SPEAKERS AND PRESENTATIONS

Philip Aaberg
“Would Aliens Like Bach?”
Renowned songwriter and pianist Phil Aaberg is a Grammy and Emmy Award nominee, a recipient of a PBS Development award, and a world class composer and performer, who displays a remarkable mastery of forms and a boundless, distinctive style. He finds devoted listeners among rock, country, blues, jazz, new age and classical music fans, and his range of performances includes solo concerts with the Boston Pops and the Latvian National Symphony and appearances with such luminaries as Elvin Bishop, Peter Gabriel and John Hiatt. His recent albums, produced by Sweetgrass Music, are "Live From Montana" and "Blue West."

Dennis L. Albers
“Physical Science Course In Interstellar Travel”
Dr. Albers is a Physics Teacher at Columbia College who has recently rekindled an interest in space travel and hard science fiction. He is also a gymnast and knows what "zero-gravity" feels like in two-second doses. He will discuss the unique course he developed.

Michael Bolte
The next 30 years of astronomy
The tools of astronomy are about to take a leap forward with new telescopes in space and giant telescopes on the ground. Using new technologies that allow correction of blurring by the Earth's atmosphere, with these new facilities astronomers are going to explore nearby stars for earth-like planets and probe back through time to "First Light"--the initial era of star and galaxy formation, and try to understand the fabric of space-time.

Michael Bolte is the Director of the University of California Observatories and on the Board of Directors of the Keck Observatory and the Thirty-Meter Telescope project.

Penny Boston
The Robot-Human Continuum: Concepts & Applications For Space Exploration & Consequences for Humanity
The rise of biotechnology at its most fundamental level and the development of cybernetic engineering are two strong trends in our civilization as we enter the 21st century.  These developmental pathways will overlap and produce a blending of organic life with cybernetic mechanism to produce new possibilities for life in general and human life in particular.  Such eventualities have critical implications for space exploration, the possible emergence of a new level of complexity in evolution, and the future of humanity on this planet and elsewhere.

Dr. Penelope J. Boston is Associate Professor of Cave and Karst Science and Director of Cave and Karst Studies at New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM. Her areas of research include cave geomicrobiology, microbial life in highly mineralized environments, unique or characteristic biominerals and biosignature detection. Additionally, she is involved in astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. Cave formation mechanisms on other planetary bodies is a topic of particular interest to her. Her background includes geology, microbiology, atmospheric chemistry, global biogeochemical cycling, and climate/life interactions.

Matt Castleberry
“Why Starships Won't Use Rocket Propulsion”
Matt Castleberry is a Columbia College student, philosopher and science buff.

William J. Clancey
Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers
For over four years hundreds of scientists traveled together exploring the unknown lands of Mars. Their voyages of discovery at Gusev and Meridiani developed a new practice for field science, with our first glimpse of how people and robots might work together to explore the planet.

William J. Clancey is the Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Computing in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames. He leads several partnership projects with Johnson Space Center, including automating routine aspects of file management between Mission Control Center and the International Space Station, and the EVA Metabolic Rate Advisor, a voice-commanded assistant for astronauts.. Clancey’s scientific interests include understanding the cognitive and social nature of human exploration and team work; the neuropsychological architecture of conceptualization; the cultural evolution of cognition; and the varieties of animal consciousness.

Clancey holds a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. In addition to his many books and publications, he is currently writing a NASA Special Publication for the History Division on how working with the Mars Exploration Rover has changed the nature of field science.

Bruce Cordell
"Timelines as Solutions to the Differential Equations of the Global System"
Bruce Cordell, an astrophysicist, is Dean of Natural Sciences Division at Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA., and also faculty and adviser in The Center for the Future at Fullerton and Cypress Colleges. He will make some mathematical analogies to how he personally thinks about timelines in relation to the solutions of much simpler systems, the parallels between timelines and solutions to the dynamic equations of other complex systems (e.g. the weather system), and specific examples of boundary conditions that influence timeline "solutions".

Maximiliano Cordova
“Discovering Italy: Photo Exhibit in the Art Show”
Max is a student at Roosevelt Junior High in Modesto, California. His love of travel has taken him to 6 countries. This past summer, at age13, he discovered Italy through his camera lens. He presents a series of photographs from that experience. Max aspires to be a marine biologist and photographer.

Bruce Damer
“Visualizing the Future of Exploration and Life in Space & Cyberspace”
Bruce Damer will present an update from the DigitalSpace team which has spent the last two years modeling concept missions for NASA. In the past year. DS has created 3D design simulations for lunar landers and lunar outposts, as well as concept missions for exploration beyond the moon including a design for a crew to land on and explore asteroids. Bruce will also give an update from the exploding medium of virtual worlds with the recent popularity of Second Life. CONTACT and its members can be credited for influencing the early development of the avatar medium and Bruce will honor that by giving a timeline of how the Contact Consortium emerged from CONTACT in 1995 and went on to help initiate the avatar medium. Lastly Bruce will give an update on Project Biota which is moving into a new phase, sponsoring a popular podcast and a project to create Biota@Home, an "artificial life hyper-evolver" distributed across the Internet. Bruce co-founded the Contact Consortium, a sister organization to CONTACT, with Jim Funaro. The Consortium built on the work of SolSys and Epona to carry out experimentation with and hold conferences about multi-user virtual worlds on the Internet.

Keith Doyle
“Interactive Sonic Art" in the Art Show
Keith Doyle is a computer programmer, artist and musician who's been experimenting with music, art and mathematics in various forms since the 1970s, and is currently developing portable exhibit platforms for interactive art and music. His interactive musical exhibit, the Sonic Carousel, can be experienced at the Contact 2006 art show. Keith Doyle is a computer programmer, artist and musician who's been experimenting with music, art and mathematics in various forms since the 1970s, and is currently developing portable exhibit platforms for interactive art and music. His interactive musical exhibit can be experienced at the Contact 2008 art show.

Marilyn Dudley-Flores
"Astrosociology and 21st Century Space Exploration"
Dr. Marilyn Dudley-Flores is a planetary, social, and behavioral scientist, among whose wide-ranging accomplishments in the space arena include geographic and geological discoveries in the Arctic from satellite imagery, and the first quantitative evidence for third-quarter phenomenon in space and polar expeditions.

Ted Everts
“Meet Homo commoditas: Modifying and Commodifyng Genus Homo sapiens in a Capitalist World-Economy”
Advances in recombinant DNA practices (genetic engineering), pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, embryonic clone research, in-utero somatic gene transfer, synthetic gene and artificial chromosome production and other forms of biotechnology demonstrate that the realization of inheritable genetic modification (IGM) of human beings is well within the grasp of science and technology practitioners. In today's capitalist world-economy, biotechnology corporations have invested globally and heavily into the research, development and application of these technologies, patented a significant portion of the human genome, and pushed states and state groupings to allow or minimally regulate these practices and their outcomes.There thus exists a very real possibility that the genetic future of Homo sapiens lies in the hands of private, profit-seeking interests. Barring any near-term enactment of an enforceable international regime regulating capitalist actors' manipulation of human DNA and their patenting of the human genome, humankind stands on the threshold of its own modification and commodification.

Jim Funaro
"Some Thoughts on the Origins and Future of Morality"
One of the main (and most essentially anthropological) goals of CONTACT is to encourage ethical approaches in intercultural encounters, whenever and wherever they occur. As we move into a future which presents us with the new possibilities of a multicultural global human community, offworld migration involving terraforming other planets, and extraterrestrial contact, our old moralities based on religion, politics and economics are reaching the limits of their effectiveness. Where do we look for models adequate to deal with these new futures? Funaro presents some thoughts which explore the biological bases of human behavior, the nature and functions of cultural institutions, and how ethical systems are manifested, with an end to suggesting some hopeful approaches in applying ethics to our new future scenarios.

Founder of CONTACT, Jim is professor emeritus in anthropology at Cabrillo College, which has honored him with its highest award for teaching excellence. Publications demonstrating his research interests are "Anthropologists a Culture Designers for Offworld Colonies" and "On the Cultural Impact of Extraterrestrial Contact." Besides his graduate degrees in Anthropology, has a BA cum laude in Literature and is a published poet; he won the American Anthropological Association's 1997 prize for poetry with "The Dancing Stones of Callanish.".

Thomas Gangale
"Astrosociology and 21st Century Space Exploration"
Mr. Thomas Gangale is the Executive Director of OPS-Alaska, headquartered in Petaluma, California. He is an aerospace engineer, a political scientist, and international relations scholar. He has authored books on presidential primary reform and space property rights in international law.

Joel Hagen
"Mars Folio Exhibit in the Art Show"
Joel Hagen is an artist and imaging specialist who divides his time between physical and computer media. Joel is a founding member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, an award-winning sculptor and animator and an instructor of computer graphics at Modesto Junior College. Joel has worked with the NASA Ames teams on MER, Pathfinder and Polar Lander. Joel is presenting a folio of prints derived from the MER pancam panoramas. These Mars landscape views have been selectively cropped from larger full pans and manually processed to present consistent color and detail.

Al Harrison & Brent Sherwood
"Professionals, Passengers, and Settlers: New Communities in Space"
Dr. Albert A. Harrison will report on the work he and his colleagues are doing with the IAC Space Architecture Study Group. Al has conducted extensive research on next-generation space missions, including a return trip to the Moon and initial human exploration of Mars. He recently received a large grant from NASA to investigate ways of integrating behavioral health research with flight operations.

Howard Heard
"To Reach Out and Touch Time: Cinema and Sensory Experience"
Is space really the final frontier? In this presentation we take a look at time, not space- at the eternity within 300 milliseconds, a look at some of the ways in which the effect of cinematic images on human observer is grossly counterintuitive, including a survey of some visual perception studies, with parallel findings by film editors through trial and error during a century of film history. We catch magic with its pants down.

Howard Heard is a native of southern California and studied motion picture production at UCLA. He has an avid interest in the sciences as an amateur observer, as well. Still a resident of Los Angeles, he has done film editing work on forty-five features, more than fifty hours of prime time episodic television, pilots, miniseries, four documentaries, and other short films and commercials. He also serves on the faculty of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with students who hope to become the film directors of tomorrow.

Christopher Burr Jones
Discussant “Charting the 21st Century”
Christopher teaches courses in political science and futures studies at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO. He is a member of the Board of the World Futures Studies Federation, and has recently served as Secretary to the society. Chris is the author of the futures (science fiction) novel, Fire & Ice.

Jeroen Lapré
Making Science Compelling
Jeroen Lapré has been with Industrial Light & Magic since 1996. As a Technical Director at ILM he is responsible for the assembly and rendering of visual effects in feature films including CG lighting of the 3D elements and integrating them with the actors, sets, props and locations. His film credits with ILM include Star Wars episodes 1 and 2, Artificial Intelligence, Hulk, T3, The Time Machine and many others. In addition to his work at ILM, Jeroen is working with Sir Arthur C. Clarke on a film version of Clarke's story, Maelstrom II.

Jeroen will update us on the "Maelstrom II" project. He will also discuss new research he is conducting in the emerging Semantic Web, including the authoring of ontologies for the purpose of teaching the sciences and to develop educational/productivity software.

Wim Laws
“Artificial Gravity During Starship Voyages”
Wim Laws is a Columbia College student, science fiction enthusiast and a future ship captain.

Chris McKay
"Mars Exploration: from Phoenix to Human exploration"
Dr. Christopher P. McKay, Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames. Chris received his Ph.D. in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982 and has been a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center since that time. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human settlements. Chris has participated in polar research since 1980, traveling to the Antarctic dry valleys and more recently to the Siberian and Canadian Arctic to conduct research in these Mars-like environments. Dr. McKay is a recepient of the prestigious Kuiper Award from the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for his contributions.

Jim Pass
"Astrosociology and 21st Century Space Exploration"
Jim holds a Ph.D. in sociology. He is the founder of astrosociology and Astrosociology.com. Currently, Dr. Pass dedicates the bulk of his time toward the development of this new multidisciplinary field.

Margaret Race
"Astrosociology and 21st Century Space Exploration"
Dr. Margaret Race, a biologist at the SETI Institute, is an expert in the field of planetary protection, analyzing issues of cross-contamination both in space and on Earth. She works closely with NASA in studying scientific, policy and public issues associated with solar system exploration. She has served on three major national studies involving planetary protection, and recently completed work on several NASA projects related to Mars exploration- one that developed scientific protocols for handling, quarantining and testing Martian samples, and atwo that analyzed the technical and scientific issues associated with human missions to Mars.

Doug Raybeck
"Addressing the Difficulties of Long-Term Space Flight"
A Psychological Anthropologist, Douglas Raybeck received his Ph. D. in anthropology from Cornell University. He is a Professor of Anthropology at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY 13323. Doug is the author of several books and numerous articles; his most recent book is Looking Down the Road: A Systems Approach to Future Studies.

Reed Riner
“Timelines Past and Present; How We Represent Experience to Ourselves"
Reed Riner is Professor of Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, where he regularly teaches courses about the future, and is a founding board member of CONTACT. His talk will introduce the power of the timeline method, and will note previous 'inventions' that have changed how we represent experience/ reality to ourselves - e.g., invention of perspective illustration, from flat map to globe, etc. He will also discuss the Kondratief/ Braudel / Wallerstein CWS theory and include some remarks about how this method bolsters the predictive potential/capability of the social sciences.

Don Scott
"The Contemplative Cowboy; or, In Praise of Independent Scholars"
Riding around his 14 square mile Montana ranch, rancher and retired mathematician Leroy Amunrud developed a new model of the universe and published a book about it. Amunrud is an example of the Independent Scholar, one who has no institutional sponsorship. Others include Albert Einstein, Vladimir Nabokov, Alan Bean, and Kerry Yo Nakagawa. As the professoriate shrinks, the number of Independent Scholars grows. This is a talk about the perils and pleasures of Independent Scholarship and about the tools and resources (like CONTACT) for doing scholarly or creative work independent of institutions.

Donald M. Scott, retired NASA Educator, teacher and ranger is currently an independent scholar and writer. His biography of historian, odologist, toponymist, and pioneering ecological novelist George R. Stewart is in the hands of a literary agent. Scott is a member of the CONTACT and WIDER FOCUS educational futures organizations. Honors received include listing in Who's Who In America.

Carlo Séquin (see Keynote)
“Modeling Our Universe -- and other things...”

Seth Shostak
"Why Isn't Alien Presence Obvious?"
Seth is senior astronomer and official spokesman for the SETI Institute. A distinguished astronomer with many publications to his credit, Seth is also a photographer, filmmaker and widely known media personality. Seth's book, Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life has received much public and scholarly acclaim.

Michael Sims
“Autonomy in Robotic Spaceflight Missions: Examples from MER”
For our entire history, humanity has been confined to this pale blue dot in space called Earth. We are on the verge of one of the greatest events in the history of Earth - the permanent expansion of our biosphere beyond Earth to other bodies in our solar systems, initially the Moon and Mars. However, the task is both moderately difficult and moderately expensive and robots, especially robots with good levels of autonomy, will make both the exploration and the human expansion easier. This is the primary reason I have been involved in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission and from proposal through current operations. I will discuss Spirit and Opportunity?s autonomy and ground based autonomy tools, the lessons we have learned and the implications for our dream of future robotic and human missions.

Dr. Michael Sims is Research Scientist with the Center for Mars Exploration and the Computational Sciences Division of NASA Ames. Michael received a BS in Physics and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Rutgers University and has been at NASA Ames Research Center since 1987. His research includes robotics, machine learning, visualization, and tools for enhancing and easing scientific modeling. He was one of the founding members of the artificial intelligence and the intelligent mechanisms groups at Ames. Michael is actively involved in plans for future planetary missions including robotic activities and human settlements on the Mars and the Moon. He participated on the Pathfinder mission and is co-investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover missions.

Carol Stoker
“The Phoenix mission: Visiting the most habitable region on Mars”
Dr. Carol Stoker is a Co-Investigator on the Mars Phoenix mission that will land at 68 degrees N. Latitude, 234 degrees E. Longitude on Mars on May 25, 2008. She leads the mission's Biological Potential Science Working Group and has lead responsibility for assessing the habitability of the landing site. She will explain how she plans to do this.

Allucquere Rosanne Stone
“That's What Those Robots Were Doing In The Park -- I Thought They Were Repairing Each Other”
Sandy Stone is associate professor and director of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLab) at the University of Texas at Austin.

David Tamori
"Ten Years of History and Progress of COTI Hi"
Dave Tamori is an award winning art teacher and one of the original designers of the COTI HI curriculum. Dave has been teaching visual arts and coaching at Oroville High School for thirty-one years. He is the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator, Head Wrestling Coach and advisor to the National Art Honor Society. He has also been a co-director for the Northern California Arts Project, Assessor for Educational Testing Service Advanced Placement and Panel Member for the development of all of the current arts assessments exams. Dave is a 4th Degree Belt in Judo and has received many awards including Teacher of the Year.

Peter von Stackelberg
"Footprints of the Future: Using Timelines In Futures Studies"
Peter von Stackelberg is a futurist and leader of the Futures Interactive program with Social Technologies, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC that specializes in organizational foresight and strategy. His talk will include discussion of: The purposes of the timeline: to provoke thought, to provide long term perspective and to link quantitative and qualitative data in one visual presentation; Emergence of patterns: of cycles and other patterns as artifacts of the behavior of dynamic systems, of K Wave, of Lead Technologies and of Technological developments; Interpretation of the timeline: prediction of war, shifting liberal/conservative values in American society, and hypothesis -> forecast process.

Israel Zuckerman
COTI
Israel Zuckerman is the director of the COTI: CULTURES OF THE IMAGINATION workshop. He has a BA in Anthropology, and currently is a computer technician and educator at a bilingual elementary school in Watsonville, CA.