Notes from the 2005 Pop!Tech Conference, Camden, Maine

by Michael Moyer Theo Jansen and skeletal structure, created evolutionarily, that can walk on the wind. Michael Moyer

The PopTech conference, curated by Popular Science contriubting futurist Andrew Zolli, showcases the world's most exciting ideas and inventions every October in Camden, Maine. This year's gathering tackles the "grand challenges" facing humankind today. PopSci executive editor Michael Moyer has posted his notes from the conference-the Cliff Notes, if you will, to the ideas and trends shaping the intersection of technology and culture. Detailed speaker bios are available at poptech.org.

Topics and Speakers:

Seeing What's There

Graham Flint

Building a Gigapxl Camera

Bob Hanner

DNA Barcodes, Biodiversity and You

It's Alive!

Norman Packard

Creating Life From Scratch

Theo Jansen

Sculpture as Artificial Life

Mind and Body

Todd Kuiken and Jesse Sullivan

The World's First Bionic Arm

Explorer's Club

Peter Diamandis

Using Prizes to Encourage Exploration

Marcia McNutt

Robotic Exploration of the Very Deep Oceans

Carolyn Porco

A Journey to Saturn Aboard Cassini

People, Place and Planet

Mark Lynas

Human Cost of Climate Change

Suketu Mehta

Life in Bombay, the Maximum City

East Meets West

Oded Shenkar

The Chinese Century: Are We Toast?

Rebecca MacKinnon

China and the Internet: The Change Goes Both Waysâ€.

Serious Games

Ed Castronova

Gold From Thin Air: The Economy of Synthetic Worlds

Ivan Marovic

Using Video Games as a Tool of Political Organization and Dissent

Steven Berlin Johnson

Everything Bad is Good for You

Participation Revolution

Yochai Benkler

The Wealth of Networks-How social production transforms markets and freedom

Nicholas Negroponte

The $100 Laptop

Bart Depram

Flock: A New Approach to Web Browsers

Habitats

Robert Neuwirth

21st Century Medieval City

Ingo Gunther

Looking at World Data Through Art

Big Fixes

Cameron Sinclair

Using Design To Change How We Do Disaster Relief

Neil Gershenfeld

How To Make Anything

The Future of Ideas

Sam Harris

The End of Faith

Susan Blackmore

The Future of Memetics

What Do We Know?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Scandal of Prediction

Robert Trivers

Deceit, Self-Deception and the War