This is a 2+ hour session, beginning as the opening session for the zNextGen Project. The project officers will take about 10 minutes to introduce the zNextGen community, describe our mission and welcome back returning members. This time will also be used to point out important zNextGen meeting points and activities throughout the week, as well as recommended technical sessions.
The Keynote topic will consider how impossible it is to predict paradigm shifts? We do have some old reliable projections, like we are still 50 years away from Strong AI, from viable nuclear fusion, and from peace on earth. One of the things that is more obvious now (than when last we celebrated a major SHARE anniversary in 2005) is the rise and rise of the smartphone and how that has become a major player in health, natural food revival, etc. The solution to many of our current dilemmas (for example, permanent drought in the California bread basket) will lead to perhaps unforeseen dynamics like a major new push for nuclear power driving multiple desalinization plants to make the fresh water the West needs, thus saving us from starvation. Arising urgent need will drive compulsive changes in law, behavior, culture – with the intended and unintended accompanying consequences.
Join us for a challenging and thought-provoking look forward at the possibilities we face in the next 60 years of technology’s evolution.