Both AI and HA (human augmentation) are attracting floods of funding and research attention, with most of the attention going to silicon, cloud, and quantum methods to emulate what human beings have already achieved—via evolution and culture—in hard stages across the last half million years. In this talk physicist and author, David Brin, will survey the general approaches being taken to bring us artificial minds... and alternative approaches that may enable us to keep pace with our creations.

David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Earth, Existence and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. He consults for NASA, companies, agencies, and nonprofits about the onrushing future. Brin's first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. His new book is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.

Hosted by: Departments of Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, and the Creative Writing Program

In conjunction with:, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of English, Department of Philosophy, Humanities Research Institute, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), School of Art + Design, Spurlock Museum