<html>
<body>
Greetings!<br><br>
I hope to see you at TransVision 2007 in Chicago!<br><br>
<div align="center">
______________________________________________________________________<br>
<br>
<b>
<font size=4> *** MEDIA ADVISORY *** MEDIA ADVISORY *** MEDIA ADVISORY
***<br>
</font> <br>
WILLIAM SHATNER, ED BEGLEY JR., RAY KURZWEIL AND AUBREY DE GREY TO
KEYNOTE <br>
NINTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL TRANSVISION 2007 CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO<br>
</b></div>
<br>
<div align="center"><b><i>Inventor, Author and Futurist Ray Kurzweil To
Be Awarded The H.G. Wells Award <br>
For Technological Contributions To Humanity At Gala Awards Dinner<br>
<br>
</i></div>
WHO:</b> The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) is hosting the ninth
annual TransVision conference, a leading international gathering of
science, technology and policy leaders, and will hold this year’s event
at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel from July 24 - 26, 2007. It is only the
second time that the TransVision conference will be held in the United
States. This year’s theme is “Transhumanity Saving Humanity: Inner
Space to Outer Space” with keynotes by internationally renowned
visionaries William Shatner, Emmy award winning actor, environmentalist;
Ed Begley Jr., actor and environmentalist; Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author
and futurist; and Aubrey de Grey, acclaimed longevity
scientist. <br><br>
<b>Confirmed presenters include</b>: Peter Diamondis, XPrize Foundation;
Max More, strategic philosopher and author of philosophy of
transhumanism; James Gardner, author; Marvin Minsky, the father of
artificial intelligence; Jerome C. Glenn, Millenium Project; Martine
Rothblatt, founder, Terasem Movement; Natasha Vita-More, artist and
author of Transhuman Statement; Nick Bostrom, Director of the
Oxford Future of Humanity Institute; James Hughes, Executive Director,
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies; Sky Marsen, Ph.D.,
Semiotics Expert, Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of
London; Ron Bailey, Science Correspondent, Reason Magazine; Ralph Merkle,
Alcor Foundation, Michael Weiner, President, Biophan Technologies;
Michael Ekstract, Editor, Verdant Magazine; Barbara Marx Hubbard,
Foundation for Conscious Evolution; Giorgio Gaviraghi, Mars Society
Italia; and Dr. Andrew Rosenson, Heartscan Chicago.<br>
<br>
<b>WHAT: </b>Speakers will address how emerging technology will give our
societies the ability to solve the grand challenges facing humanity.
Global health, the environment and space development will be addressed.
The conference will consist of three days of intensive briefings by some
of the most influential futurists, innovators, policy leaders and
celebrities from the U.S. and around the globe. <br><br>
· <b>Day 1: Inner Space:
Transforming Ourselves -- </b>Aging, Life Extension, Nanotech,
Nanomedicine, Bionics, Biotech, Strategies for Engineered Negligible
Senescence, Cryonics <br>
· <b>Day 2: Meta Space:
Transforming Humanity -- </b>Environment, Global Warming, Sustainable
Housing, Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Virtual
Reality <br>
· <b>Day 3: Outer Space:
Beyond the Planet -- </b>Future Humans, Colonizing Outer space, Space
Tourism, Future Civilizations<br>
<br>
In addition, inventor, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil will be awarded
the prestigious H.G. Wells Award, named after Herbert George Wells, a
19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup> Century English futurist and
writer. The WTA will honor Ray Kurzweil for outstanding technical
contributions made to humanity, at the Gala awards dinner reception on
Thursday, July 26 at the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago. As one of the leading
inventors of our time, Ray was the principal developer of the first CCD
flat-bed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the
first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first
text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of
recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the
first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition. Ray
Kurzweil also has written five books, four of which have been national
best sellers. <i>The Age of Spiritual Machines</i> has been translated
into 9 languages and was the #1 best selling book on Amazon in science.
Ray’s latest book, <i>The Singularity is Near, </i>was a <i>New York
Times</i> best seller, and has been the #1 book on Amazon in both science
and philosophy.<br>
<br>
<b>WHEN: <br>
</b>· Monday, July 23,
2007: Opening night reception at Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel<br>
· Tuesday, July 24 –
Thursday, July 26, 2007: Conference sessions<br>
· Thursday, July 26,
2007: Gala awards dinner reception Chicago’s Fairmont Hotel<br>
<br>
<b>WHERE: </b>Fairmont Hotel, 200 North Columbus Drive Chicago, Illinois;
Tel: (312) 565-8000; Fax: (312) 856-1032 <br>
<br>
<b>HOW:</b> To register for TransVision 2007 ($575 until June 30; $175
for students; $125 for Gala dinner); visit
<a href="http://www.transvision2007.com/">www.transvision2007.com</a>
<br>
<br>
<b>MEDIA INTERVIEWS:</b> For interviews with conference speakers and
TransVision 2007 Conference Chair, contact Emanuela Cariolagian,
323.644.2111 or
<a href="mailto:press@transvision2007.com">press@transvision2007.com</a>
<br><br>
<br>
</body>
</html>