The Long Now Foundation Cowell Theater - San Francisco, CA Mar 10th, 2006 The Next 100 Years of Science: Long-term Trends in the Scientific Method with Kevin Kelly. The co-founding editor of "Wired" magazine and author of "Out of Control" is working on a new book on "what technology wants." His research led to the first-ever history of scientific methodology. Starting from this long-term view of science's past transformation, he speculates on how the practice of science will change in the future.

The Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Jan 11th, 2008 As part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminars About Long-term Thinking, technology forecaster and strategist Paul Saffo presents Embracing Uncertainty: The Secret to Effective Forecasting.

The Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Dec 9th, 2005 The View From The End Of The World with Sam Harris. With gentle demeanor and tight argument, Sam Harris carried an overflow audience into the core of one of the crucial issues of our time: What makes some religions lethal? How do they employ aggressive irrationality to justify threatening and controlling non-believers as well as believers? What should be our response?

The Long Now Foundation Cowell Theater - San Francisco, CA Feb 13th, 2006 Perfect Order: A Thousand Years in Bali With lucid exposition and gorgeous graphics, anthropologist Stephen Lansing exposed the hidden structure and profound health of the traditional Balinese rice growing practices. The intensely productive terraced rice paddies of Bali are a thousand years old. So are the democratic subaks (irrigation cooperatives) that manage them, and so is the water temple system that links the subaks in a nested hierarchy.

The Long Now Foundation The YBCA Forum (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts) - San Francisco, CA Sep 22nd, 2006 China Thinks Long-term, But Can It Relearn to Act Long-term? China is the most unresolved nation of consequence in the world," Orville Schell began. It is defined by its massive contradictions.

Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Jun 28th, 2007 The End Of History Revisited with Francis Fukuyama speaking at a seminar hosted by The Long Now Foundation. Frank Fukuyama's 1992 book "The End of History and the Last Man" had profound and lasting impact with its declaration that science and technology, the growing global economy, and liberal democracy are leading history in a quite different direction than Marx and Hegel imagined. In this revisit to those themes, Fukuyama examines conflict with and within Islam, the need for a diffuse form of global governance to deal with problems like climate change, and the deeper implications of biotechnology.

The Long Now Foundtion San Francisco, CA Feb 4th, 2008 The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought with Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses his book, The Black Swan in relation to predicting the future, learning from the consequences of the unknown, and the power of randomness.

The Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Apr 28th, 2008 Niall Ferguson and Peter Schwartz present Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress as part of The Long Now Foundation's Seminars about Long-term Thinking.

The Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA May 21st, 2008 Quadir presented a broad outline of development in order to give context for his belief that technology can alleviate poverty. He reminded us that 500 years ago, when the western countries were still "developing" their own societies, their political systems were no better, and often worse, than the instable corrupt regimes of many developing countries today. England had a series of kings who were impeached, arrested, ousted, or beheaded for their crimes. It was only after citizens were empowered by economic markets did the balance of power shift from the central king to decentralized citizens.

Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Sep 12th, 2008 Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, speaks at the Long Now Foundation about the history of the X Prize. The goal of the 10 million dollar prize is to benefit humanity and Diamandis details some of the effects of this generous prize.

The Long Now Foundation San Francisco, CA Feb 25th, 2008 Joining 3.5 Billion Years of Microbial Invention featuring biologist J. Craig Venter. Biologist, author and businessman Craig Venter discusses his work mapping and synthesizing genomes. Venter recalls his work mapping the human genome and expands on his current work which includes categorizing new genes and species of microbes from ocean water. Venter also explains how microbial research can be used for metabolic engineering and alternative energy sources.

In a dazzling duet Will Wright and Brian Eno give an intense clinic on the joys and techniques of "generative" creation. Back in the 1970s both speakers got hooked by cellular automata such as Conway's "Game of Life," where just a few simple rules could unleash profoundly unpredictable and infinitely varied dynamic patterns. Cellular automata were the secret ingredient of Wright's genre-busting computer game "SimCity" in 1989. Eno was additionally inspired by Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain," in which two identical 1.8 second tape loops beat against each other out of phase for a riveting 20 minutes. That idea led to Eno's "Music for Airports" (1978), and the genre he named "ambient music" was born.