Searching for Zen, and the Seventh Layer

I wanted to briefly check in and post something of an update on my conceptual travels through the positive brain and the realtime evolution of the species.

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a Zen retreat at the Big Mind Western Zen Center here in Salt Lake City. A partial coverage of my experience searching for Zen can be found on the ad hoc blog I created to document my experiences on the retreat:

http://searchingforzen.wordpress.com/

Also, here is a “heads up” on a soon-to-be blog post that I am quite excited about. In my continuing post-Singularity-Summit-futurism high, I’ve been thinking a lot about brain computer interfacing (BCI). As my thoughts have integrated the burgeoning exploits of BCI with the human brain’s evolutionary history, it has occurred to me that—at least metaphorically—BCI is like adding a seventh layer to the neocortex. This is extremely cool. In this perspective, BCI would literally be a “next step” in the evolution of the species. Look forward to a BCI-based blog post coming soon that will touch on both the cladistics of brain evolution in addition to exploration of potential implications for a synthetical “seventh layer” of the human cortical architecture.

Don’t you love the brain??!

Nosce Te Ipsum: Singularity Summit 2009 review

Last weekend I attended the 2009 Singularity Summit in Manhattan. In addition to meeting some really cool new friends interested in using convergent technology for the betterment of the world, I walked away from the summit with renewed perspective and enthusiasm for the directions and forms developing in our cultural evolution.

Among some of the speakers who impressed me most deeply were Anders Sandberg speaking about long term strategies for whole brain emulation, Brad Templeton speaking about the coming transportation revolution (smart cars that fully drive themselves—Templeton puts it at just over a decade away!), Peter Thiel’s commentary on the inborn human desire to make the world a good place (some really wonderful insights and thoughts came from Thiel during the panel discussion sessions—note that a man with a net worth of $1.3 billion will almost certainly have something interesting to say), and Aubrey de Grey speaking about time frames and initiatives for extending human longevity—perhaps indefinitely.

For me, the darling of the summit was the presentation on E-memory. If I tried to go into all of the details about what the E-memory movement represents and why it sparks something deep inside of me, I would likely be reduced to a gushing, babbling