California Dreamin

It's a fine time to be on the west coast. This weekend we have the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles. Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan, Bill Nye, and a host of astronauts and scientists. The theme for this years ISDC is "Exploring Other Worlds". In addition to interesting discussion panels, talks and the typical ISDC goodness, this year they are hosting some pretty neat tours too. Including a tour of the Mojave Spaceport, where Space Ship One has taken all of it's historic flights, which has become a nexus of the privatized space industry. There will also be an Orbit awards dinner, commemorating those that are leading the way into orbital tourism. And a Space Venturing Forum that will hopefully pair up venture capitalists with pioneering space entrepreneurs.


Next weekend is the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3. While not as weighty as private space programs E3 certainly is a lot of fun. Surrounded by bright lights and loud noises that make you think of a Vegas casino 50 years in the future, you can get the low downs on the games and game systems that have yet to be released to the public. This year, there is much talk about the PS3 and it's hardware, games, price and release date. I'm more interested in just what will be revealed about Nintedo's Wii. Allegedly there will be some very bigsurprises in store for us from Nintendo. They have set up a site specifically for the information that will be revealed at E3. For those of us that wont be attending, it will be a good source of info. I'd also like to know more about the Shadowrun gameMicrosoft will be unveiling. And of course any great new game titles for the PC. They still make those right?

The day after E3 ends, the Singularity Summit begins in Stanford. Luminaries such as the author of Engines of Creation, K. Eric Drexler, the godfather of nanotechnology will be in attendance. Cory Doctorow, author of Down and And Out in the Magic Kingdom, one of the four horsemen of BoingBoing, will be shoulder to shoulder with noted futurist, author, and singularity advocate Ray Kurzwiel. They will puttheir heads together along with a myriad of leading technology experts, futurists, philosophers, researchers, and industry leaders to discuss thepotential of an impending Singularity. There is some serious brain power collected here. If I could be a fly on any wall, I would stake my claim on this one.

Unfortunately, the totality of the Memepunks travel budget was spent on gas to Ann Arbor and sleeping bags. So I'll have to get the details of all of these events as the information trickles through the net. Look for more on all of this in the week to come. If any of you are attending these events, feel free to contact me with your take on things, and I will be happy to post it here.