FW: will call later; Edge master Class Weekend
-----Original Message-----
From: John Brockman [mailto:john@brockman.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 4:09 PM
To: Jeffrey Epstein
Cc: Lesley Groff
Subject: will call later; Edge master Class Weekend
Will call around 4:30 when I get to the far.
In the meantime, are you interesting in coming to, and/or backing this
year's "Master Class" in Napa?
JB
203-266-5930 this weekend
To: Jeff Bezos
Stewart Brand
Sergey Brin
George Dyson
Brian Eno
Danny Hillis
Danny Kahneman
Salar Kamangar
Dean Kamen
Nathan Myhrvold
Pierre Omidyar
Larry Page
Craig Venter
I am beginning to plan this year's "Master Class" at Napa. You are
invited and I want to try out some ideas in hopes of getting advice
and feedback.
Danny Kahneman is a tough act to follow. His work and ideas had
something for everyone who showed up. Also, because he's yet to
publish a book, the event was novel and important.
I would be inclined to have more than one speaker this year, probably
three or four. (Friday night talk, Saturday morning and afternoon
session; Sunday morning session). Some thoughts:
One idea is to update the event we ran at my farm in August
featuring Craig Venter and George Church among others on "Life What A
Concept?" (See: http://www.edge.org/documents/life/life_index.html)
For this new event I would focus on the genome people and invite
Craig, George, and possibly Jay Keasling or Drew Endy.Another approach is not to stick with one subject, but to have a
few people doing cutting-EDGE work that you probably don't know too
much about since they have not yet published trade books. Some ideas:
Viennese physicist Anton Zeilinger on Quantum Teleportation
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/zeilinger.htmlHarvard mathematical biologist Martin Nowak on indirect reciprocity
and "how to win"
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/nowak.htmlStanford economist Paul Romer on "delegated democracy" (creating
Hong Kong-like administrative regions in third world countries under
sovereign laws of administration of an established state such as, say,
Norway)Princeton researcher Iain Couzin who studies "Collective Animal
Behavior" and who was recently featured on EDGE ("Ants Have
Algorithms").
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/13traff.html?_r=1&ref=science&
oref=slogin
http://www.princeton.edu/~icouzin/
- Max Brockman (who you probably met at last year's event) has just
delivered the manuscript for his first book to Vintage, which is
tentatively titled "The New Questions". The book is a collection of
essays which was generated as Max talked to a number of the top
scientists in the world ( also our clients) asking each "Who is the
next Martin Rees?", the next Jared Diamond?, the next Steven Pinker?,
the next Marvin Minsky?, etc. The list thus generated is a Who's Who
of the coming generation in science, young stars who have yet to
publish a book, or even receive tenure. Given the drumbeat about the
decline of science and math in America, the collection is especially
uplifting, even inspiring.
At the link there is an annotated table of contents with pictures/bios
of each of the young scientists and a downloadable PDF of the
manuscript:
https://www.brockman.com/Projects/Proposals/Brockman_NewIdeas/Brockman_N
ewIdeas.html
This idea would involve bringing in choosing a bunch of these young
scientists and giving them a high-level audience on which to try out
their ideas. (Iain Couzin - above - would fit into this group).
Your thoughts? Email is fine. A telephone call is event better (either
office or mobile, and weekends are good).
We got off to a late start this year and last year's hotel, Auberge du
Soleil, is already very busy in July. The only possible weekend is
July 25-27. They have 3 king suites and 14 1-bedroom suites
available, as well as the necessary conference rooms. But we would
have to book ASAP (the other weekends in July are pretty booked).
August is also a possibility. Can you get back to me overnight
regarding (a) your availability on July 25-7, and/or (b) possible
other weekends (July and August) we can go from there.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Best,
JB
p.s. The next Billionaires' dinner is a week from Saturday (May 17) in
Iceland. You're all invited. EDGE is part of an exhibit event at the
Reykjavik Museum. (It's also Brian Eno's 60th birthday and he will be
there).
~~
John Brockman
CEO, Brockman, Inc.
5 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
john@brockman.com
tel: 212.935.8900 x11
fax: 212.935.5535
Visit the EDGE Website at:
http://www.edge.org