KEVIN WARWICK IN-WORLD
He implanted a microchip directly into his body nearly a decade ago, and in a fitting progression, famed robotics expert Kevin Warwick will enter Second Life today to discuss the artificial evolution of humanity, and address the audience as a fully articulated cyborg. Sponsored by a couple SL-based transhumanist groups, his appearance starts at the East Coast/European-friendly time of 7am SLT today. More details (and a full look at the Warwick cyborg) after the break.
The full Warwick avatar designed by Rein Mitra; screenshot courtesy of Manoj Undercity
The topic of the talk is “Upgrading Humans: Why not ?”. This is a major event organized by the Second Life Chapter of the World Transhumanist Association and hosted by Giulio Prisco’s Metafuturing in SL.
When we look towards the capabilities of intelligent machines (AI) we can see that these hold some distinct advantages over human intelligence... In this presentation Kevin will look at the possibilities, will consider some of the experimental work presently going on around the world and will describe the practical experimentation he has already carried out.
More details here (where the above excerpt was extracted.)
It wasn't a microchip as such - it was nothing more intelligent than the chips we've been putting in dogs and cats for years. So what, huh? Misreporting of this has *created* this guy's completely unwarranted celebrity.
Posted by: Alan Cyr | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 01:20 AM
Every second Tween-Bitch has a Dogtag-Chip now implated, if she wants to enter the New York clubs. I crack up. And now he has figured out that there is a Second Life, TOO LATE Buddy !!
Posted by: TJ Ay | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 03:21 AM
Warwick's media efforts have made him a bit of a figure of fun, but I think it's reasonably affectionate, and I would be interested in going to this if it weren't for the fact that they seem to have placed it at a time that makes it pretty much impossible for many of us poor, unaugmented meat people (with proper jobs) to attend. Oh well.
Posted by: Ordinal Malaprop | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 03:37 AM
It would be great if we could get the transcript of the event....
Posted by: dandellion | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 09:58 AM
Kevin Warwick. Captain Cyborg. Media Doll. Tech Wanker. Now in second life, too little, too late.
http://igargoyle.com/archives/2004/07/kevin_warwick_1.html
Posted by: Nym Eponym | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 01:59 PM
...also interesting he couldn't even bother to create his own avatar.
Posted by: Nym Eponym | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 02:01 PM
Avatars are for humans pretending to be computers. Warwick v2.0 needs no pretence.
Seriously, I had been wondering where he'd gone.
Posted by: Ordinal Malaprop | Monday, April 23, 2007 at 03:32 PM