Monthly Archives: August 2007

Survival of the Diverse

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Martine Rothblatt and James Gardner answering questions during the Transvision Q&A

Martine Rothblatt started United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) in 1996 and has served as Chairman & CEO since its inception. The company develops and/or commercializes unique analogs of natural molecules for cardio-pulmonary disorders, novel monoclonal antibodies for certain cancers, small glycobiologicals for infectious diseases, telemedical services (including for International Space Station astronauts) and nutriceuticals.

Prior to starting United Therapeutics, in 1990 Dr. Rothblatt created Sirius Satellite Radio and served as its first Chairman & CEO. She also initiated and led the effort to get the Federal Communications Commission to create the satellite radio service in which both Sirius and XM operate, based on underutilized frequencies and the novel concept of using GPS-type antennas for digital audio. Her publications include five books and over fifty peer-reviewed articles.

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Cyborgs Today & in the Future

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James Hughes leading a discussion at the IEET conference in Chicago, Illinois

James Hughes, Ph.D., is the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Executive Director. A bioethicist and sociologist, he teaches Health Policy at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future (Westview Press, 2004), and produces a syndicated weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio.

He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often on radio and television. In his talk at Transvision 2007, entitled “Cyborgs Today & in the Future,” he explored some of the historical continuities between the ideals of the Enlightenment philosophes and the present-day steps toward cybernetic augmentation of the human body.
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The Coming Merger of Human and Machine

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Ray Kurzweil delivering his keynote presentation at Transvision 2007

Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist. Called “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Sun Microsystems Chief Scientist Bill Joy, whose own discussions of the promise and peril of technology have attracted worldwide attention, writes in his now famous Wired magazine cover story that “I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil, the deservedly famous inventor of the first reading machine for the blind and many other amazing things.”

On July 26, 2007, he presented at the Transvision conference the keynote lecture entitled “The Coming Merger of Human and Machine,” in which he outlined the foreseeable implications of accelerating technological progress. At the reception following the event taking place at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, the technology trends researcher, inventor, and writer was presented the HG Wells Award for Outstanding Transhumanist Contributions.

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