Living Technology Today/Artificial Life Tomorrow

Norman Packard, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, ProtoLife; Former CEO and Founder, The Prediction Company

ProtoLife CEO Packard will discuss the history and future of living technology, including the rise of wet artificial life. He will describe how new generations of artificial life will result from the current convergence of biotechnology and information technology. In studying these new forms of life, we may learn a thing or two about life itself.

Dr. Packard is an early pioneer in the field of chaos theory. His dedication to physics led him to study complex systems and develop theories in predictive analytics. The Prediction Company was founded in an attempt to bring some order out of a chaotic stock market and predict its behavior - for profit.  It worked well enough that the firm was bought by one of the largest banks in the world. This, in turn, led to the development of artificial life theories through evolutionary design of experiments. Packard believes that artificial life is emerging today from the many realms of “living technology" - from biotechnology to information technology. How much science fiction is fiction?

MLF: Science & Technology/Humanities/Environment & Natural Resources
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 non-members, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizers: Ralph Barhydt and Chisako Ress
Also know: In association with the Mechanics' Institute

October 15, 2013