[extropy-chat] singularity conference at stanford

[Jef Allbright]

On 5/14/06, "Hal Finney" <hal at finney.org> wrote:

> I was especially impressed with Eliezer's talk.  I'd never seen him
> speak before, and he did a great job.

I too thought Eliezer gave an excellent presentation.  He showed good
knowledge of his audience, he talked to the points rather than reading
them, and the logical structure of his talk was clear.

The conference provided little new information to anyone who frequents
the transhumanist lists, but for me the biggest benefit was increased
understanding of the people (including the audience) and their
activities.

I was glad to see that the panel had diversity and balance.  I greatly
appreciated Bill McKibben's thoughtful and respectful presentation of
views counter to the prevailing techno-optimism, even though I
disagree with his conclusions.  I was a bit dismayed by Douglas
Hofstadter's presentation, because while he made a good point about
the value of skepticism, he appeared to be somewhat smugly detached
and lacking detailed awareness of the thinking he was attempting to
criticize.  It was a bit of a letdown for me since I have held a bit
of hero-worship for him since reading GEB back in 1979.

Probably the biggest take-away for me from this conference was that we
have several individuals driving leading edge thought, and despite
knowing each other quite well, their thinking and efforts are very
much lacking in coordination and collaboration.  I see huge
inefficiencies with regard to common understanding of terms and
concepts and clarity of goals.  Of course, that is one of the reasons
for these gatherings, but wouldn't it be great if it could be
continuous and online?

- Jef