Kraus

Please advise if ok to send statement and budget to Eileen or just statement with removing sentence saying attached is budget

Thank you

Dr. Krauss advised that the proceeds of the pledge will be used to permit the Origins Project to continue with a projected level of activity of up to 10 forefront workshops/yr, and 3-5 associated public events, to be held primarily in Tempe, but with remote locations to include NYC, DC, LA, London, Dublin, Prague, and Sydney. Attached is their provisional budget to run the programming. Dr. Krauss advised that it will take time to coordinate the first of the new workshops (they are already holding 4 events in the winter and spring of 2015), so they expect the first of the new programs will begin sometime in the fall of 2015, with potentially 3 workshops in the fall, to be followed by up to 7 workshops in 2016, and then, if things are running successfully, up to 10 workshops in 2017. The budget shown, for $1.6 M/yr is based on a 10 workshop model, with full staffing. Dr. Krauss advised that staff will need to be hired in advance, and this will be carried out during 2015 with a number of staff hired in advance of the fall programming. They expect to supplement the initial $1M funding of the pledge with $300K in support from ASU, and the remainder in funds to be raised from other sources.

As far as the content of the workshops is concerned, provisionally they are planning workshops and events over the coming 2-3 years, in addition to their planned workshop in winter and spring of 2015 on Extinctions and Water, on the topics that include:

The future of Artificial Intelligence and Cognition
Complexity and Societal scaling
Pattern Recognition
Origin of life
Origin of Disease
Population economics
Music and the Brain
Origins of capitalism
Origins of Sex
Mathematical biology
Origins of Cooperation
Information and signaling
Human co-evolution with other species
Limits to knowledge?