EDGE publishes "Life: what a Concept!" transcript as a downloadable pdf book

[Randy Burge-2]

A couple of weeks ago, Paul recommended The Edge, which I checked out.
Thanks Paul.

The Edge has published a free pdf book online capturing the dialog around
?Life: What a concept!? ? an inspired gathering held in August 2007

Edge: The Third Culture

Intro page:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#life
Document:
http://www.edge.org/documents/life/Life_Full.pdf

"I just read the Life transcript book and it is fantastic. One of the better
books I've read in a while. Super rich, high signal to noise, great
subject." ? Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, Wired

EDGE PUBLISHES "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT!" TRANSCRIPT AS DOWNLOADABLE PDF BOOK
[1.14.08]

Edge is pleased to announce the online publication of the complete
transcript of this summer's Edge event, Life: What a Concept! as a 43,000-
word downloadable PDF Edge book.

The event took place at Eastover Farm in Bethlehem, CT on Monday, August
27th. Invited to address the topic "Life: What a Concept!" were Freeman
Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, and
Seth Lloyd, who focused on their new, and in more than a few cases,
startling research, and/or ideas in the biological sciences.

Reporting on the August event, Andrian Kreye, Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas)
Editor of S?ddeutsche 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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[Phil Henshaw-2]

And the message is what?    
 
I get the impression that it's the dreamy idea that we still have
limitless opportunity for controlling nature without consequences.
Nature would seem to be displaying diminishing returns and surprising
large scale natural system blowbacks all over the place in response to
man's main attempt at 'limitless control'.   The Edge seems to see that
as the illusion, not the idea of how hot it would be to reach for ever
greater of control over things we haven't screwed up yet.
 
Is that about right?  
 
 

Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: [phone]                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/>    
-- "it's not finding what people say interesting, but finding what's
interesting in what they say" --

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On
Behalf Of Randy Burge
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:08 PM
To: FRIAM
Subject: [FRIAM] EDGE publishes "Life: what a Concept!" transcript as a
downloadable pdf book


A couple of weeks ago, Paul recommended The Edge, which I checked out.
Thanks Paul.

The Edge has published a free pdf book online capturing the dialog
around ?Life: What a concept!? ? an inspired gathering held in August
2007

Edge: The Third Culture

Intro page:
http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge233.html#life
Document:
http://www.edge.org/documents/life/Life_Full.pdf

"I just read the Life transcript book and it is fantastic. One of the
better books I've read in a while. Super rich, high signal to noise,
great subject." ? Kevin Kelly, Editor-At-Large, Wired

EDGE PUBLISHES "LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT!" TRANSCRIPT AS DOWNLOADABLE PDF
BOOK [1.14.08]

Edge is pleased to announce the online publication of the complete
transcript of this summer's Edge event, Life: What a Concept! as a
43,000- word downloadable PDF Edge book.

The event took place at Eastover Farm in Bethlehem, CT on Monday, August
27th. Invited to address the topic "Life: What a Concept!" were Freeman
Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov,
and Seth Lloyd, who focused on their new, and in more than a few cases,
startling research, and/or ideas in the biological sciences.

Reporting on the August event, Andrian Kreye, Feuilleton (Arts & Ideas)
Editor of S?ddeutsche 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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