During the covid pandemic, this online program replaces both the 12
physical L.A.S.E.R.s that were planned
at Stanford University and University of San Francisco for 2020 and the
L.A.S.T. Festival that was planned for Spring 2020.
Since some of them are simply "fireside chats",
we tentatively called them the The Life Art Science Tech (L.A.S.T.) dialogues.
See previous and future speakers and their videos.
(Note: All times are California time)
- January 19 @ 6pm
Josh Bongard (University of Vermont) on Evolutionary Robotics and Evolutionary Computation
Jessica Angel (Media Artist) on "Integrated Immersive Experiences as Doors to the Metaverse"
Eran Kahana (Stanford Law School) on "The Metaverse and its Potential Impact on Agency for Artificial Intelligence Entities"
Register here
or
here
Josh Bongard (University of Vermont) on Evolutionary Robotics and Evolutionary Computation
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Josh Bongard is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont, where he runs the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory, whose work focuses on the role that morphology and evolution play in cognition. Bongard's research centers on evolutionary robotics, evolutionary computation and physical simulation. In 2007, he was awarded a prestigious Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship and was named one of MIT Technology Review's top 35 young innovators under 35. In 2010 he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by Barack Obama at a White House ceremony.
Jessica Angel (Media Artist) on "Integrated Immersive Experiences as Doors to the Metaverse"
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Jessica Angel is a New York-based Colombian-American artist who has taken an early leading role in the art and blockchain movement, inspiring, and educating artists, developers, and technology enthusiasts to embrace leading-edge blockchain technologies to create and fund ambitious art projects. Jessica curated #ArtProject2020, a 5-day virtual conference presented through the Vancouver Biennale in the context of her current project Voxel Bridge that gathered the leading minds in the NFT space. Her notable participation in the bridging between the art and blockchain ecosystems has led her to bring projects like Kusama Network, Status, Maker Foundation, the Foundation for Art and Blockchain, Spheroid Universe, amongst others to contribute to artistic initiatives. Angel’s immersive installations that present a physical experience of the virtual world have been showcased across the Americas. She will curate the art related to the conference/hackathon ETHDenver 2022.
Eran Kahana (Stanford Law School) on "The Metaverse and its Potential Impact on Agency for Artificial Intelligence Entities"
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Eran Kahana is an experienced attorney concentrating his practice on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and intellectual property law. He counsels clients on a wide variety of matters related to cybersecurity, privacy, technology law, artificial intelligence, trademarks, patents, and copyright issues. In addition, Eran is a fellow at Stanford Law School and an advisory board member of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Law Society. He also serves in a variety of cybersecurity thought-leadership roles in which he publishes and lectures on the intersect between the law and artificial intelligence and is the co-author of the book The Law of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Machines, a publication of the American Bar Association. Eran is a graduate of the FBI's Citizen Academy and works closely with the FBI, Department of Justice, Secret Service, and colleagues from the private and academic sectors to promote and sustain cybersecurity best practices. To that end, Eran serves as general counsel of InfraGard (Minnesota Chapter), and as a member of the governance committee of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, a public-private sector organization affiliated with the FBI. He also serves on the Advisory Board of MN Cyber, an organization dedicated to position Minnesota as a national leader in cybersecurity. Eran has been interviewed on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, privacy, and technology law for Bloomberg Law, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), KABC Radio, WCCO Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, Star Tribune, TheStreet.com, Stanford University Radio, KZSU FM, Twin Cities Business magazine, and Quartz.
- January 26 @ 12pm
Pattie Maes (MIT) on "Cognitive Enhancement"
Sarah Friend (Cryptoartist) on "Systems as Fictions"
Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Media Artist, University of Florida) on "Visual Storytelling with Bleeding-edge Technologies"
Register here
or
here
Pattie Maes (MIT) on "Cognitive Enhancement"
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Pattie Maes is a professor in MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences and until recently served as academic head. She runs the Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces research group, which aims to radically reinvent the human-machine experience. In 1995 Maes developed the pioneering ALIVE (Artificial Life Interactive Video Environment) system. Coming from a background in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, she is particularly interested in the topic of cognitive enhancement, or how immersive and wearable systems can actively assist people with memory, attention, learning, decision making, communication, and wellbeing. Maes is the editor of three books, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She has received several awards: Fast Company named her one of 50 most influential designers (2011); Newsweek picked her as one of the "100 Americans to watch for" in the year 2000; TIME Digital selected her as a member of the "Cyber Elite," the top 50 technological pioneers of the high-tech world; the World Economic Forum honored her with the title "Global Leader for Tomorrow"; Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize; and in 2000 she was recognized with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. She has also received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and her 2009 TED talk on "the 6th sense device" is among the most-watched TED talks ever. In addition to her academic endeavors, Maes has been an active entrepreneur as co-founder of several venture-backed companies, including Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), Open Ratings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet) and Tulip Co (privately held). Prior to joining the Media Lab, Maes was a visiting professor and a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
Sarah Friend (Cryptoartist) on "Systems as Fictions"
After the event, the video will be posted here.
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Sarah Friend is an artist and software engineer, specializing in blockchain and the p2p web. She is a participant in the Berlin Program for Artists, a co-curator of Ender Gallery (an artist residency taking place inside the game Minecraft), an alumna of the Recurse Centre (a retreat for programmers), an organiser of Our Networks (a conference on all aspects of the distributed web), an advisory board member for Circles UBI (a blockchain-based community currency that aims to lead to a more equal distribution of wealth), a co-founder of Bitspossessed" (an art and software development consultancy that operates as a coop), and has been the technical lead for Culturestake (a project that uses quadratic voting to lead to better decisions about arts funding).
Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Media Artist, University of Florida) on "Visual Storytelling with Bleeding-edge Technologies"
After the event, the video will be posted here.
If you missed this dialogue, you can view it by clicking on the image:  .
Amelia Winger-Bearskin is an artist who innovates with artificial intelligence in ways that make a positive impact on our community and the environment. She is a Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and the Arts, at the Digital Worlds Institute at the University of Florida. She is the inventor of Honor Native Sky, a project for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture: Honor Native Land Initiative. She founded Wampum.Codes which is both an award-winning podcast and an ethical framework for software development based on indigenous values of co-creation. Wampum.codes was awarded a Mozilla Fellowship embedded at the MIT Co-Creation Studio from 2019-2020 and was featured at the 2021 imagineNative festival. She continued her research in 2021 at Stanford University as their artist and technologist in residence made possible by the Stanford Visiting Artist Fund in Honor of Roberta Bowman Denning (VAF) . In 2019 she was an invited presenter to His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama, at his World Headquarters in Dharamsala for the Summit on Fostering Universal Ethics and Compassion. In 2018 she was awarded a MacArthur/Sundance Institute fellowship for her 360 video immersive installation in collaboration with the artist Wendy Red Star (supported by the Google JUMP Creator program). The non-profit she founded IDEA New Rochelle, in partnership with the New Rochelle Mayor's Office, won the 2018 $1 Million Dollar Bloomberg Mayor's Challenge for their VR/AR Citizen toolkit to help the community co-design their city. In 2018 she was awarded the 100k Alternative Realities Prize for her Virtual Reality Project from Engadget and Verizon Media. Amelia is Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation of Oklahoma, Deer Clan.
Photos and videos of this evening
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