September 7-8,
2000 in San Jose, CA
Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center
September 6, 2000
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• New computing engines
• Evolutionary engineering models & evolvable systems
• Technostructure & infostructure
• Economics of ideas
• Living and thinking artifacts
• Complex adaptive systems
• Distributed intelligence
• Organized chaos
• Lessons for eBusiness
• Making electronics more like biology
The
next five years will see
all businesses impacted
by fundamental changes in
technology, logistics and
operations brought about
by networks of "things" and
people on-line. There will
be a concatenation of inherently
chaotic systems with huge
uncontrolled and unpredictable
peaks in demand. We will
be forced to abandon centralized
control and adopt autonomous
work practices. The engineering
of such systems demands new
skills and levels of understanding
that are currently unavailable
through any conventional
mathematical or engineering
models. To date, we have
only one option and direction
to explore – Artificial
Life (AL).
Just a decade ago
AL was viewed with suspicion
and
skepticism. Today it is
used to model the behavior of
customers in department
stores, drivers on freeways, terrorist
insurgent groups, and the
performance of networks.
AL is now complemented
by artificial intelligence systems
in the design process of
our raw technologies – chips
and software – to
realize more powerful computing
and
networking engines.
In
this conference, we address
the why, how and
where of
the advancement of ever
smarter materials and
things, and
the creation of more
powerful engines for computation.
We also examine distributed
intelligence and the
networking of people and machines
spanning the purchase
of corn flakes
through to the diagnosis
of ailments and disease.
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Douglas Adams, Author, Hitchhikers
Guide to the Galaxy & Co-founder, h2g2
Brian Arthur, Citibank Professor,
Santa Fe Institute
Peter Cochrane, Chief Technologist,
BT Labs
Deborah Estrin, Professor,
Computer Science Department, UCLA
Vinod Khosla, Partner, Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers
Dan Ling, Vice President
of Research, Microsoft, Redmond
Eric Schmidt, Chairman & CEO,
Novell, Inc.
Richard Pawson, Research
Fellow, Computer Sciences Corporation
David Tennenhouse, Vice
President of Research, Intel Corporation
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The legendary Xerox PARC has
produced innovations which have lead the world into
the Information Age. PARC is often credited with
the invention of personal computing, but that is
inaccurate - what PARC really invented was interpersonal
computing. PARC scientists recognized that there
was a far more powerful role for computers to play
than that of standalone boxes to support individuals
working alone. Their vision transformed computers
into devices that link their users to each other
and to global information resources. This central
insight - that value gets created by enhancing people's
ability to interact - still drives the work done
at PARC. Their deep understanding of the collaborative
nature of work is leading to new kinds of tools that
represent the next advance beyond distributed computing.
These "social computing" technologies enhance
communication, facilitate relationships and support
communities - continuing PARC's legacy of transforming
the way people work together.
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