Welcome to CONTACT 2009
<p>Apr 2, 2009 12:38 PM
 
cancel time for hotel is 6PM on Friday... checkout is at 11A... possibly extend to noon.
 
My room is  583B  (in bld 583)... office is in bldg 19.   $45.
Sylvia is day cleark.
single beds, no phone, no tv, no air cond.
Tricia was nite clerk.
 
NASA Exchange Lodge  (must have an affiliation to stay there (eg attending Contact but NOT the quantified self conference)
reservations  650  603-7100
front desk is  650  603-7101
 
I did not stay in the lodge after all... just powered thru to the end of the day.
 
Conference was held this year in  Bldg  943  (to the right of the main gate by the tent)
Contact09  (25th anniversary).   Terri Weitze  did the reg.  (v. obese woman in lobby).
terri  is  tlw_sj@yahoo.com
 
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<b>JIM FUNARO</b>  FUN arrow;  organizes and runs contact.  obese,  white hair,  tiny pony tail,  smiling, nice guy.
there were perhaps  80 people there of which  about  2/3  were presenters or relatives or friends.
Very old group...  perhaps  avg age abt  60 or so. 
The end panel was ALL  white men age abt  60+  .
 
 
 
I initially went to<b> Bldg 3 </b>which is right by Hanger One and behind the bld with flag in the center of the driveway.
There was a different meeting there!   My meeting was actually in the very first bld on the right before
the guard gate and right by the SpaceCamp tent...  the info and souvenir bldg.
 
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Friday AM:  I hear only abt 15 mins of Bill Clancey's talk.
Then Carol Stoker's talk... exclt  (see Phoenix node).
 
Doug Raybeck  (old college anthropologist, tall thin, perhaps abt 65-70)
brains take abt  20-25% of metab energy;  our brains expand from 300 cc to over 900cc quite rapidly.
social intelligence is very important;  v important to model our social group; enemies;
we want mates that our tractable.
 
Allan Combs works with Ben Goertzel  (see Allan's node)
he refers alot to Charles Peirce  (pro purse) and semiotics  (see nodes)
 
Allan Combs  spoke  instead of Ben Goetzel.
Allan works with Ben.  Allan is perhaps about 65 or so...   goatee, white hair in pony tail, mildly obese, glasses.
he says to look on the net for his stuff.
 
intel. is the "ability to solve difficult problems in complex environments"
 
NAIVE PHYSICS is aristotelean physics  (heavy things fall faster than light things);
once you stop pushing things they stop moving.
 
semiotics has to do with signs, symbols, signals, and meaning
he also refers to Minsky.
Human  world is composed of  goals,  economics,  self-awareness, causality, will/agency.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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