
Dr. Michael Cerullo is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. His main interests are the scientific study of consciousness and personal identity and what these subjects tell us about the feasibility of whole brain emulation. He is currently a Fellow at the Brain Preservation Foundation.
IEET > Contributors > Sven Gábor Jánszky
Sven Gábor Jánszky
Sven Gábor Jánszky is Co-Founder and CEO of the Germany based trend research institute "2b AHEAD ThinkTank" as well as Co-Founder and President of the European "RULEBREAKER Society". With his book "Rulebreaker – How People Think, Whose Ideas Change The World", he gradually became the prominent and visible mouthpiece of disruptive thinkers and innovators in German economy. Jánszky has also written the trend books "2020 – How we`ll live in the future" and "2025 – How we'll work in the future". With his management books "The re-measurement of human values" and "The redruiting dilemma" he strongly influences the understanding and discussion on leadership strategies in german speaking economy. He published hundreds of trend studies and analyses on future living, its environmental, social and economic aspects, and on future business models.
As a consultant, Jánszky coaches top-managers and companies on trends and innovation management, heads creative processes for future product and business model development. He`s a nationwide sought-after interview expert for Germany´s leading business media on innovations and trends, and a frequent keynote speaker at innovation conferences and strategy meetings. Within his innovation workshops, he analyses the individual Trend Cycles of attending companies and helps them to develop new strategic approaches and products for their future.
The futurist has studied journalism at Leipzig University. Following that, he has worked as a journalist, editor, editor in chief, news director, presenter and primetime anchorman in several German radio stations for more than 10 years. 2002, Jánszky accepted the offer to work as a research fellow and lecturer at Leipzig University. In the following years he taught at different universities and lectured master courses on "Leadership" at Karlshochschule International University and Leipzig University.
Jánszky is president of the board of directors of the 2b AHEAD ThinkTank AG in St. Gallen (Switzerland), supervisory board member of Karlshochschule International University, member of the corporate advisory board of the Management Circle AG, Co-Founder and President of RULEBREAKER Society and Co-Founder and Managing Director of RULEBREAKER Management investors.
IEET > Contributors > Marc Howard
Marc Howard
Marc Howard is an avid biohacker and founder of LoneMind.com, an alternative website for exploring the subconscious mind. As an advocate for transhumanism and personal experimentation his passion is exploring the boundaries of the mind.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Geoffrey Woo
Geoffrey Woo
Geoffrey Woo studied Computer Science at Stanford University and graduated with Honors and Distinction. At Stanford, he served as President of BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students), the largest entrepreneurship student group in the world, for which he now serves as a member of the board. Geoffrey spent time at Foundation Capital as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. In 2011, Geoffrey founded Glassmap, a technology company focused around location sharing and local discovery. Glassmap was backed by YCombinator and acquired by Groupon in January 2013. He is co-founder and CEO of Nootrobox.
IEET > Contributors > Micah Redding
Micah Redding
Micah Redding grew up as a preacher's kid, and toured the world as a rock musician. Now he develops software — and writes about the intersection of human values and technology. He's a founder/director of the Christian Transhumanist Association.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Brian Patrick Green
Brian Patrick Green
Brian Patrick Green, Ph.D., is Assistant Director of Campus Ethics Programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and faculty in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University. His doctorate and MA degrees are in Ethics and Social Theory from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and his undergraduate degree is in Genetics from the University of California, Davis. After spending two years as a teacher in the Marshall Islands, a nation still suffering the effects of nuclear weapons testing and now facing the future threat of climate change, he transitioned his interests from science and biotechnology towards questions concerning the ethical applications of technology. He has a strong interest in the dialogue between science, theology, technology, and ethics, and the questions that they pose for each other. Transhumanism, as the ultimate application of technology towards human nature, provides excellent test cases for investigating these questions. He has written and talked on genetic anthropology, the cognitive science of the virtues, astrobiology and ethics, cultural evolution and Catholic tradition, medical ethics, Catholic moral theology, Catholic natural law ethics, transhumanism, and many other topics. He blogs at TheMoralMindfield and many of his writings are available at his Academia.edu profile.
IEET > Contributors > Scott Jackisch
Scott Jackisch
Scott Jackisch is a blogger at the Oakland Futurist, where he reports on conferences, symposiums, and salons. He is interested in cognitive science, Quantified Self, the Long Now, the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial scene, and he's the founder/director of East Bay Futurists.
IEET > Advisory Board > Gray Scott
Gray Scott
Gray Scott an IEET Advisory Board member, is a futurist, techno-philosopher, speaker, writer and artist. He is the founder and CEO of SeriousWonder.com and a professional member of The World Future Society.
Gray Scott has been quoted and interviewed by the Discovery Channel, New York Post, Psychology Today, The Star, The Washington Post, FOX News, San Francisco Magazine, The Futurist Magazine , H+ Magazine, IEET, Brighter Brains, London Futurists, OracleTalk and SingularityHub. Gray is a frequent keynote speaker and has spoken at LucidNYC, Connector Con NYC, Transhuman Visions Conference, and The Longevity Conference held recently in Washington DC. Gray lives in NY and is currently working on his first book about the future of technology.
Home Page | CV | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Agbolade Omowole
Agbolade Omowole
Agbolade Omowole is an ace technology researcher and human capital development expert. He lives in Nigeria.
Twitter IEET > Interns > Chase Uy
Chase Uy
Chase Uy is an undergraduate student pursuing a BA in Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic, focusing in anthropology and philosophy. He is interested in exploring the impacts of technology on cultures (particularly the role of fear in people's perception of emerging technologies).
IEET > Contributors > Enrique Lescure
Enrique Lescure
Enrique Lescure is director and co-founder of EOS (Earth Organization for Sustainability). EOS is an autonomous research organization that recognizes the need for a sustainable civilization to unlock humanity's potential.
IEET > Contributors > Danko Nikolic
Danko Nikolic
Danko Nikolic is associated with the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Ernst Strüngmann Institute, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, and the University of Zagreb.
The ultimate goal of his studies is twofold. First, to achieve conceptual understanding of how the dynamics of physical processes creates the mental ones. He believes work on practopoiesis is an important step in this direction that will help address the hard problem of consciousness and the mind-body problem in general. Second, to use this theoretical knowledge to create artificial systems that are biologically-like intelligent and adaptive.
IEET > Advisory Board > Anish Mohammed
Anish Mohammed
Anish Mohammed is multi disciplinarian who in the past has worked as a medical doctor, bioinformatician, security expert/cryptographer and most recently as consultant. Some one who is passionate about technology, especially cloud computing, big data, cryptography and security. He is also an avid robotics enthusiast who is actively involved in Open Source Unmanned Aerial Vehicle projects. Currently he serves on the advisory board for Ripple Labs and EA Ventures. He is a also founding member of UKDCA.He is also a Singularity University GSP and Exponential Medicine alumnus.
Twitter IEET > Advisory Board > Ari Berwaldt
Ari Berwaldt
Ari Berwaldt has a degree in Cognitive Science with experience in data science and neuroscience. He has long had an interest in improving the human condition and raising the quality of life using the most efficacious means available. Currently he focuses on meditation, nootropic, and neurohacking related technologies.
IEET > Contributors > Riza Berkan
Riza Berkan
Dr. Riza Berkan is a nuclear physicist by training. He has worked on artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, and semantics over the past two decades with emphasis on search and dialogue systems. In his own words, his main interest is "the bridge between technology, which is solving problems without understanding them, and science which is understanding problems without actually solving them."
IEET > Contributors > Eli Sennesh
Eli Sennesh
Eli Sennesh holds a BSc from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MSc bioethics from the Technion.
IEET > Advisory Board > Didier Coeurnelle
Didier Coeurnelle
Didier Coeurnelle, born in 1962, is an active member of the European Life Extension Community.
He is a funding member and co-chair of Heales, Healthy Life Extension Society, and a member of the board of the Association Française Transhumaniste (AFT) Technoprog. He is also a lifelong member of the Immortality Institute and a donor to the SENS Foundation.
As a member of Heales, Didier publishes the newsletter La mort de la mort (in French) and De dood van de dood (in Dutch). As a member of the AFT, he took part in the first two conferences of the AFT in the University La Sorbonne.
Didier is also politically active in the Green movement and is a jurist, working in a Belgian Federal Public Service and specialized in Social Security.
Watch Didier Coeurnelle Interview. Visit his Facebook page.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Contributors > Paul Farrell
Paul Farrell
Paul Farrell writes on behavioral economics. He's the author of nine books on personal finance, economics and psychology, including "The Millionaire Code," "The Winning Portfolio," "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing." Farrell was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley; executive vice president of the Financial News Network; executive vice president of Mercury Entertainment Corp; and associate editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
IEET > Contributors > Joel Marks
Joel Marks
Joel Marks is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of New Haven and a Bioethics Center Scholar at Yale University.
IEET > Advisory Board > Adrian Cull
Adrian Cull
Adrian Cull is the founder of the Live Forever Club which monitors advances in life extension technology as well as longevity and health research, translating these findings into practical tips for living forever. By day Adrian is an IT business analyst with a broad range of experience from network infrastructure through user-interface design and data analysis to IT business processes. He is looking forward to using these skills to understand and track developments in health technology that leads to radical life extension.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Advisory Board > Soenke Ziesche
Soenke Ziesche
Soenke Ziesche holds a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Hamburg, which he received within a Doctoral Program in Artificial Intelligence. He is also an alumnus of the Graduate Studies Program of the Singularity University.
Since 2000 Dr. Ziesche has been deployed for the United Nations to four continents in the humanitarian, recovery and sustainable development fields as well as in information management. He worked in Gaza with Palestinian refugees, in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, in Pakistan after the Kashmir earthquake, in Sudan after the end of the North-South conflict and he was the highest UN representative in Libya during the revolution. He was also posted to New York for four years and to London for one year. Since 2014 he has served as a consultant various UN agencies as well as, on behalf of the UN, the Governments of Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka respectively. In 2017 he produced a 137-pages UN report on opportunities for big data and emerging technologies in the implementation and review of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr. Ziesche is also currently senior AI researcher at the Maldives National University.
IEET > Affiliate Scholar > Roman Yampolskiy
Roman Yampolskiy
Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy (wikipedia) is a Tenured Associate Professor in the department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the Speed School of Engineering, University of Louisville. He is the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab and an author of many books including Artificial Superintelligence: a Futuristic Approach. During his tenure at UofL, Dr. Yampolskiy has been recognized as: Distinguished Teaching Professor, Professor of the Year, Faculty Favorite, Top 4 Faculty, Leader in Engineering Education, Top 10 of Online College Professor of the Year, and Outstanding Early Career in Education award winner among many other honors and distinctions. Yampolskiy is a Senior member of IEEE and AGI; Member of Kentucky Academy of Science, and Research Advisor for MIRI and Associate of GCRI.
Roman Yampolskiy holds a PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo. He was a recipient of a four year NSF (National Science Foundation) IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellowship. Before beginning his doctoral studies Dr. Yampolskiy received a BS/MS (High Honors) combined degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, USA. After completing his PhD dissertation Dr. Yampolskiy held a position of an Affiliate Academic at the Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University of London, College of London. He had previously conducted research at the Laboratory for Applied Computing (currently known as Center for Advancing the Study of Infrastructure) at the Rochester Institute of Technology and at the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Yampolskiy is an alumnus of Singularity University (GSP2012) and a Visiting Fellow of the Singularity Institute (Machine Intelligence Research Institute).
Dr. Yampolskiy's main areas of interest are AI Safety, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral Biometrics, Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, Games, Genetic Algorithms, and Pattern Recognition. Dr. Yampolskiy is an author of over 100 publications including multiple journal articles and books. His research has been cited by 1000+ scientists and profiled in popular magazines both American and foreign (New Scientist, Poker Magazine, Science World Magazine), dozens of websites (BBC, MSNBC, Yahoo! News), on radio (German National Radio, Swedish National Radio, Alex Jones Show) and TV. Dr. Yampolskiy's research has been featured 250+ times in numerous media reports in 22 languages.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Advisory Board > Chad White
Chad White
Chad S. White is a graduate from the University of California with a Master's degree in cell biology. He has taught several subjects at the college level, including chemistry, microbiology, advanced biology, and molecular biology.
IEET > Advisory Board > Mark Waser
Mark Waser
Mark Waser is Chief Technology Officer of the Digital Wisdom Institute and D161T4L W15D0M Inc., organizations devoted to the ethical implementation of advanced technologies for the benefit of all. He has been publishing data science research since 1983 and developing commercial AI software since 1984 including an expert system shell and builder for Citicorp, a neural network to evaluate thallium cardiac images for Air Force pilots and, recently, mobile front-ends for cloud-based AI and data science.
He is particularly interested in safe ethical architectures and motivational systems for intelligent machines (including humans). As an AI ethicist, he has presented at numerous conferences and published articles in international journals as well as a chapter in the recently released Machine Medical Ethics (Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering). His current projects and ramblings can be found at the Digital Wisdom website. He is looking forward to the 50PH14 project and wondering how he got to the point of having adult children and a suburban backyard full of chickens and bees.
Home Page | IEET > Contributors > Christopher J. Benek
Christopher J. Benek
Rev. Dr. Christopher J. Benek is a pastor in South Florida. He is also internationally recognized as an expert social and religious analyst and commentator, techno-theologian, futurist, ethicist, Christian Transhumanist, public speaker and writer.
IEET > Advisory Board
William Manning Hiltman
William Manning Hiltman lives in Atlanta, owns his own truck and works a job at a farm-to-table restaurant while training executives in peak-performance and fitness throughout the Southeast. He has been researching and experimenting with wellness, fitness, and nutrition since 2006 and now draws from the best within each discipline.
IEET > Advisory Board > Nicole Sallak Anderson
Nicole Sallak Anderson
Nicole Sallak Anderson is a Computer Science graduate from Purdue University. After graduation, she developed encryption and network security software, which inspired both the storyline and the science behind the eHuman Trilogy—both eHuman Dawn and eHuman Deception are available at Amazon, the third installment is expected in early 2016. She currently lives with her husband and two teenaged sons on two acres in the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California, where she indulges in a variety of homesteading hobbies, from beekeeping and raising chickens and goats, to gardening, canning, spinning, and knitting.
She is a regular speaker on topics of consciousness and technology and available at the Brighter Brains Speaker Hub.
In addition, she is a member of the advisory board for the Lifeboat Foundation and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
You can follow her musings on singularity, internet privacy, data manipulation and human consciousness at eHuman Dawn on Facebook, @NSallakAnderson on Twitter or her blog. Feel free to contact her, she almost always answers to any query or comment!
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Advisory Board > Brent Logan Reitze
Brent Logan Reitze
Brent Logan Reitze is an Information Technology Systems Engineer and Singularitarian with an ongoing focus on technological advances, particularly man-machine interfaces. He served nine years in the U.S. Army as an Information Technology Specialist, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant, serving Operation Enduring Freedom in Africa, and completing his bachelor's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College before being Honorably Discharged. He is now a disabled veteran using his Post-911 GI-Bill to pursue a master's degree in Cyber-Security. He lives with his wife in Bowie, Maryland. He can be contacted via Linkedin.
Home Page | Twitter IEET > Affiliate Scholar > Riva-Melissa Tez
Riva-Melissa Tez
Riva-Melissa Tez is an investor at Permutation Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on applied machine learning companies. She has held teaching positions at the DAB and HTW Business Schools in Germany and has guest lectured at Oxford, Birkbeck, and Stanford. Riva writes about artificial intelligence, finance, and philosophy, represented AI in a 2016 Microsoft campaign for The Economist, and was a 2017 recipient of Forbes 30under30 for finance.
Home Page | Twitter


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Ever wondered how Yoda became a Jedi master? Or Han Solo's origin story? You may find out sooner than you think. That's right, young Jedi. You may find yourself parked in front of movie screen watching a new "Star Wars" movie in the next few years.
Han Solo and his trusty sidekick from the original Star Wars.
Walt Disney Studios – which purchased George Lucas' Lucasfilm (including the entire "Star Wars" universe) for $4 billion last year – confirmed in a recent interview that it will not only produce new "Star Wars" sequels, including Star Wars: Episode VII, but other "Star Wars" films as part of the franchise reboot.
Meanwhile, In a Galaxy Not So Far Away…
In an interview with CNBC's Katie Couric, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger said Disney will distribute "a few" stand-alone films that would not be part of the saga. The news was wholly embraced by "Star Wars" fans who began online predictions about a Yoda or Boba Fett movie.
Disney hasn't wasted any time getting Star Wars back into theaters. In recent news, the studio named J.J. Abrams to direct the next Star Wars sequel and the studio also killed plans to release 3D versions of the second and third films in the series.
Eager – and anxious – to see just how J.J. Abrams will put his touch on "Star Wars," this image, showing Abrams' signature lens flare, was produced by a fan.
In fact, the first Star Wars spinoff movie is already in development, with Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg working on the script. "Star Wars" fans will remember Kasdan from the credits of another "Star Wars" film; he co-wrote Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back.
The Boba Fett Movie
"Entertainment Weekly" confirmed that Boba Fett would be the star of one of the stand-alone films. Introduced first in in Star Wars, Boba Fett is the intergalactic bounty hunter who was first introduced in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.
The new Boba Fett "Stars Wars" film would apparently take place between Empire and Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The movie will chronicle the time between the two films when Boba Fett was delivering Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt. Just who will play the bounty hunter remains unknown…
When Does the Han Solo Movie Come Out?
Industry insiders have reported that Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Han Solo in the stand-alone Han Solo film. "It's a done deal," a close industry source told us. Ford, who was last seen onscreen as Han Solo in the original saga, has signed a contract with Disney to play the character that made him a household name.
Harrison Ford will return to the role that made him a star. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Rumors have also circulated that a younger Han Solo will carry most of the movie. It's unknown how Disney will handle that. Some have speculated that a younger Han may be computer-generated, much in the same way a younger Jeff Bridges was brought to life in Tron: Legacy.
Fan Films Inspire Filmmakers
Fans have been making their own "Star Wars" stories since the very first one hit theaters in 1977. The film also motivated J.J. Abrams and Iron Man director Jon Favreau to become filmmakers. And for anyone who wants to learn how to make a movie, the "Star Wars" franchise continues to be a huge inspiration.

subset: commoncrawl


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Student Leader Stories
Keala Schultz, Class of 2012
Hey everyone! Welcome to the University of San Diego! My name is Keala Schultz and I am a senior majoring in Business Marketing and minoring in Business Administration. I was born and raised on Maui, Hawai'i and San Diego has quickly become a home away from home for me. I love being in the water any chance I get, and although the Pacific is a little cooler here than in Maui, I still love spending time at the beach with friends.
My goal is to venture into advertising after graduating from USD. My involvement with the Outdoor Adventures Center has offered me practical opportunities to develop my business and advertising skills doing work that I am passionate about. As the marketing supervisor for OA, my marketing efforts are visible around campus and on our website and I will be able to showcase a portfolio of work when I am moving on to start my career. Because of the experience I gained from OA, I was chosen to be the Executive Vice President of the American Marketing Association at USD for the 2011 - 2012 school year. Outdoor recreation and sustainability are a large part of my life in Hawai'i and I am happy to have found a community at USD that values this work as much as I do. While I enjoy the work I do in OA, I love the friendships and relationships that I have developed through it.. The connections I have made through OA are ones that I know will stay with me through my life and I am very thankful for all of the great people I have met through it. I'd recommend everyone getting involved when they get to USD. It has helped me grow into the person I am today. OA has a lot to offer no matter what your interests may be. You never know who you will meet and what connections and skills you will develop along the way!
Katie Johnson, Class of 2013
Hi everyone! Welcome to USD! My name is Katie Johnson and I will be a Junior at USD. I am from a small town called Upland just about 2 hours north of campus. Living in Southern California, where both the mountains and the beach are only 45 minutes away, I have grown up playing all kinds of sports and traveling on vacations with my family where we hiked, kayaked, surfed, camped, and more. I didn't realize until joining the Outdoor Adventures Center that I had taken all this for granted and that the experiencing the outdoors, expanding my mind, and being challenged is a real passion for me. Joining the OA office as a guide is the greatest thing I have done so far in college. I have met awesome, down to earth people who love to explore and experience the outdoors. Being a part of the office helped me so much in finding my way and making a place for myself on campus where I can be involved. I cannot even tell you how much I have learned about the fundamentals of camping, how to rock climb and the purpose of all the different equipment, how to lead a group, how to canoe, and after a few burnt cookies and cobblers, how to cook using our awesome Dutch ovens! I have done things I never knew I would like real rock climbing and bouldering, canyoneering, backpacking, and even traveled to Costa Rica! I have been able to challenge myself physically and mentally and in exchange I have gained an appreciation for nature and my horizons have been greatly expanded to the beautiful areas so close to school and home.
Not only does participation in the campus-run outdoor events and the trainings to become an adventure guide give you a sense of the beauty of San Diego and the whole state of California but it gives you a sense of self, learning how to challenge yourself and grow as a person. The Outdoor Adventures Center opens so many doors for discovering things about yourself and others you never think of. I have so much more confidence in my abilities and myself than last year at this time as a new freshman because of the people I have met and the practical skills I have learned that I will use for the rest of my life. You learn to try new things, accept that when things do not go as planned they are sometimes way better, and that people you meet are so much more than your first impressions, they can actually help you to learn about yourself. The people I have met in the office and during our training trips have given me a different outlook on the world and have given me a lot of different perspectives to consider. I know now that I want to travel all around the world and experience people, food, and nature that I have never seen. I also know that I possibly want to make a career out of outdoor leadership and make it a lifestyle. Because of my roles as a guide and staff member in the OA office, I feel like I have a community and a family at USD and whether you are an experienced adventurist or a just starting to enjoy the outdoors, the OA office is the perfect place for you!


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The Learn to Climb course is a comprehensive introduction to indoor climbing. It starts with the same material included in the Basic Top Rope Climber course, but adds technique, supervised climbing practice, and personalized feedback on each student's climbing skills. We also provide you with the understanding of our grading systems and the different types of climbing that you can do in the gym. We will teach you:
Equipment: how to use a harness and belay device
Knots: tying in with a figure 8 follow-through, plus a fisherman's backup
Belaying: using a locking carabiner and ATC to confidently keep your climbing partner safe
Commands: how to communicate with your climbing partner
Bouldering: have fun staying close to the ground
Technique: using balance, flexibility, and strength to move up a face
After taking this course, most students can safely pass the MetroRock belay check, necessary to climb in the gym
Courses can be arranged outside of normal schedule any day with advance notice, please contact us for scheduling.
Course Details
Want to take this class outside? Check out our Intro to Outdoor Climbing class!
For scheduling information or to book a spot in the class, please give us a ring at 978-255-3807 or email us anytime: email@example.com
|This course is designed for:
|All beginners
|Minimum Age:
|Must be at least 14 years old
|Max ratio:
|6 Climbers : 1 Instructor
|Weekends 9:00am – Noon. Reservations required!
|Equipment Requirements:
|Suggested Prerequisites:
|Prices (per climber):
|$65 per person; course lasts 3 hours


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In the final b'racha of sh'monah esrei the phrase "תורת חיים - (Toras chayim)" appears. In some sidurim [that denote that kind of thing] the accent is placed on the first syllable and in others on the second. I believe there is even some intra-Artscroll inconsistency in this regard.
Where should the accent be placed? If on the first syllable, why?


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GMC TV Unveils Extensive Lineup Of Uplifting And Compelling Originals For 2013
Original World Premiere Movies, Series and Stage Plays Highlight Slate for Fastest-Growing Entertainment Network in Ad-Supported Cable
Network Announces it will Accelerate its Name Change to UP to June 1
Apr 02, 2013, 03:00 ET
ATLANTA, April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- GMC TV, America's leading television destination for "Uplifting Entertainment," unveiled today its most ambitious upfront original programming slate in the network's eight-year history. GMC TV, the fastest-growing entertainment network in ad-supported cable, up 80% among W25-54 (source 1), is presenting dynamic 2013-2014 opportunities to advertisers during the upfront, across a slate of 66 originals, including GMC World Premiere Movies, GMC World Premiere Series and GMC World Premiere Stage Plays. The upfront presentations are held on GMC TV's Upfront Tour Bus, which serves as the network's mobile venue for client meetings and events.
In addition, the network said it is accelerating the timetable for its recently announced name change to UP, the latest stage in the channel's evolution as America's leading television destination for "Uplifting Entertainment." The changeover will occur on June 1 instead of September 1 because of overwhelmingly enthusiastic response by advertisers, distributors and the general viewing public. The fresh, new brand initiative is designed to communicate a clear sense of the network's unique brand position, which has always been, and will continue to be, "Uplifting Entertainment."
"The response to our rebrand has been phenomenally positive," said Charley Humbard, president and CEO, GMC TV. "The beauty of UP is that it needs no explanation. It captures the essence of our brand – uplifting entertainment - and will lend itself to many interesting and fun creative executions both on-air and in print. This is a tremendously exciting milestone in the history of our network."
The network enters the 2013-14 upfront season with significant ratings momentum. In addition to being the fastest-growing entertainment network in ad-supported cable in 2012 among W25-54 (+80% growth), GMC in 2012 was the second fastest growing among A25-54 (+67%), A18-49 (+50%) and W18-49 (+62%) (source 2).
Mary Jeanne Cavanagh, executive vice president, ad sales, GMC TV, said, "We have a winning formula for success in the upfront marketplace with upsides on every front; our new name UP, which solidifies our unique brand promise has been embraced by advertisers; our ratings are at an all time high and continue to grow; our distribution is up - 10 million over a year ago. Add to that, our robust slate of originals, our best scatter market ever and the result is a strong opportunity for our advertisers. Our early discussions with advertisers indicate that they embrace GMC's platform and we anticipate a very strong 2013-14 upfront."
Brad Siegel, vice chairman, GMC TV, added, "We have the wind at our backs and are looking for even bigger things ahead in 2013-14. America is embracing us as a leader in uplifting family entertainment programming environment. As we solidify our brand promise with our new name, UP, we will continue to deliver quality programming that is uplifting, inspiring and entertaining. During this year's upfront we look forward to bringing more advertisers and marketers on board as well."
GMC's originals for 2013 include:
GMC World Premiere Movies
FINDING NORMAL (May 2013). Dr. Lisa Leland is a brilliant surgeon sentenced after a traffic accident to do community service – as a doctor – in Normal, population 332. In a town with no wi-fi, no lattes and no credit cards, Lisa begins to find herself and discovers what a meaningful life is all about. Stars Candace Cameron Bure, Lou Beatty Jr., Trevor Marshall St. John, Andrew Bongiomo and Mark Irvingsen.
THE PERFECT SUMMER (June 2013). A somewhat nerdy high school senior who spends all his time on his computer decides to learn to surf to capture the attention of a gorgeous surfer girl who moves next door.
JIMMY (June 2013). Young Jimmy Mitchell is asked to testify as a defense witness in a criminal trial when he accidentally hears a shocking confession and ultimately finds himself in a dangerous situation from which there is no escape. Based on the book by Robert Whitlow.
IN THE MEANTIME (July 2013). A GMC Faith and Family Screenplay Competition winner at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF), this is the story of a woman at a crossroads in her life. Her relationship with her fiance has hit a snag and she is looking for focus. At her sister's suggestion she starts working at a local community center and joins the fight to save the center and finds real love along the way. Stars: Kali Hawk, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Terri J. Vaughn, Thomas Mikal Ford, David Mann, Tamela Mann, Demetria McKinney Rodney Perry and Musiq Soulchild. Directed and executive produced by Roger M. Bobb Screenplay by Nzinga Kadalie Kemp.
TEACHERS (August 2013). Manny Cortez is uprooting his family so that they can go to Westbrook High where his beloved late father was the football coach. No sooner does the Cortez family move into the Westbrook school zone than it is announced that Westbrook will close due to budget issues. The staff, students and parents decide to fight back.
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO CHRISTMAS (November 2013). A jaded rock star, in order to repair his tarnished image, publicly agrees to fulfill a kid's Dear Santa Christmas wish. To his dismay, he ends up agreeing to spend the holidays in small town America and performing in the local holiday Christmas concert. Stars: Drew Lachey, Mackenzie Porter.
SILVER BELLS (December 2013). Bruce Dalt is an ambitious television sportscaster who approaches the holidays as he does life - competitively. This philosophy has put a strain on his family, and when Bruce gets into a physical scuffle with a ref at his son's basketball game, the holidays take a turn for the worse. Stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Antonio Fargas, Kenton Duty, Bridgett Newton, Laura Spencer and Kevin Downes.
GMC World Premiere Series
HEARTLAND – Season 4 (June 2013 premiere; 16 new one-hour episodes). The beloved family series continues with new episodes.
FAMILY ADDITION WITH LEIGH ANNE TUOHY (Premieres June 2013; six, one-hour episodes). This series will follow the lives of families who have been fostering children and are on the verge of adopting one or more of their foster children. The show will feature families as they go through the process of adding a new family member and make over part of their homes to accommodate the newest addition to their families. Leigh Anne Tuohy is best known for being the powerhouse real life inspiration behind the blockbuster film, The Blind Side, which earned Sandra Bullock an Academy® Award for Best Actress. An advocate for the underdog, Leigh Anne's family fostered and then adopted Michael Oher and changed his life forever - or as Leigh Anne would say, Michael changed their lives forever. Leigh Anne is joined by Team Tuohy which includes Tuohy's daughter, Collins Tuohy, a noted inspirational speaker and Special Educator "Miss Sue" Mitchell (the character played by Kathy Bates in The Blind Side).
BULLOCH FAMILY RANCH (Premieres July 2013; seven, one-hour episodes). Meet Julie and Rusty Bulloch. Together, they are the proud parents of 25 kids; however, only two are biological. The rest are teens who have been dealt a difficult hand in life, from being homeless to gang life. Julie and Rusty welcomed each of them into their central Florida ranch for a LAST SECOND chance at getting on the right track.
From the producers of "Hatfield and McCoy's", "R&B Divas" and Gene Simons' "Family Jewels", this hour long GMC World Premiere Special investigative show will explore the mysterious and exciting world of unexplained events. In a time when people desperately want to believe in miracles, "Miracle Hunters" will give hope that they exist while also debunking those that don't make the cut. The "Miracle Hunters'" team will travel around the country profiling amazing and inspirational events, capturing the world of the impossible and the endlessly fascinating.
GMC World Premiere Stage Plays
WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR LOVE (May 2013). Reggie Brooks is just an average guy working as a fitness trainer in a neighborhood gym. After being notified that he has come into a lump sum of money years after his parents perished in the tragedy of 9/11, Reggie decides that it's best to keep his new multi-millionaire status under wraps. Tired of hearing his best friend whine about meeting a good woman, Reggie's friends challenge him to go on a dating blitz in an attempt to find a wife in 30 days or less.
LOVE WILL FIND A WAY (June 2013). Reggie Brooks travels to Paris with Troy, his wife Piper and her sister Paula who starts to have feelings for Reggie. But when they return from Paris, Reggie decides to give a relationship with Lucky a try after she changed her mind about wanting to have kids. But Paula becomes suspicious when she starts finding out the truth about Lucky…is she hiding something?
More Programming
Other highlights on GMC's 2013 slate include the annual Dove Awards music special (October 2013). In addition, GMC will once again be America's Christmas Channel with a robust selection of holiday-themed programming, as well as America's Easter Celebration Destination with a themed slate of Bible movies and other specially-selected holiday entertainment.
About GMC TV
GMC TV, (www.watchGMCtv.com) based in Atlanta, is America's favorite network for uplifting music and family entertainment. The network presents original and acquired movies, series, stage plays and music specials along with gMovies, the first faith-friendly streaming movie service. The GMC TV brand is reflected in "Uplift Someone," the network's successful pro-social initiative. GMC TV can be seen in more than 62 million homes on various cable systems around the country, as well as DIRECTV on channel 338, DISH Network on channel 188, and Verizon FiOS on channel 224. Follow GMC TV on Facebook and Twitter at http://facebook.com/gmctv and http://twitter.com/gmctv.
Source 1: Nielsen LSD M-Su 6a-6a 12/27/10-12/25/11 vs 12/26/11-12/30/12, W25-54 AA (000), rank % growth v YA.
Source 2: Nielsen LSD M-Su 6a-6a 12/27/10-12/25/11 vs 12/26/11-12/30/12 AA (000), rank % growth v YA among General Entertainment nets