Speech Summaries

The End of Ingenuity?

Prospects for a Troubled Species on a Small Planet

In the beginning we were frail, vulnerable and afraid. Surrounded by predators with vastly superior physical capabilities, we learned to rely on two strengths - our intelligence and each other. Despite a planet paradoxically bent on destroying as well as nourishing us, we became the undisputed Alpha Species on earth. But intelligence cuts both ways. Solving one problem can create a cascade of others. So far our species has managed to slip through a series of closing doors otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But has all our technology merely postponed the inevitable? Have we painted ourselves into a corner from which there is no escape? The future looks rather bleak - - more and more people fighting over fewer and fewer resources on an increasingly toxic planet. Is intelligence itself eventually its own executioner…or are we not thinking big enough?

Surprising Insights From the Emerging Science of Happiness

Happiness is something most of us seek our entire lives. Virtually every choice we make is driven by an overwhelming desire to acquire this magical state. We search for it, pray for it and relentlessly pursue it. However, for most of us true happiness remains frustratingly elusive. In our culture the prevailing belief is that happiness is intimately related to the concepts of success, wealth and security. However, in the last ten years science has found this is clearly not the case. What IS happiness? Can we attract it, create it, manipulate or enhance it? If so, how?  Is there some kind of verified formula - - some magic mix of love, work, play, psychological skills or personality traits that portend a life well lived? The short answer is “YES” but the findings will most likely surprise and also empower you.

Frontier and Destiny

Risks, Riches and Renaissance in the Solar System

Single planet species do not survive. Ask the dinosaurs - a single very bad day eliminated them forever. We don’t know when our demise could happen, only that it will. But even if our survival depends on extending human civilization into space, what compels us to begin now? If the seven billion people already on planet Earth want to live like Americans, we will need the resources of at least eight Earths. Vastly expanding the available resource pool is the only long-range solution. The only place left to go is up! Fortunately, our solar system is laden with enough resources to lavishly support a celestial civilization of over 10 quadrillion people for the next four billion years. Successful species expand their habitats. They adapt and transform them. Expanding into space is merely the continuation of the human journey that has been underway for a hundred millennia. The enabling technologies exist today. If there is no downside, why aren’t we doing this now?

Beyond Nature and Nurture

The Power to Transcend Our Own Genes

After believing for decades DNA is the ironclad rule we, our children and their children must live by, scientists are learning we can bend our own as well as our children’s DNA to our will; all apparently without changing a single atom of our genetic makeup. The discovery of epigenetics is fundamentally transforming our understanding of biology, medicine including aging and cancer and even evolution. DNA still determines the “hardware” of our biological processes, but the epigenome is the “software” that regulates how and to what degree our genes are expressed by orchestrating the interaction between genes and the environment. The good news is that scientists are developing medications and other techniques to suppress or even silence bad genes and enhance the good ones. But the bad news is that a single bad lifestyle choice can not only shorten your own life but also predispose your kids (and grandkids) to disease and early death before they are conceived. And more good news is that the reverse is also true. Regardless, the Age of Epigenetics, the greatest revolution in biology since Darwin, has arrived! Learn how these new discoveries can positively affect your own life as well as those who inherit your genes for generations to come.

Are We (Still) Alone in the Universe?

Recent discoveries indicate the Universe is almost 14 billion years old. Scientists estimate there are approximately one hundred quintillion solar systems in the Universe. That’s the number 1 followed by 20 zeros. One million solar systems are born in the Universe every hour. Even if the relative chances of intelligent life are extremely low, the sheer numbers involved suggest the Universe should be teeming with intelligent life. If that’s the case, why haven’t aliens already landed on the White House lawn? And what’s with all these so-called UFOs? One percent of the US population claims to have been “abducted” by aliens. What should we make of that? Debunkers claim if UFOs are real, the Earth would be the ‘Crossroads of the Universe.’ However, scientific discoveries made in the last decade strongly suggest that IF advanced intellegent alien civilizations are actively looking for other intelligent life, they would know exactly where to look - - Earth!

The Biotech Paradox

Golden Age or Pandora’s Box?

The next hundred years promise to usher in the most fundamental changes in human experience since our hominid ancestors first stood upright. The capability to decipher, disseminate and manipulate the genetic code of all life on Earth will be as significant to mankind as the domestication of fire. Biotech breakthroughs are revolutionizing the diverse disciplines of forensics, medicine, history, manufacturing and reproduction as well as information technology, energy, climate change and even politics. But this is only the beginning. How will the creation of materials that mimic the formation, function or structure of biologically produced substances and processes affect our lives and the global economy? More importantly, what will be the implications of the inevitable fusion of silicon circuitry and biochemistry resulting in artificial intelligence that rivals or even exceeds our own?