Edge Master Class 2009: A Short Course In Synthetic Genomics
tuition?tuition?SpaceX,The Andaz, Los Angeles, California,USA
| File:Edge Master Class 2009.png Craig Venter lecturing on the promises of "synthetic biology" | |
| Date | 24 July 2009 - 26 July 2009 |
|---|---|
| Location | SpaceX,The Andaz, Los Angeles, California,USA |
| Type | tuition? |
| Interests | Synthetic biology |
| Description | A small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal), arrived, to be offered a glimpse, guided by George Church and Craig Venter, of a future far stranger than Aldous Huxley had been able to imagine in 1948. |
| Perpetrators | Edge Foundation |
| Participants | Stewart Brand, Larry Brilliant, John Brockman, Max Brockman, Jason Calacanis, George Church, Jesse Dylan, George Dyson, Ari Emanuel, Sam Harris, Daniel Hillis, Thomas Kalil, Salar Kamangar, Lawrence Krauss, John Markoff, Katinka Matson, Elon Musk, Nathan Myhrvold, Tim O'Reilly, Larry Page, Sean Parker, Ryan Phelan, Nick Pritzker, Ed Regis, Terrence Sejnowski, Lucy Page Southworth, Maria Spiropulu, Victoria Stodden, Richard Thaler, Craig Venter, Nathan Wolfe, Alexandra Zukerman |
| Sponsors | Jeffrey Epstein |
At the Edge Master Class 2009: A Short Course In Synthetic Genomics, the genetic scientists Craig Venter and George Church preached the promises of "synthetic biology", all sponsored by Jeffrey Epstein, who had just been released from prison, but did not attend.Template:Cn
On July 24, 2009, a small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal), arrived at the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, to be offered a glimpse, guided by George Church and Craig Venter, of a future far stranger than Mr. Huxley had been able to imagine [in Ape and Essence] in 1948.[1]
Sales pitch
In this future — whose underpinnings, as Drs. Church and Venter demonstrated, are here already — life as we know it is transformed not by the error catastrophe of radiation damage to our genetic processes, but by the far greater upheaval caused by discovering how to read genetic sequences directly into computers, where the code can be replicated exactly, manipulated freely, and translated back into living organisms by writing the other way. "We can program these cells as if they were an extension of the computer," George Church announced, and proceeded to explain just how much progress has already been made. ...[1]
As of 2025, synthetic biology is still a pipedream with zero to show for it, although it has received massive funding over the last decades.[2]
Locations
The first day's lectures took place at Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket laboratories. "Toward the end of the first day Elon Musk, for whom the word charismatic could have well been coined, described a genomic transformation of another type. While a video of his Falcon 1 rocket being launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific played in the background, Musk spoke about sending the human species to the planets."[1]
The rest of the event took place at at the Andaz Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.[1]
Criticism
Johnny Vedmore described it as
At this 2009 event, the wealthiest and most powerful people in science freely discussed reprogramming living cells and then translating that back into a human subject". When the most powerful scientists meet to discuss changing the fundamentals of our very existence, we should all take notice. However, when it’s funded by an elite sex offender who was released from prison 2 days prior, our concern should increase in scope and scale.[1]
Lecturers
George M. Church is Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Center for Computational Genetics; Science Advisor to 23andMe.[1]
Craig Venter "is regarded as one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his invaluable contributions in genomic research, most notably for the first sequencing and analysis of the human genome published in 2001 and the most recent and most complete sequencing of his diploid human in genome in 2007.[1]
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