« "American Hostage" at the POPTech 2006 Conference | Main | On This Thanksgiving Eve »
October 21, 2006
Metcalfe Does His POPTech Recap
Bob Metcalfe takes the stage. People behind me notice that with his backpack and sneakers, he looks like he's taking off somewhere.
My goodness, he's lost 75 pounds in the last 7 months. He says he "zoned" into a careful diet and says he's not dying, just dying more slowly. We're waiting with baited breath. Bob apologizes to the speakers for surely getting what they said wrong. Also, since no one ever really changes their minds, he says that POPTech is mostly pointless (audience laughs).
POPTech started with being an extension of the Camden Conference. It is now an entity all its own, as Bob charts the course of POPTech. I'm enjoying this as I'm a 7 year veteran of this conference. Being Human in the Digital Age, Online All the Time, Articicial Worlds, Sea Change, The Next Renaissance, The Impact of Technology on People, were just some of the headlines and themes of our beloved gatherings. Bob salutes POPTech curator Andrew Zolli, who gets a standing ovation.
[As Bob recounts the highlights of all of the wonderful speakers, I find myself listening more and typing less... playing stenographer as Bob speaks doesn't seem totally useful. Meanwhile, It's nice to see two "partiarchs" of POPTech enjoying this epilogue of the conference as John Scully relaxes stage right, smiling softly as Bob makes his way through his deck of cards.]
Interesting that Bob describes Tom Barnett's talk (on "Taking On Superpowers) as perhaps the best of the conference. (Last year Bob gave this accolade to Dr. Carolyn Porco. He makes special note of the image of the Cassini space probe's image of a full solar eclipse from behind Saturn as Cassini moves beyond it's orbit. See www.ciclops.org. Carolyn is the Cassini Imagng Team Leader.) I would have to disagree with Bob on this one. Depending on the the history of your own personal experience and your lens through which you view the world, you can say that EVERY talk was "the best." That's not a copout. Barnett's talk was incredible, but so were many of this year's speakers. I was simply blown away by people this year (as I often am every year.)
Bob is talking abut interesting potential "duets," such as Losang Rabgey and the monastic traditions of Tibet alongside Richard Dawkins with his views on science over religion. (I suspect that Dawkins has little quarrel with Buddhism; it may be that he has more significant objections about the impacts of Judeo-Christian-Islamic tenets.)
Closing comments and recap of topics now... Environmental issues, the collective intelligence of Earth; threats to our privacy, genetic engineering, new engineering materials, systemadmin capabilities and stabilizing of failed countries, jihadism, open source, the "long tail", health sciences... these make up most of the Dangerous Ideas of POPTech 2006.
Now John Scully joins Bob. It's good to see them both on stage, recounting the founding ideas of POPTech. Bob says PT is the emergence of complex system from a set of simple rules. The core ingredients of POPTech as a successful conference are fascinating - I'd imagine that publishing these elements somewhere would be a good idea. Scully talks about the grassroots effort - including our volunteers - and how philosophically, we all approached these subjects with an intellectual stance of great curiosity. The things that started PT carry a derivative effect to where we are today. We have broadened beyond just technology. Innovation, a wide range of fields, has emerged. Artists, performers, and others also make PT exciting.
John says that the audience is just as importance in playing a role as the speakers. (I'd say that a remarkable experience is interacting with the speakers, who often stay throughout the conference when they can.)
Technology is ubiquitous as Bob says in this conversation, and now all "the rest" of the issues of the world make the POPTech stage. Now we go to comments from the audience, like a town hall meeting. Andrew comments about the structure of POPTech, and talks about turnover with fresh faces in recent years among attendees, that's there's new blood in the room. It used to be that there were more "regulars," and that has recently changed. (However, I think it's also because of recent, large jumps in the price of admission. Gentrification happens everywhere it seems.)
Some ideas about where POPTech is going. It's becoming a year-round concept. Outreach will happen where POPTech makes it's presence in other places around the world (he doesn't mean it will be held outside of Camden, I think).
We are about to head to the Owl's Head Transportation Museum. It wraps there with a wonderful dinner gala alongside among gorgeously restored airplanes and vintage automobiles. Bravo POPTech 2006!
Posted by Mike at October 21, 2006 06:55 PM
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Metcalfe Does His POPTech Recap:
