From: Sent: To: Subject: Marvin Minsky < Wednesday, November 23, 2011 3:38 AM Cecile de Jongh; Fwd: From Marvin Minsky Forwarded message From: Marvin L Minsky < Date: Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:24 PM Subject: From Marvin Minsky To: ' Meeting sponsored by the J. Epstein VI Foundation•••• Friday, December 9 to Monday, December 12, 2011""• (Actual Conference on Dec. 10 and 11. to plan a conference in 2012 about••" iPhone >, "davidad (David A. "Coping with Future Catastrophes" This "Next" Conference will be a meeting patterned after the book "Ou= Final Hour" by Martin Rees—about the future disasters that humans may f=ce. The Earth has suffered—and survived—many catastrophes in the past, including volcanic supereruptions, major asteroid impacts, solar changes, etc. But now, with our growing populations and new technologies, we need to anticipate new challenges like engineered biothreats, rogue self-replicating nanomachines, super intelligent computers, and high-energy chain-reactions that might disrupt the fabric of space itself. In particular, our new social-network systems could place us on the threshold of new types of cognitive disasters, such as: —New Religions, in which new dogmas swiftly spread through the entire wor=d population.**** —Philosophic Epidemics, in which new, super-persuasive arguments permeate our societies.•••• —Machine Dominance, in which a Super-intelligent Al takes over all of our resources. Marvin Minsky iPhone We are looking to everyone attending the *Next* Conference on •St•*. ••John*, U.S. EFTA_R1_00132352 EFTA01796515