(((You might wanna go pick up a few extra million
Bay Area microbes from the seething crowd while watching this.)))
Next MONDAY, Feb. 25! (Not this Friday.)
At the HERBST Theater downtown (Not Ft. Mason this time)
Craig Venter is on a roll these days. He has revolutionized science twice already—with the human genome project and with metagenomic analysis of whole microbial populations. He is about to do it again by creating a new life form with a wholly synthesized genome. His memoir, A LIFE DECODED, is a thrilling read. He has shocking new perspectives to report every time he speaks in public. (((Aw c'mon, who can't like THAT?)))
Last month in Germany he said, "In one milliliter of sea water, there's a million bacteria and ten million viruses. In the air in this room—we've been doing the air genome project—all of you just during the course of this hour will be breathing in at least 10,000 different bacteria, and maybe 100,000 viruses.... This is the world of biology that we live in, that we don't see, where evolution takes place on a minute-to-minute basis.... The air that we breathe comes from these organisms. The future of the planet rests with these organisms. And the question is: If we take over the design of these organisms, does that really shift the balance in any way? Or is it such a small portion of what's out there that we'll only affect industrial processes, not the living planet?"
"Joining 3.5 Billion Years of Microbial Invention," Craig Venter, Herbst Theater, San Francisco, 7pm, MONDAY, February 25. The lecture starts promptly at 7:30pm. Admission is free (a $10 donation is always welcome, not required).
The Herbst Theater is downtown at the Civic Center on Van Ness at McAllister (inside the War Memorial Veterans Building).
Note: There might or might not be an overflow audience at the Herbst (seats 916). IF there is, Long Now Members (and a date) get to exercise a membership perk. Here's how it will work:
Priority seating in the theater will be available for Long Now Members (plus one) for this Seminar.
please arrive before the doors open at 7
bring your member card or ID so we can give you a hand stamp when we open the doors to the theater, members (and their plus one) will be seated first
we ask that you do not save additional seats - thank you
at approximately 7:10 we will open the theater up for general seating - there will be no more priority seating after the theater opens up for general seating
Also: Live via webcast (((microbe free! Except for the zillions already festering on your keyboard and being zapped off your screen directly into your eyeballs through high-velocity electrostatic repulsion)))
this Seminar will be broadcast live via webcast during the event - we can support up to 1,000 simultaneous users
go to www.longnow.org to access the webcast
this is a Windows media stream, (((the byword for buggy!))) if you are a Mac user, you can download Flip4Mac through the link on our website to view the talk you might want to have your media players installed and updated before the streaming event begins
Long Now Membership costs $8/month ($96/year) and helps support the series. Joinable here.
Talks coming up:
Apr. 25 (Friday) - Niall Ferguson & Peter Schwartz, "Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress"
May 21 (WEDNESDAY) - Iqbal Quadir, "Technology Empowers the Poorest"
Jul. 23 (WEDNESDAY) - Edward Burtynsky, "The 10,000-year Gallery"
Sep. 12 (Friday) - Peter Diamandis, "Long-term X-Prizes"
Dec. 19 (Friday) - Rick Prelinger, "Lost Landscapes of San Francisco"
This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) organized by The Long Now Foundation. Free audios and my summaries of all previous talks are available for download here (or stay up to date with the Podcast here). The summaries join other long-term thinking items on our Blog (RSS). If you would like to be notified by email of forthcoming talks, go here to sign up online. Any questions, contact Danielle Engelman at Long Now— 415-561-6582 x1, [email protected].
You are welcome to forward this note to anyone you think might be interested.
(((Man, if you're not interested in a line-up like that, bugs must have eaten your brain.)))
–Stewart Brand
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Stewart Brand – [email protected]
The Long Now Foundation - http://www.longnow.org
Seminars & downloads: http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/
