A couple of weeks ago, Paul recommended The Edge, which I checked out. Thanks Paul.
The Edge has published a free pdf book online capturing the dialog around ³Life: What a concept!² an inspired gathering held in August 2007 Edge: The Third Culture Intro page: http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#life Document: http://www.edge.org/documents/life/Life_Full.pdf "I just read the Life transcript book and it is fantastic. One of the better books I've read in a while. Super rich, high signal to noise, great subject." Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, Wired EDGE PUBLISHES "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT!" TRANSCRIPT AS DOWNLOADABLE PDF BOOK [1.14.08] Edge is pleased to announce the online publication of the complete transcript of this summer's Edge event, Life: What a Concept! as a 43,000- word downloadable PDF Edge book. The event took place at Eastover Farm in Bethlehem, CT on Monday, August 27th. Invited to address the topic "Life: What a Concept!" were Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, and Seth Lloyd, who focused on their new, and in more than a few cases, startling research, and/or ideas in the biological sciences. Reporting on the August event, Andrian Kreye, Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas) Editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: "Soon genetic engineering will shape our daily life to the same extent that computers do today. This sounds like science fiction, but it is already reality in science. Thus genetic engineer George Church talks about the biological building blocks that he is able to synthetically manufacture. It is only a matter of time until we will be able to manufacture organisms that can self-reproduce, he claims. Most notably J. Craig Venter succeeded in introducing a copy of a DNA-based chromosome into a cell, which from then on was controlled by that strand of DNA." Jordan Mejias, Arts Correspondent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, noted that: "These are thoughts to make jaws drop...Nobody at Eastover Farm seemed afraid of a eugenic revival. What in German circles would have released violent controversies, here drifts by unopposed under mighty maple trees that gently whisper in the breeze." Click here for the Edge feature on the "Life: What a Concept!" August event (photo album; streaming video; links). http://www.edge.org/documents/life/life_index.html
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