Eros Evolving: The Future of Love, Sex, Marriage, and Beauty

March 12, 2014

Ad for Eros Evolving: The Future of Love, Sex, Marriage, and Beauty (credit: Eros Evolving)

Will romance be revolutionized in the future? When we understand sexual attraction neurologically, will we mutate and manipulate it for transhuman advantages?

Can emerging science & technology obliterate loneliness? Is marriage in crises? Can it be chemically revived? Will cosmetic surgery enable everyone to be beautiful in any gender they choose? Are sexbots a threat in the bedroom?

Are artificial wombs a feminist necessity? Is the internet enhancing or annihilating intimacy?

Topics: does the future need beauty / sexual preferences / the future of family planning / cloning / quantifying the crises of intimacy / cosmetic enhancement / marriage / religion and sexual repression / sex-positive feminism / neurobiology of love

Date: April 5, 2014 from 9:30 am – 9 pm at Piedmont Veteran’s Hall | 401 Highland Avenue, Piedmont, CA.

Buy: Eros Evolving: The Future of Love, Sex, Marriage and Beauty, produced by Transhuman Visions. Tickets can be purchased via EventBrite here.

Cost: $20-$30, discounts for seniors, students, previous TV ticket buyers, IEET members.

Lead sponsor: The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology. IEET is a nonprofit think tank which promotes ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies. Many of the conference speakers are IEET Affiliate Scholars and contributing writers.

Secondary sponsorCenter for Sex and Culture. Provides judgment-free education, cultural events, a library/media archive, a community center, classes that run the gamut from informational to experiential, sex-positive advocacy and research, and other resources to audiences across the sexual and gender spectrum.

Featured speakers: Grace Walcott, Ginger Murray, Nicole Sallak Anderson, David Fitzgerald, Valerie Tarico, Zoltan Istvan, Riva-Melissa Tez, Adam Safron, Hank Pellissier, Kevin Russell, Bill Softky, Carol Queen, Andrea Kuszewski, Sue Bratton, Jay Bookhouse, and Susan Kuchinskas.

Produced by: Hank Pellissier and the Brighter Brains Institute.


Speakers include:

Valerie Tarico is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology. She’s a psychologist with a passion for personal and social evolution. In 2005, she cofounded the Progress Alliance of Washington, a collective of future-oriented donors investing in progressive change. As a social commentator, Tarico writes and speaks on issues ranging from religious fundamentalism to gender roles, to reproductive rights and technologies. A primary focus is on improving access to top tier contraceptive technologies.

Carol Queen is an American author, editor, sociologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen has written on human sexuality in books and has produced movies, events, workshops and lectures.

Nicole Sallak Anderson is a computer science graduate from Purdue University. She developed encryption and network security software, which inspired both the storyline and the science behind her transhumanist novel, eHuman Dawn. She blogs and speaks on singularity, transhumanism, internet privacy, data manipulation and human consciousness.

David Fitzgerald is the Secular Student Alliance’s campus organizer for California & Nevada, cofounder of the world’s first Atheist Film Festival. He is also a historical researcher; and the author of The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion.

Zoltan Istvan, author, has explored over 100 countries as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel. His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate, Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Animal Planet, and The Travel Channel.

Riva-Melissa Tez studied Philosophy at University College London and has a track record of entrepreneurship and social innovation, including the cocreation of a social network for children. She founded Berlin Singularity, a group focusing on bringing and promoting pro-longevity and futurist discussions to mainland Europe.

Adam Safron is an independent scientist with over 10 years of experience in fMRI research, with most of his work focused on human sexuality. His current investigations are focused on looking at the neural correlates of preferences in bisexual, homosexual, and heterosexual women and men.

Kevin Russell also goes by the moniker “The Techno-Optimist.” He is a transhumanist, philosopher, futurist, researcher, lecturer, founder of Simulet.com, and the Executive Director of Serious Wonder Media. Simulet’s mission is to empower one’s subjective experience of reality by using the latest discoveries to fuel conversation and deepen perspectives. Serious Wonder is a progressive futurist technology and consciousness website obsessed with the future.

Bill Softky holds a Ph.D. in physics from Caltech, where he discovered a still-unsolved paradox about the firing patterns of brain neurons. His subsequent career in Silicon Valley (including biophysics, human-computer interaction, and signal processing) has given him a unique perspective on the software and hardware architecture of human brains, including new insights about our deepest, high-bandwidth method of somatic communication. His presentation is on “quantifying the crises of intimacy.”

Hank Pellissier is an Affiliate Scholar of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology, where he was Managing Director in 2012. At Salon, he was a daily columnist.

Susan Kuchinskas is the author of The Chemistry of Connection: How the Oxytocin Response Can Help You Find Trust, Intimacy and Love — a book that explains what happens in the brain when we connect with others, and what’s missing when we can’t.