Tell Me -- Thursday Version

4:53 PM

Oh, yes, one more thing...

Thursday afternoon, during my live-blogging of the Emerging Technologies Conference, I will have to decide again which of four concurrent breakout sessions to attend. If you could choose, what would you most like to hear about?

Session A
Anti-Aging Research
Geneticists and molecular biologists have made startling discoveries about mechanisms of human aging. Anti-aging research won’t let us live forever, but it could mean we healthier as we grow older.

Moderator: David Rotman, Editor, Technology Review
Panelists:Christoph Westphal, MD PhD, CEO, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals; Leonard Guarente, Professor of Biology, MIT; Richard Weindruch, Professor of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Thomas Perls, Associate Professor, Boston University and Director, New England Centenarian Study

Session B
Bad Patents and How They Hinder Innovation
“Patent trolls,” entities who sue other companies for copying sometimes dubious “inventions,” are increasingly recognized as a major roadblock to technological innovation. What mix of policy and practice will stem the tide?

Moderator: Declan McCullagh, chief political correspondent and senior writer for CNET’s News.com
Panelists: David Kappos, VP and Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property Law, IBM; Don Steinberg, Chair, Intellectual Property Department, WilmerHale; Simeon Simeonov, Technology Partner, Polaris Venture Partners; Jason Schultz, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Session C
Making PCs Safe for Hollywood
Hollywood wants a PC that’s hack proof—a machine that can’t be used to “rip” the industry’s latest blockbuster hits, or even record digital television. Will this technology put an end to innovation and kill open source software?

Moderator: Simson Garfinkel, Contributing Writer, Technology Review
Panelists: Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, President, Bunnie Studios; Sean W. Smith, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Dartmouth College; Martin Sadler, Director, Trusted Systems Laboratory, Hewlett-Packard Labs; Brad Hunt, Executive VP and CTO, MPAA

Session D
High-Performance Batteries to Transform Transportation
Experts are turning advances in nanotechnology and materials sciences into light, high-performance batteries that can produce the power of existing hybrid batteries, but at one-fifth the weight.

Moderator: Kevin Bullis, Editor, Technology Review
Panelists: Yet-Ming Chiang, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT; Angela Belcher, Professor of Biological Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering, MIT; Ted Miller, Technical Specialist, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering; Mark N. Obrovac, Research Specialist, 3M

I'm currently torn between A & B. Is there an argument for C or D? If you were here, which of the four would you attend?

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog

Comments

[Tim Lundeen]

Session A, anti-aging. What could be more important :-)

[Phillip Huggan]

I'd personally be interested in B or C. Ever since I found out you need to pay IBM to work commercially with CNTs, the patent gulag has scared me and I'd like to know more about it.
C would be interesting for example, because a responsible MNT scale-up would need an absolutely secure computer network. And post-MNT there will be a need for secure MNT-product computer networks.

[Andrew]

I would attend A. I've long followed Aubrey de Grey's work and would definitely like to hear from others in the field.

Re D: Although I think decent batteries could have huge positive impacts on many aspects of society, I can't imagine listening to a talk about it would be interesting.

And B and C would almost certainly do nothing but annoy/anger me.

[Teresa]

Hmmm... I'd go for A. That one sounds the most interesting. I'm not into patents so while I'm sure B could hold my attention if it was the only one, it's less appealing although I can see the interest.

C - is impossible with current technology so why waste time.

D might be worth it if the panel is lively. Although if I'm reading it right this is for hybrid cars or hybrid systems. That limits the appeal quite a bit - the scope is so small. Now if they were going to range over things like laptop batteries, cell phones, etc it would be interesting to see what the predictions are.

[Tom Mazanec]

I'm 48. Anti-aging for me!

[Nato Welch]

C. The combination of Bunnie Huang and MPAA execs is a recipe for fireworks, with lots of things that could be applicable to attempts to apply DRM to nanofactories.

[Michael Anissimov]

Recommend A.