Asilomar

As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age
by Matthew Cobb
Published 15 Nov 2022

That led to the first publicly declared research moratorium, which was announced in July 1974 and lasted about eight months while scientists argued about the issue. The culmination of this process was a conference held in February 1975, at Asilomar in California, at which scientists came up with safe ways of performing their experiments but notably refused to consider the social or political consequences of what they were doing. Over the subsequent decades the self-regulation that was proposed at Asilomar has repeatedly been held up as an example of how science can act responsibly. And indeed, the great virtue of Asilomar was that the meeting took the potential dangers of genetic engineering very seriously indeed, thrashing out protocols that would protect researchers, the public and the environment and insisting that even with these safety measures, some experiments involving pathogens remained too dangerous to be carried out under any circumstances.

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Psychologist Steven Pinker took to the pages of the Boston Globe, telling bioethicists to ‘get out of the way’ of biomedical research in general and gene editing in particular, warning hyperbolically that even a one-year delay in implementing an effective treatment ‘could spell death, suffering, or disability for millions of people’.17 Henry Miller – a one-time physician and long-standing and determined opponent of regulation on any genetic technology – presented a similar view in the letters page of Science, leading with a muscular clarion call: ‘Germline Gene Therapy: We’re Ready’. Miller dismissed the idea that Asilomar might provide a model for discussions over editing the germline – he described Asilomar’s legacy as ‘stultifying process-based approaches to regulation’ that ‘plagued genetic engineering research’.18 Miller also took a sideswipe at Bob Pollack, the man who had set in train the debates leading to Asilomar through his telephone call to Paul Berg in 1971. Pollack had also written a letter to Science, opposing germline editing because of his hostility to eugenics.19 Miller dismissed Pollack’s worries as abstract concerns that counted for nothing when compared to the suffering of patients with genetic diseases.

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✴ Many people drew the obvious parallels between the discussions of germline editing and the debates about recombinant DNA that took place around Asilomar. The Napa letter that effectively launched the Washington Summit suggested that the key feature of Asilomar had been the adoption of transparency and open public debate, while Jennifer Doudna, writing in Nature on the eve of the Summit, called on the genome-editing community ‘to renew its commitment – which began more than 40 years ago – to wholeheartedly engage with the public’.31 Although this rosy vision of Asilomar was widely shared by scientists, historians took the opportunity to revisit the events of the 1970s and concluded that the lessons of the past were rather different.32 For Shobita Parthasarathy of the University of Michigan, Asilomar ‘was far too limited in terms of both its participants and its scope.

CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans
by Henry T. Greely
Published 22 Jan 2021

He was a leader, arguably the leader, in organizing a temporary moratorium on recombinant DNA research and in organizing and running the famous 1975 Asilomar Conference on recombinant DNA at which the moratorium was discussed. And the Asilomar Conference is an essential part of this story. The Asilomar Conference, or, to give it its full name, the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules, was held on February 24, 25, and 26, 1975, at the Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds, an unusual unit of the California State Park system, located on the coast just south of Monterey, California (and one of the loveliest places in the world).7 It had been spawned in June 1973 at a Gordon Conference on the topic of nucleic acids.

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Index Advisory Committee on Developing Global Standards for Governance and Oversight of Human Genome Editing, WHO, 189–190 registry, 189–190 American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), 266–267 Annas, George, 162 Archaea, 37, 39 Asilomar. See Asilomar Conference Asilomar Conference, 49, 53, 56–59 parallels with CRISPR discussion, 61–62, 65–66 Asilomar Conference Grounds, 57–58 Atlantic, The, 110, 157 Autosomal dominant, 226–227. See also Autosomal recessive; Mendelian genetics and gene therapies, 230–231 Autosomal recessive, 226–227, 239, 273–275, 282. See also Autosomal dominant; Mendelian genetics and gene therapies, 230–231, 237, 273–275 Bacteria, 9, 33–34, 37–39, 41, 44–45, 52, 139, 210–211 Bai, Chunli, 113 Baihualin China League, 14 Baltimore, David, 55–57, 61–62, 65–67 biography, 56–57 chair of International Summit on Human Gene Editing organizing committee, 66–67, 102, 106, 127, 181 Barrangou, Rodolphe, 96 Baylis, Françoise, 67 Begley, Sharon, 10–11, 46 Belluck, Pam, 124 Berg, Paul, 50–53, 55, 57, 60–62, 65–67, 186 biography, 50–51 ß-globin, 9.

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Paul Berg was the chair, joined by David Baltimore, Sydney Brenner, Richard Roblin, and Maxine Singer, all eminent scientists. The result was the Asilomar Conference. What was the Asilomar Conference? It was the best of things, and it was the worst of things. Almost from before it ended, it was lauded as a wonderful example of scientific responsibility and self-governance and denounced as a terrible example of scientific hubris and self-interest. It has been the subject of histories, revisionist histories, and rerevisionist histories. It has been the model for other similar meetings, at Asilomar and elsewhere, though none of them achieved its fame—or infamy. It has, in short, been everything but forgotten.

The Gene: An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Published 16 May 2016

Einsteins on the Beach I believe in the inalienable right: Sydney Brenner, “The influence of the press at the Asilomar Conference, 1975,” Web of Stories, http://www.webofstories.com/play/sydney.brenner/182;jsessionid=2c147f1c4222a58715e708eabd868e58. In the summer of 1972: Crotty, Ahead of the Curve, 93. “the beginning of a new era”: Herbert Gottweis, Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998). “Asilomar I,” as Berg would later call: Details of Berg’s account of Asilomar come from conversations and interviews with Paul Berg, 1993 and 2013; and Donald S. Fredrickson, “Asilomar and recombinant DNA: The end of the beginning,” in Biomedical Politics, ed.

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abortion prenatal tests and, 267–68, 269, 269n, 273 Roe case on, 268–69 shifting attitudes toward, 269–70, 272 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 247, 248, 249, 375 ADA deficiency, 423, 424 ADA gene mutations, 422–24 Adam Agassiz’s race theories on, 331 as First Parent, 25 Adams, Mark, 316 ADCY5 gene, in humans, 451 addiction, genetic components of, 300, 301 adenine, 135, 155–56 adenosine metabolism, 423–24 adenovirus, as gene-therapy vector, 430, 431–32, 434, 435, 465 adoption inheritance patterns in genetic diseases involving, 300 intelligence of transracial adoptees in, 348 as option for carrier couples in genetic disorders, 291 studies of twins reared apart after, 374, 381, 383, 487 Advisory Committee on Uranium, 232 Aeschylus, 21 Agassiz, Louis, 331–32, 343 aging research, with transgenic mice, 421 AIDS, 247, 248, 249, 375 Aktion T4 program, Germany, 123–24 Albany, Prince Leopold, Duke of, 99 alcoholism eugenics on, 116 genetic components of, 301, 459 Alexandra, czarina of Russia, 98, 99, 100 Alice, Princess, 99 alleles Fisher’s mathematical research on combinations using, 104 Mendel’s experimentation on, 48–52 Morgan’s fruit-fly research on, 97 polymorphisms similar to, 280 Allfrey, Vincent, 400n Allis, David, 400, 400n alpha interferon, 251 Alu DNA sequence, 324 Alzheimer’s disease, 97, 316, 421 American Breeders’ Association, 77 American Journal of Human Genetics, 281 Amgen, 308 ammonia Miller’s “primordial soup” experiment using, 411 in ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency, 429, 430, 431, 432 amniocentesis, 267, 269, 291 Anaxagoras, 356–57 Ancestral Law of Heredity, 68–69, 72 Anderson, William French, 424–27, 428, 430 anemia, 169–70 anthropology, 29–30, 124, 331, 335 antibodies, 224, 323, 423, 435 antipsychotic medicines, 1, 6 apes evolution and, 332 pairs of chromosomes of, 322 applied biology, in Nazi Germany, 119, 120 Are You Fit to Marry? (film), 85 Arendt, Hannah, 124 Arieti, Silvano, 442–43 Aristotle, 22–24, 27, 70, 142 Asilomar conference (Asilomar I, 1973), California, 226–27 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA (Asilomar II, 1975), California influence of, 230, 231–32, 234–35 moratorium proposal of, 230, 477, 502 range of attendees at, 229, 238 recommendations of, 237, 425 restrictions on recombinant DNA from, 243, 243n sessions at, 229–31, 234, 236 Asperger, Hans, 449 association study, 385 atomic bomb, 11, 131, 232, 301, 475 atoms as basic unit, 9–10, 485 coining of word, 71 fundamental units of matter making up, 140 as organizing principle for modern physics, 12 Rutherford’s conceptual model of, 140 attention deficit disorder, 386, 491 Augustinians, Mendel’s life among, 17–18, 49 Auschwitz concentration camp, Germany, 129, 130, 137–38, 502 autism, 276 creativity in, 448, 449 epigenetics used to alter, 406 mismatch between genome and environment in, 265, 482 mutations in, 406, 444, 444n, 454, 503 autoimmune disease, 453 Avery, Oswald background and training of, 133 Griffith’s transformation experiment confirmed by, 133, 136–37 research on DNA as genetic information carrier by, 137, 139, 158, 183, 205, 259, 314, 502 bacteria defense system against invading viruses in, 470–73 drug-resistant, 228–29 gene exchange between, 112 genes turned on or off for metabolic changes in, 175–76, 176n, 307n, 392 genetic information exchanged between, 136 as model system for research, 259 twin studies of genetic variations in response to, 130 Bailey, J.

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Some of these molecules could be shuttled into mammalian cells. Recognizing the profound potential and risks of this technology, a preliminary meeting had suggested a temporary moratorium on experiments. The Asilomar II meeting had been convened to deliberate on the next steps. Eventually, this second meeting would so far overshadow the first in its influence and scope that it would be called simply the Asilomar Conference—or just Asilomar. Tensions and tempers flared quickly on the first morning. The main issue was still the self-imposed moratorium: Should scientists be restricted in their experiments with recombinant DNA?

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
by Walter Isaacson
Published 9 Mar 2021

So she harked back forty years earlier to the process that led to the February 1975 Asilomar conference, the one that had come up with the “prudent path forward” guidelines for work on recombinant DNA. She decided that the invention of CRISPR gene-editing tools warranted convening a similar group. Her first step was to enlist the participation of two of the key organizers of the 1975 Asilomar conference: Paul Berg, who had invented recombinant DNA, and David Baltimore, who had been involved in most of the major policy gatherings, beginning with Asilomar. “I felt that if we could get them both we would have a direct link to Asilomar and a stamp of credibility,” she recalls.

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Erwin Chargaff, a brilliant biochemist who had made key discoveries about the structure of DNA, looked back on the event as a charade. “At this Council of Asilomar there congregated the molecular bishops and church fathers from all over the world, in order to condemn the heresies of which they themselves had been the first and the principal perpetrators,” he said. “This was probably the first time in history that the incendiaries formed their own fire brigade.”12 Berg was right that Asilomar was a great success. It paved the way for genetic engineering to become a booming field. But Chargaff’s mocking assessment pointed to another lasting legacy. Asilomar became notable for what the scientists did not discuss there.

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Certainly, it will change the world. You have to make laws to fit it. And if plain people did not understand and control it, who would? —Excerpted from James Agee’s cover story, “Atomic Age,” on the dropping of the atom bomb, Time, August 20, 1945 James Watson and Sydney Brenner at Asilomar Herbert Boyer and Paul Berg at Asilomar CHAPTER 35 Rules of the Road Utopians vs. bioconservatives For decades the idea of creating engineered humans belonged to the realm of science fiction. Three classic works warned of what might happen if we snatched this fire from the gods. Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, was a cautionary tale about a scientist who engineers a humanlike creation.

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy
by George Gilder
Published 16 Jul 2018

Reflecting on the 1975 conference, the eminent chemist-biologist Michael Denton concludes, “The actual achievements of genetic engineering are rather more mundane . . . , a relatively trivial tinkering rather than genuine engineering, analogous to tuning a car engine rather than redesigning it, an exploitation of the already existing potential for variation which is built into all living systems. . . . ” Thousands of transgenic plants have been developed with results “far from the creation or radical reconstruction of a living organism.”14 All that the first Asilomar conference managed to achieve was triggering an obtuse paranoia about “genetically modified organisms” that hinders agricultural progress around the world. That danger of paranoid politics is the chief peril that all the Deep Learners at the new Asilomar should have recognized. Among the Deep Learners and Google brains at the AI Asilomar was Vitalik Buterin, a twenty-three-year-old college dropout with the same etiolated, wide-eared, boy-genius look that characterized Gödel and Turing.

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The assembled masters of the high-tech universe may have understood him about as well as the mathematicians in Königsberg understood the twenty-four-year-old Gödel in 1930, though the audience at Asilomar had advance notice of the significance of Buterin’s work. Buterin succinctly described his company, Ethereum, launched in July 2015, as a “blockchain app platform.” The blockchain is an open, distributed, unhackable ledger devised in 2008 by the unknown person (or perhaps group) known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” to support his cryptocurrency, bitcoin. Buterin’s meteoric rise was such that soon after the Asilomar conference the central bank of Singapore announced that it was moving forward with an Ethereum-backed currency, and other central banks, including those of Canada and Russia, are investigating its potential as a new foundation for money transactions and smart contracts.

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Midas’s error was to mistake gold, wealth’s monetary measure, for wealth itself. But wealth is not a thing or a random sequence. It is inextricably rooted in hard won knowledge over extended time. CHAPTER 9 Life 3.0 Among pines and dunes at the edge of a peninsula overlooking Monterey Bay stand the historic rustic stone buildings of Asilomar. Once a YWCA camp, and still without televisions or landlines in its guest rooms, this retreat is separated by an eighty-mile drive from Silicon Valley. Here in early January 2017 many of the leading researchers and luminaries of the information age secretly gathered under the auspices of the Foundational Questions Institute, directed by the MIT physicist Max Tegmark and supported by tens of millions of dollars from Elon Musk and Skype’s co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg
Published 15 Mar 2017

Berg, “Meetings That Changed the World: Asilomar 1975: DNA Modification Secured,” Nature 455 (2008): 290–91. the meeting failed to cast a wide enough net outside the scientific community: “After Asilomar,” Nature 526 (2015): 293–94. topics like biosecurity and ethics from the meeting’s agenda: S. Jasanoff, J. B. Hurlbut, and K. Saha, “CRISPR Democracy: Gene Editing and the Need for Inclusive Deliberation,” Issues in Science and Technology 32 (2015). “This approach gets democracy wrong”: J. B. Hurlbut, “Limits of Responsibility: Genome Editing, Asilomar, and the Politics of Deliberation,” Hastings Center Report 45 (2015): 11–14.

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Because of these concerns, Berg and his team of researchers held off on attempting the experiment. Instead, Berg called for the first of what would eventually become two meetings held in the picturesque Asilomar Conference Grounds, nestled in Pacific Grove, California, on the western tip of the Monterey Peninsula. Before his research went any further, he wanted to enlist his fellow scientists to run a thorough cost-benefit analysis. The meeting in 1973—eventually known as Asilomar I—focused on the DNA of cancer viruses and the risks they posed; it did not directly address the new recombinant DNA experiments Berg was considering. That same year, however, scientists held a second conference focused specifically on gene splicing.

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The Berg letter also included three other recommendations: first, that scientists adopt a cautious approach to any experiments designed to fuse animal and bacterial DNA; second, that the National Institutes of Health establish an advisory committee to oversee future issues surrounding recombinant DNA; and third, that an international meeting be convened so that scientists from around the world could review recent progress in the field and compare notes on how to deal with potential hazards. This last recommendation would result in the International Congress on Recombinant DNA Molecules, held back in Asilomar in February 1975. Much has been written about Asilomar II. Roughly a hundred and fifty people attended, mostly scientists but also lawyers, government officials, and members of the media. The debate was heated at times, with even the biology experts disagreeing with one another on the relative hazards of experiments involving recombinant DNA.

Robot Rules: Regulating Artificial Intelligence
by Jacob Turner
Published 29 Oct 2018

This limited and modest approach is helpful, in that it seeks to identify potential problems first before charging headlong into an attempt at laying down definitive commands. 4.4 Asilomar 2017 Principles In 1975, leading DNA researcher Paul Berg convened a conference at Asilomar Beach, California, on the dangers and potential regulation of Recombinant DNA technology.78 Around 140 people participated, including biologists, lawyers and doctors. The participants agreed principles for research, recommendations for the technology’s future use, and made declarations concerning prohibited experiments.79 The Asilomar 1975 Conference later came to be seen as a seminal moment not just in the regulation of DNA technology but also the public engagement with science.80 In January 2017, another conference was convened at Asilomar by the Future of Life Institute, a think tank which focusses on “Beneficial AI”.

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The participants agreed principles for research, recommendations for the technology’s future use, and made declarations concerning prohibited experiments.79 The Asilomar 1975 Conference later came to be seen as a seminal moment not just in the regulation of DNA technology but also the public engagement with science.80 In January 2017, another conference was convened at Asilomar by the Future of Life Institute, a think tank which focusses on “Beneficial AI”. Much like the original Asilomar conference, Asilomar 2017 brought together more than 100 AI researchers from academia and industry, as well as specialists in economics, law, ethics and philosophy.81 The conference participants agreed 23 principles, grouped under three headings82: Research Issues 1.Research Goal: The goal of AI research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence. 2.Research Funding: Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics and social studies, such as:How can we make future AI systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked?

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Both of these topics are too narrow to qualify as general ethical codes and therefore are not discussed further here. 77“CERNA Éthique de la recherche en robotique”: First Report of CERNA, CERNA, 34–35, http://​cerna-ethics-allistene.​org/​digitalAssets/​38/​38704_​Avis_​robotique_​livret.​pdf, accessed 1 June 2018. 78The term “Recombinant” refers to the practice of attaching DNA from one organism to DNA of another, with the potential for creating organisms displaying traits from these multiple sources. See Paul Berg, “Asilomar and Recombinant DNA”, Official Website of the Nobel Prize, https://​www.​nobelprize.​org/​nobel_​prizes/​chemistry/​laureates/​1980/​berg-article.​html, accessed 1 June 2018. 79Paul Berg, David Baltimore, Sydney Brenner, Richard O. Roblin III, and Maxine F. Singer. “Summary Statement of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Vol. 72, No. 6 (June 1975), 1981–1984, 1981. 80Paul Berg, “Asilomar and Recombinant DNA”, Official Website of the Nobel Prize, https://​www.​nobelprize.​org/​nobel_​prizes/​chemistry/​laureates/​1980/​berg-article.​html, accessed 1 June 2018. 81“A principled AI Discussion in Asilomar”, Future of Life Institute, 17 January 2017, https://​futureoflife.​org/​2017/​01/​17/​principled-ai-discussion-asilomar/​, accessed 1 June 2018. 8290% approval from participants was required in order for a principle to be adopted in the final set. 83“Asilomar AI Principles”, Future of Life Institute, https://​futureoflife.​org/​ai-principles/​, accessed 1 June 2018. 84Jeffrey Ding, “Deciphering China’s AI Dream”, Governance of AI Program, Future of Humanity Institute (Oxford: Future of Humanity Institute, March 2018), 30, https://​www.​fhi.​ox.​ac.​uk/​wp-content/​uploads/​Deciphering_​Chinas_​AI-Dream.​pdf, accessed 1 June 2018. 85Anonymous comment made in discussion with the author, January 2018.

Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
by James Barrat
Published 30 Sep 2013

* * * Ray Kurzweil cites something called the Asilomar Guidelines as a precedent-setting example of how to deal with AGI. The Asilomar Guidelines came about some forty years ago when scientists first were confronted with the promise and peril of recombinant DNA—mixing the genetic information of different organisms and creating new life-forms. Researchers and the public feared “Frankenstein” pathogens that could escape labs through carelessness or sabotage. In 1975 scientists involved in DNA research halted lab work, and convened 140 biologists, lawyers, physicians, and press at the Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey, California.

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none, except Omohundro: Relative to scientists engaged in the pursuit, Yudkowsky and MIRI are not trying to create AGI, though they consider the ethics of creating it and how to control it. AGI maker Ben Goertzel has frequently written about AI ethics, but that’s not the same as focusing on solutions to AI dangers. The scientists at Asilomar: Barinaga, Marcia, “Asilomar Revisited: Lessons for Today?” Science, March 3, 2000, http://www.biotech-info.net/asilomar_revisited.html (accessed October 10, 2011). 10 percent of the world’s cropland: International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, “Crop Biotech Update,” last modified February 22, 2011, http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/specialedition/2011/default.asp (accessed October 10, 2011).

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In 1975 scientists involved in DNA research halted lab work, and convened 140 biologists, lawyers, physicians, and press at the Asilomar Conference Center near Monterey, California. The scientists at Asilomar created rules for conducting DNA-related research, most critically, an agreement to work only with bacteria that couldn’t survive outside the laboratory. Researchers resumed work, adhering to the guidelines, and consequently tests for inherited diseases and gene therapy treatment are today routine. In 2010, 10 percent of the world’s cropland was planted with genetically modified crops. The Asilomar Conference is seen as a victory for the scientific community, and for an open dialogue with a concerned public. And so it’s cited as a model for how to proceed with other dual use technologies (milking the symbolic connection with this important conference, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence [AAAI], the leading scholarly organization for AI, held their 2009 meeting at Asilomar).

P53: The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code
by Sue Armstrong
Published 20 Nov 2014

In 1974 a number of leading scientists stopped their work on recombinant DNA pending a formal debate on the way forward for laboratories using this technology. The following year the intense soul-searching among scientists, and the equally volatile debate that had begun in the world’s media, culminated in an international conference held at the Asilomar Center, a magnificent old lodge built of warm local wood and stone overlooking the Pacific near Monterey, California. Writing for Science magazine in 2000 on the 25th anniversary of the Asilomar Conference, journalist Marcia Barinaga called it ‘the Woodstock of molecular biology: a defining moment for a generation, an unforgettable experience, a milestone in the history of science and society’.

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For information on Peyton Rous, I relied on the excellent archives of the Nobel Foundation, see: http://www.nobelprize.org/­nobel_prizes­/medicine/­laureates/­1966/­rous-bio.html Besides their autobiographical books already cited, the Nobel archive also was a rich source of information on Varmus and Bishop, who won the prize in 1989. See www.nobelprize.org/­nobel_prizes/­medicine/­laureates/1989 For the Asilomar debate see M. J. Peterson, 2010, Asilomar Conference on Laboratory Precautions. International Dimensions of Ethics Education in Science and Technology. Available at www.umass.edu/­sts/ethics Chapter 3: Discovery The epigraph comes from Judson’s book, The Eighth Day of Creation, cited above, page 10. The footnote quote is from Jeffrey Taubenberger; see www.pathsoc.org/­conversations Chapter 4: Unseeable Biology The epigraph comes from A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (London: Transworld Publishers, 2003), page 451.

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Looking back across the years, David Baltimore, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1975 for his work with viruses and was one of the organisers of the conference, said, ‘Recombinant DNA was the most monumental power ever handed to us. The moment you heard you could do this, the imagination went wild.’ In fact, so exciting was it, and so potentially scary, that the attempt to reach consensus on the way forward among the disparate group of 133 scientists gathered at Asilomar – debating under the watchful eyes and listening ears of 16 journalists and four lawyers – was extremely difficult. What eased the process was the decision to divide the types of experiments using recombinant DNA into several categories – depending on whether they involved organisms or fragments of DNA known to cause disease or pose other dangers, or used materials considered harmless – and making recommendations about how to proceed under different scenarios.

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI
by Ray Kurzweil
Published 25 Jun 2024

No one would have preexisting immunity, and the result would be a pandemic capable of ravaging the human population.[26] The 2019–2023 coronavirus pandemic offers us a pale glimpse of what such a catastrophe could be like. The specter of this possibility was the impetus for the original Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA in 1975, fifteen years before the Human Genome Project was initiated.[27] It drew up a set of standards to prevent accidental problems and to guard against intentional ones. These “Asilomar guidelines” have been continually updated, and some of their principles are now baked into legal regulations governing the biotechnology industry.[28] There have also been efforts to create a rapid response system to counteract a suddenly emerging biological virus, whether released accidentally or intentionally.[29] Before COVID-19, perhaps the most notable effort to improve epidemic reaction times was the US government’s June 2015 establishment of the Global Rapid Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control.

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Over the past several years we have seen a concerted effort to create an ethical prescription for artificial intelligence. In 2017 I attended the Asilomar Conference on Beneficial AI, inspired by the biotechnology guidelines established at its counterpart four decades earlier.[63] Some useful principles were established there, and I have signed on to them. However, it remains easy to see how entities with ideas that are undemocratic and opposed to free expression could still use advanced AI for their own objectives, even if most of the world follows the Asilomar proposals. Notably, the major military powers have not signed these guidelines—and they have historically been among the most powerful forces in promoting advanced technology.

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Daniel Bressler and Chris Bakerlee, “ ‘Designer Bugs’: How the Next Pandemic Might Come from a Lab,” Vox, December 6, 2018, https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/6/18127430/superbugs-biotech-pathogens-biorisk-pandemic. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 26 For a more in-depth case study on the Asilomar Conference and the principles it produced, see M. J. Peterson, “Asilomar Conference on Laboratory Precautions When Conducting Recombinant DNA Research—Case Summary,” International Dimensions of Ethics Education in Science and Engineering Case Study Series, June 2010, https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=edethicsinscience.

Warnings
by Richard A. Clarke
Published 10 Apr 2017

THE MOTHER OF CRISPR BECOMES ITS CASSANDRA As the group of biologists gathered in Napa, California, in late January 2015, several couldn’t help but recognize the similarities to a conference that had taken place almost exactly forty years earlier. In February 1975, about 150 leading professionals gathered at the Asilomar Conference Grounds that overlooks the Pacific Ocean on California’s Monterey Peninsula. The meeting had been called to discuss a recent breakthrough discovery that allowed scientists to artificially manipulate the genome. Those in attendance were mostly molecular biologists, but the broad implications and wide-ranging discussions also brought physicians, lawyers, journalists, and government policy makers to Asilomar.14 The topic of discussion was recombinant DNA technology. Several years earlier, scientists had discovered restriction enzymes, enzymes that cut DNA at a single, specific sequence of nucleotides.

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Moreover, early excitement at the promise of recombinant DNA also gave way to the reality that manipulating DNA, precisely specifying the cutting location, proved surprisingly tricky. It remained that way until Professor Doudna’s CRISPR breakthrough. Still, Asilomar is credited with serving an even more important role. Dr. Berg explained to us in his Stanford office, where he still serves as a professor emeritus, that “what Asilomar accomplished was establishing trust between the public and the science.” Over 10 percent of the attendees were from the media, “who were there as participants,” he stressed, “not just as observers.” The journalists took part in all of the discussions, asked questions of the panelists, joined in for late-night beer drinking and debating with the scientists and bioethicists, and were given the freedom to write about the conference as they saw fit.

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Berg and recombinant DNA technology, Professor Doudna, the inventor of CRISPR, was now a leader in the effort to understand and prevent the possible unintended consequences that could result from its unfettered deployment and adoption. Given the type of experimentation already underway using CRISPR, the questions the scientists at Napa tackled were markedly different from those at Asilomar. “We never discussed ethics,” Dr. Berg told us, “and we did it on purpose.” The darker questions were still beyond the horizon, and biohazard concerns were paramount at the time. While Asilomar focused on establishing broad safety protocols, those gathered at Napa discussed the risks of modifying the human genome. Professor Doudna and the others in attendance saw their Napa conference as a prelude to a broader international and public dialogue on the practical, ethical, social, and legal implications of CRISPR.

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
by Stewart Brand
Published 15 Mar 2009

That was the atmosphere that led to the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules in California in February 1975. Coming from all over the world, some 146 genetic scientists and related professionals convened for four days to regulate their research. They instituted an array of laboratory containment practices and mandated the use of organisms that could not live outside the lab. Some experiments were banned entirely, such as tinkering with the genes of pathogenic organisms. The guidelines were soon adopted and enforced in the United States by the National Institutes of Health. Was Asilomar a good idea? The question was controversial then and remains controversial now.

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Thus every few weeks I got to spend a day hosting the likes of organizational guru Peter Drucker, futurist Herman Kahn, farmer-poet Wendell Berry, and media celebrator Marshall McLuhan. In 1977, two years after Asilomar, the California legislature was threatening to regulate recombinant DNA research in the state, so James Watson, the codiscoverer of the structure of DNA and director of the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, came to visit. Watson had been an early supporter of the moratorium on recombinant DNA research and had helped to organize Asilomar. In a short talk to a group including Brown, the governor’s staff, and some legislators and press, Watson said:My position is that I don’t regard recombinant DNA as a major or plausible public health hazard, and so I don’t think that legislation is necessary.

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Recombinant-DNA techniques—genetic engineering—went on to revolutionize human medicine, transform every branch of biology, and become a major tool of disciplines ranging from chemistry to crime detection, from anthropology to agriculture. All without a single instance of harm. So, was Asilomar a good idea? I would say yes, but for political reasons rather than scientific. The guidelines set by the scientists were far more specific and appropriate than politicians would have set, and those guidelines could be adjusted annually in response to real experience in the world, whereas political regulations not only resist fine-tuning, they defy any change at all. The recent simplistic legislation banning most human stem-cell research in the United States was a classic case. The Asilomar scientists forestalled that kind of folly by taking public responsibility themselves, early and adaptively

Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code
by Matthew Cobb
Published 6 Jul 2015

However, a great deal of further work will be needed before this approach can be applied in the real world, and I suspect few scientists – or readers – would want to rely solely on this technique to ensure biosecurity.52 These responsible approaches to the potential impact of a new technique of unprecedented power are a direct descendant of the Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA that so successfully guided science as it was catapulted into the new world of genetic manipulation. In 2008, Paul Berg reflected on the impact of the Asilomar conference: In the 33 years since Asilomar, researchers around the world have carried out countless experiments with recombinant DNA without reported incident. Many of these experiments were inconceivable in 1975, yet as far as we know, none has been a hazard to public health.

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Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/27/1/OH_Benzer_S.pdf, 1991. Berg, P., ‘Meetings that changed the world. Asilomar 1975: DNA modification secured’, Nature, vol. 455, 2008, pp. 290–1. Berg, P. and Singer, M., George Beadle, an Uncommon Farmer: The Emergence of Genetics in the Twentieth Century, Cold Spring Harbor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2003. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Boyer, H. W. et al., ‘Potential biohazards of recombinant DNA molecules’, Science, vol. 185, 1974, p. 303. Berg, P., Baltimore, D., Brenner, S. et al., ‘Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA molecules’, Science, vol. 188, 1975, pp. 991–4. Berget, S.

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Benzer was renowned for his sense of humour. 29. Banner put up in Marshall Nirenberg’s laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, when news came through of his 1969 Nobel Prize. 30. Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA, 1975. Left to right: Maxine Singer, Norton Zinder, Sydney Brenner and Paul Berg. The possibility of using CRISPR to change the human germ line has recently led to calls for a ‘new Asilomar’ to debate the ethical and technical questions involved. NOTES Chapter 1 1.Wood and Orel (2001), p. 258; see also Cobb (2006a), Poczai et al. (2014). 2.López-Beltrán (1994), Müller-Wille and Rheinberger (2007, 2012). 3.Harvey basically shrugged his shoulders and gave up (Cobb, 2006b). 4.Cobb (2006a). 5.For Mendel’s work and its implications, see Bowler (1989), Gayon (1998), Hartl and Orel (1992).

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
by Stuart Russell
Published 7 Oct 2019

This has led to a high-stakes race in which caution and careful engineering appear to be less important than snazzy demos, talent grabs, and premature rollouts. Thus, life-or-death economic competition provides an impetus to cut corners on safety in the hope of winning the race. In a 2008 retrospective paper on the 1975 Asilomar conference that he co-organized—the conference that led to a moratorium on genetic modification of humans—the biologist Paul Berg wrote,16 There is a lesson in Asilomar for all of science: the best way to respond to concerns created by emerging knowledge or early-stage technologies is for scientists from publicly funded institutions to find common cause with the wider public about the best way to regulate—as early as possible.

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A very interesting paper on the non-naturalistic non-fallacy, showing how preferences can be inferred from the state of the world as arranged by humans: Rohin Shah et al., “The implicit preference information in an initial state,” in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Learning Representations (2019), iclr.cc/Conferences/2019/Schedule. 16. Retrospective on Asilomar: Paul Berg, “Asilomar 1975: DNA modification secured,” Nature 455 (2008): 290–91. 17. News article reporting Putin’s speech on AI: “Putin: Leader in artificial intelligence will rule world,” Associated Press, September 4, 2017. CHAPTER 8 1. Fermat’s Last Theorem asserts that the equation an = bn + cn has no solutions with a, b, and c being whole numbers and n being a whole number larger than 2.

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There is, as it happens, a very interesting historical precedent for cutting off research. In the early 1970s, biologists began to be concerned that novel recombinant DNA methods—splicing genes from one organism into another—might create substantial risks for human health and the global ecosystem. Two meetings at Asilomar in California in 1973 and 1975 led first to a moratorium on such experiments and then to detailed biosafety guidelines consonant with the risks posed by any proposed experiment.15 Some classes of experiments, such as those involving toxin genes, were deemed too hazardous to be allowed. Immediately after the 1975 meeting, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds virtually all basic medical research in the United States, began the process of setting up the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee.

Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution
by Francis Fukuyama
Published 1 Jan 2002

Silver, Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (New York: Avon, 1998), p. 268. 10 Leon Kass, Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs (New York: Free Press, 1985), p. 173. 11 On this general topic, see James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It (New York: Basic Books, 1989). 12 Eugene Russo, “Reconsidering Asilomar,” The Scientist 14 (April 3, 2000): 15–21; and Marcia Barinaga, “Asilomar Revisited: Lessons for Today?,” Science 287 (March 3, 2000): 1584–1585. 13 Stuart Auchincloss, “Does Genetic Engineering Need Genetic Engineers?,” Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 20 (1993): 37–64. 14 Kurt Eichenwald, “Redesigning Nature: Hard Lessons Learned; Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle,” The New York Times, January 25, 2001, p.

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In 1970 Janet Mertz, a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, wanted to splice genes from a monkey virus into a common bacteria, E. coli, in order to better understand their function. This led to a dispute between Mertz’s supervisor, Paul Berg, and Robert Pollack over the safety of such experiments; Pollack feared they could lead to the creation of a new and highly dangerous microbe.1 The eventual result was the Asilomar Conference, held in Pacific Grove, California, in 1975, at which the leading researchers in the field met to devise controls over experiments in the burgeoning field of rDNA.2 A voluntary ban on this type of research was put into place until the risks could be better appreciated, and a Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee was established by the National Institutes of Health.

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The first embryonic stem cell lines were cultivated by James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin, using nongovernment funding in order to comply with the ban on federally funded research that would harm embryos. Many of the participants at a workshop held on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Asilomar Conference on rDNA concluded that while the RAC had served an important function in its day, it could no longer monitor or police the present-day biotech industry. It has no formal enforcement powers and can bring to bear only the weight of opinion within the elite scientific community. The nature of that community has changed over time as well: there are today many fewer “pure” researchers, with no ties to the biotech industry or commercial interests in certain technologies.12 This means that any new regulatory agency not only would have to have a mandate to regulate biotechnology on grounds broader than efficacy and safety but also would have to have statutory authority over all research and development, and not just research that is federally funded.

The Road to Conscious Machines
by Michael Wooldridge
Published 2 Nov 2018

It is worth reflecting on these a little, and the role they are likely to play in how AI develops in the years to come. One of the first and most influential frameworks for ethical AI was the Asilomar principles, which were formulated by a group of AI scientists and commentators who met in the Californian resort of the same name in 2015 and 2017. The main deliverable was a set of 23 principles, which AI scientists and developers across the world were asked to sign up to.11 Most of the Asilomar principles are pretty uncontentious: the first is that the goal of AI research should be to create beneficial intelligence; the sixth is that AI systems should be safe and secure; and the twelfth is that people should have the right to access, manage and control data which relates to them.

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Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) The ambitious goal of building AI systems that have the full range of intellectual abilities that humans have: the ability to plan, reason, engage in natural language conversation, make jokes, tell stories, understand stories, play games – everything. Asilomar principles A set of principles for ethical AI developed by AI scientists and commentators in two meetings held in Asilomar, California, in 2015 and 2017. axon The component part of a neuron which connects it with other neurons. See also synapse. backprop/backpropagation The most important algorithm for training neural nets. backward chaining In knowledge-based systems, the idea that we start with a goal that we are trying to establish (e.g., ‘animal is carnivore’) and try to establish it by seeing if the goal is justified using the data we have (e.g., ‘animal eats meat’).

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In the words of AI scientist Andrew Ng, worrying about these concerns right now seems like worrying about the problem of overpopulation on Mars.13 Maybe these issues will be worth losing sleep over at some point in the future, but to give them prominence now presents a misleading picture of where AI is and, more worryingly, distracts us from the problems that we should be concerned about, which we will discuss in the next chapter. Of course, because the scenarios indicated here are likely to be a long way in the future, it doesn’t cost companies anything to sign up to them, and it makes for good publicity. In 2018, Google released their own guidelines for ethical AI. Somewhat pithier than the Asilomar principles, they cover much of the same territory (being beneficial, avoiding bias, being safe), and, helpfully, Google also provided some concrete guidance around best practice in AI and machine learning development.14 Another framework was proposed by the European Union at the end of 2018,15 and yet another by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a key professional organization for computing and IT);16 many major companies – and not just IT companies – have also released ethical AI guidelines of their own.

Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined--And Redefined--Nature
by Beth Shapiro
Published 15 Dec 2021

Participants left the meeting feeling as if they’d paved a way forward for safe recombinant DNA research. The conclusions of the Asilomar Conference were reported in both the scientific and popular press. The scientists who participated were pleased with the consensus and believed the public would be as well. Not so. As before, anti-biotechnology activists exploited the risk-averse outcome of the meeting to further undermine public trust. Rumors spread that recombinant DNA technology would soon generate superbugs or be used to create superhumans. The division between supporters and opponents deepened. After Asilomar, recombinant DNA research recommenced under intense scrutiny.

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The quote from an audience member of the 1973 Gordon Conference on Nucleic Acids was reported in Hanna (1991), which also includes details of the experiments leading up to this announcement and the events that followed, including the 1975 meeting in Asilomar, California, and includes commentary by many of the scientists involved with the discussions at the time. Berg et al. (1975) summarizes the conclusions of the Asilomar conferences. Tzifra and Citovsky (2006) review the technologies used to edit the genomes of plants. Kim and Kim (2014) describe the development and application of programmable nucleases for genetic engineering. Doudna and Charpentier (2014) and Knott and Doudna (2018) focus specifically on advances made possible using CRISPR-Cas systems.

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Concerned members of the public lobbied their government representatives to stop the research. By the time the meeting took place, a clear line had already formed between those who wanted recombinant DNA research to succeed and those who wanted to ban it from happening at all. The meeting to decide the future of recombinant DNA technology was held in February 1975 at the Asilomar Conference grounds in Pacific Grove, California. Attendees included scientists, ethicists, and legal scholars. Most supported allowing recombinant DNA research to continue, but not without hesitation. They worried about what might happen if plant or animal genes were inserted into a bacterial genome.

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman
Published 4 Sep 2023

In 1973, one of the inventors of genetic engineering, Paul Berg, gathered a group of scientists on the Monterey Peninsula in California. He’d begun to worry about what his invention might unleash and wanted to set some ground rules and moral foundations for going forward. At the Asilomar conference center, they asked the difficult questions thrown up by this new discipline: Should we start genetically engineering humans? If so, what traits might be permissible? Two years later they returned in even larger numbers for the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA. The stakes in that sea-lapped hotel were high. It was a turning point in the biosciences, establishing durable principles for governing genetic research and technology that set guidelines and moral limits on what experiments could take place.

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With a mixed group, it wanted to raise the profile of AI safety, start building a culture of caution, and sketch real answers. We met again in 2017, at the symbolic venue of Asilomar, to draft a set of AI principles that I along with many others in the field signed on to. They were about building an explicitly responsible culture of AI research and inspired a raft of further initiatives. As the wave keeps building, we will need to self-consciously return again and again to the spirit—and letter—of Asilomar. For millennia, the Hippocratic oath has been a moral lodestar for the medical profession. In Latin, Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.

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Fundamentally, neither technologists nor governments will solve this problem alone. But together “we” all might. 10. THE NARROW PATH: THE ONLY WAY IS THROUGH Just a few days after the release of GPT-4, thousands of AI scientists signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on researching the most powerful AI models. Referencing the Asilomar principles, they cited reasons familiar to those reading this book: “Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one—not even their creators—can understand, predict, or reliably control.” Shortly after, Italy banned ChatGPT.

Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age
by Leslie Berlin
Published 7 Nov 2017

Watson and John Tooze, The DNA Story: A Documentary History of Gene Cloning (San Francisco: H. W. Freeman and Co., 1981): 11. 55. Mukherjee, The Gene: 230. 56. Michael Rogers, “The Pandora’s Box Congress,” Rolling Stone, June 19, 1975. The conference was the second on recombinant DNA risks that was held at Asilomar—the first was in January 1973—but it was so extraordinary that it has come to be known as the Asilomar conference. Only six of the 150 Asilomar scientists “now fiddling with the basic mechanics of reproduction,” as one journalist put it, were female, but one woman played a pivotal role: the molecular biologist Maxine Singer was an organizer of the conference and among the very first to call attention to the potential risks. 57.

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With some scientists urging caution and others eager to press on with research, harsh rhetoric and accusations punctuated many sessions. (“You fucked the plasmid group!” was one comment offered on the floor.)55 Both Cohen and Boyer attended the Asilomar conference, and both deplored its unprofessional fractiousness. On the final day, a majority of the assembled scientists, possibly influenced by a panel of attorneys who had presented the previous afternoon, proposed a set of guidelines for minimizing safety risks when conducting recombinant DNA research. Rolling Stone, which dubbed the Asilomar meeting the “Pandora’s Box Congress,” claimed that the safety guidelines marked the first time that scientists had proposed self-regulation since early in the Second World War, when some physicists had agreed to keep nuclear data from German scientists.56 One biologist was so alarmed by the risks that he wrote in Science that the world was now facing “a pre-Hiroshima situation.”57 The Stanford biochemist Paul Berg, one of the conference organizers, recalls, “It was the period just after the Vietnam War.

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“Certain of these hybrid molecules are potentially hazardous to both laboratory workers and the public.”53 One year later, the National Academy of Sciences committee, whose members included Cohen and Boyer, recommended a moratorium on certain recombinant DNA experiments until the risks were better understood.54 In February 1975, 150 top scientists from thirteen countries, along with a number of invited journalists and attorneys, convened at the Asilomar Conference Grounds near Monterey, California. The conferencegoers wrestled with a monumental question: how to proceed safely in the hitherto unimaginable world in which genes could be swapped between species and easily reproduced. The terrifying implications included the possibility of pathogens or drug-resistant genes infecting large segments of the human population.

Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life
by J. Craig Venter
Published 16 Oct 2013

Safety, of course, is paramount. The good news is that, thanks to a debate that dates back to Asilomar in the 1970s, robust and diverse regulations for the safe use of biotechnology and recombinant-DNA technology are already firmly in place. However, we must be vigilant and never drop our guard. In years to come it might be difficult to identify agents of concern if they look like nothing we have encountered before. The political, societal, and scientific backdrop is continually evolving and has shifted a great deal since the days of Asilomar. Synthetic biology also relies on the skills of scientists who have little experience in biology, such as mathematicians and electrical engineers.

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The first transgenic mammal was created in 1974 by Rudolf Jaenisch and Beatrice Mintz, who inserted foreign DNA into mouse embryos.14 Because of the growing public unease over the potential dangers of such experimentation, Berg played an active role in debating to what degree such studies should be constrained and limited. In 1974 a group of American scientists recommended a moratorium on this research. Voluntary guidelines were drawn up at a highly influential meeting organized the following year by Berg at the Asilomar Conference Grounds, in Pacific Grove, California. The fear of some was that recombinant organisms might have unexpected consequences, such as causing illness or death, and that they might escape the laboratory and spread. This concern was balanced by arguments in support of the potential of genetic engineering, notably those of Joshua Lederberg, a Stanford professor and Nobel laureate.15 In 1976 the National Institutes of Health issued its own guidelines for the safe conduct of recombinant-DNA research, the repercussions of which are still being felt in the ongoing debates about genetically altered crops and the more recent discussion about the use and misuse of research on the genetics of influenza.

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Later an FBI report offered a number of suggestions to get the balance right between making progress with research and minimizing risks, and between scientific freedom and national security. The FBI report begins by pointing out that the Janus-like nature of innovation has surfaced again and again during the past several decades, underscoring the significance of such initiatives as Asilomar, which I dealt with earlier, and the adoption of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1972. I believe that the issue of the responsible use of science is fundamental and dates back to the birth of human ingenuity, when humankind first discovered how to make fire on demand. (Do I use it to burn a rival’s crops or to keep warm?)

The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
by Toby Ord
Published 24 Mar 2020

Substantial agreement was reached and many participants signed an open letter about the need to begin working in earnest to make AI both robust and beneficial.108 Two years later an expanded conference reconvened at Asilomar, a location chosen to echo the famous genetics conference of 1975, where biologists came together to pre-emptively agree principles to govern the coming possibilities of genetic engineering. At Asilomar in 2017, the AI researchers agreed on a set of Asilomar AI Principles, to guide responsible longterm development of the field. These included principles specifically aimed at existential risk: Capability Caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities.

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Put another way, it is unreasonable to blame people working on policy for not being great at science, but more reasonable to blame people who are great at science for not working on policy. 55 UN (n.d.). 56 See Grace (2015). There is some debate over how successful the Asilomar Conference was. In the decades after the guidelines were created, some of the risks envisioned by the scientists turned out not to be as great as feared, and many of the regulations were gradually unwound. Some critics of Asilomar have also argued that the model of self-regulation was inadequate, and that there should have been more input from civil society (Wright, 2001). 57 See Bostrom (2002b). 58 This distinction is from Bostrom (2014), and the analysis owes a great deal to his work on the topic. 59 The precise half-life is the natural logarithm of 2 (≈0.69) divided by the annual risk, whereas the mean survival time is simply 1 divided by the annual risk.

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And they can spend time working with policymakers to ensure national and international regulations are scientifically and technologically sound.54 A good example of successful governance is the Montreal Protocol, which set a timetable to phase out the chemicals that were depleting the ozone layer. It involved rapid and extensive collaboration between scientists, industry leaders and policymakers, leading to what Kofi Annan called “perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date.”55 Another example is the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, in which leading scientists in the field considered the new dangerous possibilities their work had opened up. In response they designed new safety requirements on further work and restricted some lines of development completely.56 An interesting, and neglected, area of technology governance is differential technological development.57 While it may be too difficult to prevent the development of a risky technology, we may be able to reduce existential risk by speeding up the development of protective technologies relative to dangerous ones.

Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives
by Michael Specter
Published 14 Apr 2009

Researchers could suddenly combine the genes of two creatures that would never have been able to mate in nature. In 1975, concerned about the risks of this new technology, scientists from around the world convened a conference in Asilomar, California. They focused primarily on laboratory and environmental safety, and concluded that the field required only minimal regulation. (There was no real discussion of deliberate abuse—at the time it didn’t seem necessary.) In retrospect at least, Asilomar came to be seen as an intellectual Woodstock, an epochal event in the history of molecular biology. Looking back nearly thirty years later, one of the conference’s organizers, the Nobel laureate Paul Berg, wrote that “this unique conference marked the beginning of an exceptional era for science and for the public discussion of science policy.

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“We can outdo evolution,” said David Baltimore, genuinely awed by this new power to explore the vocabulary of life. Another researcher joked about joining duck DNA with orange DNA. “In early 1975, however, the new techniques hardly aspired to either duck or orange DNA,” Michael Rogers wrote in the 1977 book Biohazard, his riveting account of the meeting at Asilomar and of the scientists’ attempts to confront the ethical as well as biological impact of their new technology. “They worked essentially only with bacteria and viruses—organisms so small that most human beings only noticed them when they make us ill.” That was precisely the problem. Promising as these techniques were, they also made it possible for scientists to transfer viruses—and cancer cells—from one organism to another.

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Early in 2009, the results of a California Academy of Sciences poll that was conducted throughout the nation revealed that only 53 percent of American adults know how long it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun, and a slightly larger number—59 percent—are aware that dinosaurs and humans never lived at the same time. Synthetic biologists will have to overcome this ignorance and the denialism it breeds. To begin with, why not convene a new, more comprehensive version of the Asilomar Conference, tailored to the digital age and broadcast to all Americans? It wouldn’t solve every problem or answer every question—and we would need many conversations, not one. But I can think of no better way for President Obama to begin to return science to its rightful place in our society. And he ought to lead that conversation through digital town meetings that address both the prospects and perils of this new discipline.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe
Published 1 Jan 1968

Dear Lord, prepare to blast off Into the Angel blue. Oh, the vi-bra-tions... So Kesey was invited to come take part in the annual California Unitarian Church conference at Asilomar, beautiful state park by the sea in Monterey. The theme this year was: "Shaking the Foundations." The fact that Kesey had lately been arrested on a narcotics charge couldn't have mattered less to the Unitarians assembled on the greeny glades of Asilomar by the sea, not even the older ones. The Unitarians had a long tradition of liberalism in such matters and, in fact, were in the vanguard of the civil-rights movement in California.

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By Friday, Kesey had done a lot of talking, on stage, off stage, down by the bus, and things had gotten to the point where people might start saying, well, for a guy who says talking won't get the job done, he has done an awful lot of talking. Kesey emerged from the bus that afternoon with a huge swath of adhesive tape plastered across his mouth. He went around the whole day like that, silent, plastered over, as if to say, I'm through talking. All the kids at Asilomar thought this was great, too. More and more of them were hanging around the bus, while the Pranksters flung kelp about and played like very children themselves. Nighttime and one girl really feels into the thing, and she wants nothing more in this world than to go on an acid trip with the Pranksters.

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Somehow Kesey had created the prophetic aura itself, and through the Pranksters many people at the conference had not observed but experienced mystic brotherhood, albeit ever so bizarre ... a miracle in seven days. THE FOLLOWING YEAR THERE WERE TWO CONFERENCES OF THE Unitarian Church. One, as always, was at Asilomar. And the Sport Shirts were there, as always. The other was in the High Sierras. The Young Turks held their own conference, in the High Sierras, up in the thin air. Somehow it wasn't quite what they expected, however. A certain psychic decibel level was lacking. Nevertheless, the age of bullshit was over.

Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI
by John Brockman
Published 19 Feb 2019

FLI’s scientific advisory board includes Elon Musk, Frank Wilczek, George Church, Stuart Russell, and the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, who dreamed up an oft-quoted Gedankenexperiment that results in a world full of paper clips and nothing else, produced by an (apparently) well-meaning AGI who was just following orders. The institute sponsors conferences (Puerto Rico 2015, Asilomar 2017) on AI safety issues and in 2018 instituted a grants competition focusing on research in aid of maximizing the societal benefits of AGI. While Max is sometimes listed—by the noncognoscenti—on the side of the scaremongers, he believes, like Frank Wilczek, in a future that will immensely benefit from AGI if, in the attempt to create it, we can keep the human species from being sidelined.

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Today, talk of AI’s societal impact is everywhere, and work on AI safety and AI ethics has moved into companies, universities, and academic conferences. The controversial position on AI safety research is no longer to advocate for it but to dismiss it. Whereas the open letter that emerged from the 2015 Puerto Rico AI conference (and helped mainstream AI safety) spoke only in vague terms about the importance of keeping AI beneficial, the 2017 Asilomar AI Principles (see page 84) had real teeth: They explicitly mention recursive self-improvement, superintelligence, and existential risk, and were signed by AI industry leaders and more than a thousand AI researchers from around the world. Nonetheless, most discussion is limited to the near-term impact of narrow AI and the broader community pays only limited attention to the dramatic transformations that AGI may soon bring to life on Earth.

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Everything I love about civilization is the product of intelligence, so if we can amplify our own intelligence with AGI, we have the potential to solve today’s and tomorrow’s thorniest problems, including disease, climate change, and poverty. The more detailed we can make our shared positive visions for the future, the more motivated we will be to work together to realize them. What should we do in terms of steering? The twenty-three Asilomar principles adopted in 2017 offer plenty of guidance, including these short-term goals: An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided. The economic prosperity created by AI should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity. Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use. . . .

Future War: Preparing for the New Global Battlefield
by Robert H. Latiff
Published 25 Sep 2017

Lincoln’s War Department was deeply concerned: Paul Finkelman, “Francis Lieber and the Modern Law of War” (reviewing John Fabian Witt, Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History), University of Chicago Law Review 80, no. 4 (September 2013): 2071–132. Scientists attending the Asilomar Conference: Paul Berg, “Meetings That Changed the World: Asilomar 1975: DNA Modification Secured,” Nature 455 (September 2008): 290–91. The medieval code of chivalry included: Richard Abels, “Medieval Chivalry,” United States Naval Academy, http://www.usna.edu/​Users/​history/​abels/​hh315/​Chivalry.htm. The Dutch historian: Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1999; originally published in 1919), 56–65.

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Since World War II, numerous efforts have been made to deal with issues of technology, weapons research, and ethics. These include the 1946 Nuremberg trials, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, and efforts by scientists to place restrictions on biomedical, genomic, and nanotechnology research. Scientists attending the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, near Monterey, California, in 1975 recognized the potential dangers of such DNA research and declared a moratorium until safe and ethical procedures could be developed. The guidelines developed were voluntary, but have been assiduously followed. Rules and theory are one thing, practical applications another.

Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech
by Sally Smith Hughes

The Federal Register announced in November the formation of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, with a mandate to advise the NIH director on technical matters related to recombinant DNA research.74 In February 1975 a select group of about a hundred molecular biologists arrived at the now-celebrated Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules at California’s Asilomar conference grounds to consider the technical issue of laboratory research safety, explicitly avoiding deliberation on the technology’s larger social and ethical implications. Striving to avoid government regulation, the scientists proposed to devise their own safety regulations with the idea that recombinant DNA research could then proceed.

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Cohen refused to endorse what he saw as a politically motivated document that he and much of the assembly had not reviewed. The conference in his opinion had turned into “a scientific witch hunt” that gave him heartburn and lingering anxiety.75 Even the more sanguine Boyer was under duress, disturbed by the in-fighting and politicking. He later labeled the Asilomar conference “a nightmare” and admitted he was too upset to sleep.76 The Stanford-UC effort to patent the Cohen-Boyer procedure was swept into the swirling political debate over the safety of recombinant DNA research, complicating the patenting process and prompting Cohen’s tense vigilance in matters related to DNA politics.

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Recombinant DNA felt to him “like important stuff,” important enough to build a company upon.21 His seven years in venture capital had provided valuable training in raising money and advising new companies, but the experience had also made him feel “like a coach on the sidelines.”22 He wanted a piece of the action; he wanted a company of his own. Culling names from publicity on the 1975 Asilomar conference on recombinant DNA, he drew up a list of scientists prominent in the field. Swanson began to cold-call the scientists, asking if they thought the technology was ready to commercialize. Without exception, all believed recombinant DNA had industrial promise but surmised it would require a decade or two of development before a commercial payoff.23 Persisting despite the rebuffs, Swanson called Boyer, oblivious of the fact that he was contacting an inventor of the technology.

On the Future: Prospects for Humanity
by Martin J. Rees
Published 14 Oct 2018

But it’s worth noting that in a recent book, Inheritors of the Earth, Chris Thomas, a distinguished ecologist, argues that the spread of species can often have a positive impact in ensuring a more varied and robust ecology.5 In 1975, in the early days of recombinant DNA research, a group of leading molecular biologists met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, and agreed on guidelines defining what experiments should and should not be done. This seemingly encouraging precedent has triggered several meetings, convened by national academies, to discuss recent developments in the same spirit. But today, more than forty years after the first Asilomar meeting, the research community is far more broadly international, and more influenced by commercial pressures. I’d worry that whatever regulations are imposed, on prudential or ethical grounds, cannot be enforced worldwide—any more than the drug laws can, or tax laws.

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See also planets; SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) Allen, Woody, 178 ALMA radio telescope in Chile, 207 AlphaGo, 86–87, 88, 106, 191 AlphaGo Zero, 87 Alzheimer’s disease, failure of drugs for, 212 Ambrosia, life-extension start-up, 80 Anders, Bill, 120 Anderson, Philip, 176 Andromeda galaxy, 178 animal research, ethics of, 221 Anthropocene, 3, 31 antibiotic resistance, 72 antimatter, 169 Apollo programme, 120, 137, 139, 144, 145 Archimedes, 165 Arkhipov, Vasili, 18 Armstrong, Neil, 120, 138 arts and crafts, resurgence of, 98 Asilomar Conference, 74–75 assisted dying, 70–71 asteroid impact: collapse in global food supplies and, 216; existential disaster compared to, 114; on Mars, sending rock to Earth, 129; nuclear destruction compared to, 15, 18; planning for, 15–16, 43; as rare but extreme event, 15, 76 asteroids: establishing bases on, 149; travel to, 148 astrology, 11 atoms: aliens composed of, 160; complexity and, 172–74; as constituents of all materials, 165–66, 168; hard to understand, 195; number in visible universe, 182; quantum theory of, 166, 205 Bacon, Francis, 61 battery technology, 49–50, 51 Baumgartner, Felix, 149 Baxter robot, 106 Before the Beginning (Rees), 186 The Beginning of Infinity (Deutsch), 192 Bethe, Hans, 222 The Better Angels of Our Nature (Pinker), 76 Bezos, Jeff, 146 big bang: birth of universe in, 124; chain of complexity leading from, 164, 214; conditions in particle accelerator and, 111; intelligent aliens’ understanding of, 160; physical laws as a given in, 197–98; possibly not the only one, 181, 183, 184–85 (see also multiverse) Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 224 biodiversity: loss of, 32–33, 66; our stewardship of, 35 bio error, 73, 75, 77–78 biofuels, 32, 52 biohacking, 75, 78, 106 biotech: benefits and vulnerabilities of, 5, 6; concerns about ethics of, 73–75; concerns about safety of, 73, 74, 75, 76, 116, 218; responsible innovation in, 218, 225; threat of catastrophe due to, 76, 109–10; unpredictable consequences of, 63.

Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
by John Markoff
Published 24 Aug 2015

If someone believes that technology will likely evolve to destroy humankind, what could motivate them to continue developing that same technology? At the end of 2014, the 2009 AI meeting at Asilomar was reprised when a new group of AI researchers, funded by one of the Skype founders, met in Puerto Rico to again consider how to make their field safe. Despite a new round of alarming statements about AI dangers from luminaries such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, the attendees wrote an open letter that notably fell short of the call to action that had been the result of the original 1975 Asilomar biotechnology meeting. Given that DeepMind had been acquired by Google, Legg’s public philosophizing is particularly significant.

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In other fields, certain issues have forced scientists and technologists to consider the potential consequences of their work, and many of those scientists acted to protect humanity. In February of 1975, for example, Nobel laureate Paul Berg encouraged the elite of the then new field of biotechnology to meet at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. At the time, recombinant DNA—inserting new genes into the DNA of living organisms—was a fledgling development. It presented both the promise for dramatic advances in medicine, agriculture, and new materials and the horrifying possibility that scientists could unintentionally bring about the end of humanity by engineering a synthetic plague.

…

After a little more than a decade, the NIH had gathered sufficient evidence from a wide array of experiments to suggest that it should lift the restrictions on research. It was a singular example of how society might thoughtfully engage with the consequences of scientific advance. Following in the footsteps of the biologists, in February of 2009, a group of artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists also met at Asilomar to discuss the progress of AI after decades of failure. Eric Horvitz, the Microsoft AI researcher who was serving as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, called the meeting. During the previous five years, the researchers in the field had begun discussing twin alarms.

Coastal California Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

Pacific Grove Golf LinksGOLF ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-648-5775; www.playpacificgrove.com; 77 Asilomar Blvd; green fees $43-64) Can’t afford to play at famous Pebble Beach? This historic 18-hole municipal course, where deer freely range, has impressive sea views, and it’s a lot easier (not to mention cheaper) to book a tee time here. 4Sleeping Antique-filled B&Bs have taken over many stately Victorian homes around downtown Pacific Grove and by the beach. Motels cluster at the peninsula’s western end, off Lighthouse and Asilomar Aves. Asilomar Conference GroundsLODGE$$ ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-372-8016; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave; r from $188; iWs) This state-park lodge sprawls by sand dunes in pine forest.

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Today, leafy streets are lined by stately Victorian homes and a charming, compact downtown orbits Lighthouse Ave. 1Sights & Activities Pacific Grove's aptly named Ocean View Blvd affords views from Lovers Point Park west to Point Pinos, where it becomes Sunset Dr, offering tempting turnouts where you can stroll by pounding surf, rocky outcrops and teeming tide pools all the way to Asilomar State Beach. This seaside route is great for cycling, too – some say it rivals the famous 17-Mile Drive for beauty and, even better, it’s free. Asilomar State BeachBEACH ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Sunset Dr) Negotiate a 1-mile trail boardwalk through rugged sand dunes. Note this beach is known for riptides and unpredictable surf, and care must be taken when swimming here. Point Pinos LighthouseLIGHTHOUSE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-648-3176; www.pointpinoslighthouse.org; 80 Asilomar Ave; suggested donation adult/child 6-12yr $4/2; h1-4pm Thu-Mon) The West Coast’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse has been warning ships off the hazardous tip of the Monterey Peninsula since 1855.

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Skip ho-hum motel rooms and opt for historic houses designed by early-20th-century architect Julia Morgan (of Hearst Castle fame) – the thin-walled, hardwood-floored rooms may be small, but they share a fireplace lounge. Head to the lodge lobby for Ping-Pong, pool tables and wi-fi. Bike rentals available. Sunset InnMOTEL$$ ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-375-3529; www.gosunsetinn.com; 133 Asilomar Blvd; r $99-235; W) At this small motor lodge near the golf course and the beach, attentive staff hand out keys to crisply redesigned rooms that have hardwood floors, king-sized beds with cheery floral-print comforters and sometimes a hot tub and a fireplace. 5Eating Downtown PG teems with European-style bakeries, coffee shops and neighborhood cafes.

Northern California Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

Pacific Grove Golf LinksGOLF ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-648-5775; www.playpacificgrove.com; 77 Asilomar Blvd; green fees $43-64) Can’t afford to play at famous Pebble Beach? This historic 18-hole municipal course, where deer freely range, has impressive sea views, and it’s a lot easier (not to mention cheaper) to book a tee time here. 4Sleeping Antique-filled B&Bs have taken over many stately Victorian homes around downtown Pacific Grove and by the beach. Motels cluster at the peninsula’s western end, off Lighthouse and Asilomar Aves. Asilomar Conference GroundsLODGE$$ ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-372-8016; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave; r from $188; iWs) This state-park lodge sprawls by sand dunes in pine forest.

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Monterey Peninsula 1Top Sights 1Mission San Carlos Borromeo de CarmeloC6 2Point Lobos State Natural ReserveB7 1Sights 3Asilomar State BeachB2 4Carmel Beach City ParkB5 5Lone CypressA4 6Monarch Grove SanctuaryB2 7Point Pinos LighthouseB1 8Tor HouseB6 2Activities, Courses & Tours 917-Mile DriveA4 10Pacific Grove Golf LinksB1 11Whalers CoveB7 4Sleeping 12Asilomar Conference GroundsB2 13Cypress InnD7 14Inn by the BayD3 15Lodge at Pebble BeachB5 16Mission RanchC6 17Sea View InnC5 18Sunset InnB2 19Veterans Memorial Park CampgroundC3 5Eating 20Cultura Comida y BebidaD6 21Jeninni Kitchen & Wine BarC2 22La BicycletteD7 23MundakaD7 24PassionfishC2 25Tricycle PizzaC2 6Drinking & Nightlife 26BarmelD7 Scheid VineyardsD7 3Entertainment 27Forest TheaterC5 1Sights & Activities Pacific Grove's aptly named Ocean View Blvd affords views from Lovers Point Park west to Point Pinos, where it becomes Sunset Dr, offering tempting turnouts where you can stroll by pounding surf, rocky outcrops and teeming tide pools all the way to Asilomar State Beach. This seaside route is great for cycling, too – some say it rivals the famous 17-Mile Drive for beauty and, even better, it’s free. Asilomar State BeachBEACH ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Sunset Dr) Negotiate a 1-mile trail boardwalk through rugged sand dunes. Note this beach is known for riptides and unpredictable surf, and care must be taken when swimming here. Point Pinos LighthouseLIGHTHOUSE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-648-3176; www.pointpinoslighthouse.org; 80 Asilomar Ave; suggested donation adult/child 6-12yr $4/2; h1-4pm Thu-Mon) The West Coast’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse has been warning ships off the hazardous tip of the Monterey Peninsula since 1855.

…

Skip ho-hum motel rooms and opt for historic houses designed by early-20th-century architect Julia Morgan (of Hearst Castle fame) – the thin-walled, hardwood-floored rooms may be small, but they share a fireplace lounge. Head to the lodge lobby for Ping-Pong, pool tables and wi-fi. Bike rentals available. Sunset InnMOTEL$$ ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %831-375-3529; www.gosunsetinn.com; 133 Asilomar Blvd; r $99-235; W) At this small motor lodge near the golf course and the beach, attentive staff hand out keys to crisply redesigned rooms that have hardwood floors, king-sized beds with cheery floral-print comforters and sometimes a hot tub and a fireplace. 5Eating Downtown PG teems with European-style bakeries, coffee shops and neighborhood cafes.

When Computers Can Think: The Artificial Intelligence Singularity
by Anthony Berglas , William Black , Samantha Thalind , Max Scratchmann and Michelle Estes
Published 28 Feb 2015

It would take an extraordinary act of political will to suddenly turn that around and deliberately stop producing new hardware. Particularly if there was any doubt that competitive nations were adhering to any such ban. Realistically it would require a widely demonstrated disaster involving a hyperintelligent machine. By that stage it would be far too late. Asilomar conference A good example of political cooperation was the Asilomar Conference in 1975, in which researchers and lawyers drew up voluntary guidelines on recombinant DNA research. There were widespread concerns that this very new technology could accidentally produce super-microbes that would be impossible to control in the wider environment.

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Defeating natural selection 17. Wishful thinking 18. Whole brain emulation 19. Chain of AGIs 20. Running away 21. Just do not build an AGI 8. Political Will 1. Atom bombs 2. Iran's atomic ambitions 3. Stuxnet 4. Glass houses 5. Zero day exploits 6. Practicalities of abstinence 7. Restrict computer hardware 8. Asilomar conference 9. Patent trolls 10. Does it really matter? 9. Conclusion 1. Geological history 2. History of science 3. Natural selection 4. Human instincts 5. Intelligence 6. AI technologies 7. Building an AGI 8. Semi-intelligent machines 9. Goals 10. Prognosis 10. Bibliography and Notes When Computers Can Think The Artificial Intelligence Singularity Anthony Berglas, Ph.D.

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The point is made that some approaches such as neural networks and genetic algorithms are unpredictable, starting from random values which would make it difficult to guarantee goal consistency over multiple generations of self-improvement. The book discusses some potential solutions such as the research into friendly AGI by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. It also considers analogous control for biological research resulting from the Asilomar conference. The difficulty of locking up an AGI is discussed, including Yudkowsky’s experiment. The unfriendly nature of military applications is analyzed, noting that the next war will probably be a cyber war. This book is a good wake up call. However, the book does not consider natural selection at all, and certainly not how natural selection might ultimately affect an AGI’s goals.

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
by Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie
Published 1 Mar 2018

The detonation of the atomic bomb, however, was a turning point: many people think this technology should not have been developed. Since World War II, a good example of scientists pulling back from the feasible was the 1975 Asilomar conference on DNA recombination, a new technology seen by the media in somewhat apocalyptic terms. The scientists working in the field managed to come to a consensus on good-sense safety practices, and the agreement they reached then has held up well over the ensuing four decades. Recombinant DNA is now a common, mature technology. In 2017, the Future of Life Institute convened a similar Asilomar conference on artificial intelligence and agreed on a set of twenty-three principles for future research in “beneficial AI.”

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Artificial intelligence conceptualizations of agency can be found in Russell and Norvig (2003) and Wooldridge (2009). Philosophical views on agency are compiled in Bratman (2007). An intent-based learning system is described in Forney et al. (2017). The twenty-three principles for “beneficial AI” agreed to at the 2017 Asilomar meeting can be found at Future of Life Institute (2017). References Bratman, M. E. (2007). Structures of Agency: Essays. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Brockman, J. (2015). What to Think About Machines That Think. HarperCollins, New York, NY. Dennett, D. C. (2003). Freedom Evolves. Viking Books, New York, NY.

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Viking Books, New York, NY. Forney, A., Pearl, J., and Bareinboim, E. (2017). Counterfactual data-fusion for online reinforcement learners. Proceedings of the 34th International Conference on Machine Learning. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 70: 1156–1164. Future of Life Institute. (2017). Asilomar AI principles. Available at: https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles (accessed December 2, 2017). Harris, S. (2012). Free Will. Free Press, New York, NY. Mumford, S., and Anjum, R. L. (2014). Causation: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions). Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Coastal California
by Lonely Planet

Pacific Grove Golf Links GOLF ( 831-648-5775; www.pggolflinks.com; 77 Asilomar Blvd; greens fees $42-65) Can’t afford to play at famous Pebble Beach? This historic 18-hole municipal course, where black-tailed deer freely range, has impressive sea views, and it’s a lot easier (not to mention cheaper) to book a tee time. Sleeping B&Bs have taken over many stately Victorian homes around downtown and by the beach. Motels cluster at the peninsula’s western end, off Lighthouse and Asilomar Aves. Asilomar Conference Grounds LODGE $$ ( 831-372-8016, 888-635-5310; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave, Pacific Grove; r incl breakfast $115-175; ) Sprawling over more than 100 acres of sand dunes and pine forests, this state-park lodge is a find.

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Rates include afternoon fresh-baked cookies and evening wine and hors d’oeuvres. Sunset Inn Hotel MOTEL $$$ ( 831-375-3529; www.gosunsetinn.com; 133 Asilomar Blvd; r $139-400; ) At this small motor lodge near the golf course and the beach, attentive staff check you into crisply redesigned rooms that have hardwood floors, king-sized beds with cheery floral-print comforters and some hot tubs and fireplaces. Ask about guest access to the top-notch Spa at Pebble Beach. Pacific Gardens Inn MOTEL $$ ( 831-646-9414, 800-262-1566; www.pacificgardensinn.com; 701 Asilomar Blvd; d $105-225; ) A hospitable owner and a communal lobby make all the difference at this welcoming, wood-shingled motor lodge sheltered among tall oak trees.

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Sights & Activities Aptly named Ocean View Blvd affords views from Lover’s Point west to Point Pinos, where it becomes Sunset Dr, offering tempting turnouts where you can stroll by pounding surf, rocky outcrops and teeming tidepools. This seaside route is great for cycling too. Some say it even rivals the famous 17-Mile Drive for beauty, and it’s free. Point Pinos Lighthouse LIGHTHOUSE (www.ci.pg.ca.us/lighthouse; off Asilomar Ave; adult/child $2/1; 1-4pm Thu-Mon) On the tip of the Monterey Peninsula, the West Coast’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse has been warning ships off this hazardous point since 1855. Inside are modest exhibits on the lighthouse’s history and, alas, its failures – local shipwrecks. Monarch Grove Sanctuary PARK (www.ci.pg.ca.us/monarchs; off Ridge Rd, Pacific Grove; dawn-dusk) Between October and February, over 25,000 migratory monarch butterflies cluster in this thicket of tall eucalyptus trees, secreted inland from Lighthouse Ave.

Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
by Adrienne Mayor
Published 27 Nov 2018

One might also note that the artificial lion “animated” by powers “beneficial to mankind” seems to anticipate the science-fiction author Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics (1942): A robot may not harm humans. That rule—broken by Talos and other ancient automata—still resonates with modern experts who work on the ethics of robotics and Artificial Intelligence. In the “23 Asilomar AI Principles” for ensuring ethical human values in Artificial Intelligence (set forth by the Future of Life Institute in 2017) the final rule states that “superintelligence should only be developed . . . for the benefit of all humanity.”19 When the goddess Thetis interrupts him at his forge, Hephaestus is engaged in a project of “inspired artistry.”

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In myth, Talos the bronze robot, the dragon-teeth army, the mechanical eagle, the fire-breathing bulls—all were deliberately intended to injure humans, breaking Asimov’s first law.44 Pandora certainly flouts rule number 1. But the scale of her devastation is so vast—the ruination of all humankind, as plotted by the tyrant Zeus—that Asimov’s fourth law applies. Pandora breaks the so-called Zeroth Law, which Asimov added later: a robot shall not harm humanity. Pandora also violates law 23 of the 2017 Asilomar principles: Artificial Intelligence should benefit all humanity (chapter 7). One cannot help noticing that all of the automata used to inflict pain and death in ancient mythology belonged to tyrannical rulers, from King Minos of Crete and King Aeetes of Colchis to Zeus, the Father of Gods and Men, who chuckles in anticipation of his cruel “trap” for humans.

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See also exoskeleton Arnobius, 108 Arsinoe II, queen of Egypt, 100, 197, 199 Artemis, 36 Artificial Intelligence (AI): ancient Greek precursors of, 11, 150, 214; anthropomorphizing of, 11; black box technology and, 3; capabilities of, 215–17; culture of, 218; defined, 219; ethical issues concerning, 93, 107, 144, 215–17; Hephaestus’s Golden Maidens as, 150; learning as issue in, 215–17; sexual uses of, 107; Talos as, 11; Tay experiment in, 215; warnings about, 215, 216 artificial life: ancient conceptions of, 1–2, 4–5, 22–23; defined, 219; forms of, 3–4 artificial moral agents (AMAs), 30. See also ethics and morality Asilomar AI Principles, 144, 178 Asimov, Isaac, 144, 177–78 Asoka, King, 203–8, 211 Athena (Minerva): Athenians’ veneration of, 93, 124; and creation of humans, 106, 112, 113; Demetrios’s musical statue of, 187; in Heron’s Theater, 202; and manufacture of animal statues, 97; and manufacture of horse statues, Plate 9, 139, 141; in modern science fiction, 153; and Pandora, 156, 158, 162–63, 163, 164, 170–71; Phidias’s sculpture of, for Parthenon, 124, 170–71, 191 Athena (modern miniature robot), 216 Athenaeus, 71, 109, 198, 199 Athens, 90, 92, 93, 124, 170–72, 175, 192–93 athletes, 25, 47; realistic paintings and sculptures of, Plate 7, 97, 98, 99 automata: ancient conceptions of, 1–3, 95–96, 153–54, 211–15, 223n2; ancient examples of, 23, 145, 180–212, 214; Apega, 194–95; in China, 207–8, 231n19; Chinese tale about, 118, 121; controllability of, 29–30, 65–66, 206, 215; Daedalus’s moving statues, 90–95; defined, 220; desire of, to become human, 29; early uses of term, 145; economic motivations for creating, 152–53, 241n39; emotional responses to, 102–3; functions of, 180; guardians of Buddha, 203–11; historical, 179–212; in India, 203–11; Nysa, 198–99; Philo of Byzantium’s works, 199–200; philosophical questions raised by, 4, 211; slaves compared to, 93; Talos, 7–8, 22–23; terminology concerning, 3–4, 223n1.

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
by Michio Kaku
Published 15 Mar 2011

If one reads the headlines today, it seems as if the question is already settled: the human race is about to be rapidly overtaken by our own creation. THE END OF HUMANITY? The headline in the New York Times said it all: “Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man.” The world’s top leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) had gathered at the Asilomar conference in California in 2009 to solemnly discuss what happens when the machines finally take over. As in a scene from a Hollywood movie, delegates asked probing questions, such as, What happens if a robot becomes as intelligent as your spouse? As compelling evidence of this robotic revolution, people pointed to the Predator drone, a pilotless robot plane that is now targeting terrorists with deadly accuracy in Afghanistan and Pakistan; cars that can drive themselves; and ASIMO, the world’s most advanced robot that can walk, run, climb stairs, dance, and even serve coffee.

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Eric Horvitz of Microsoft, an organizer of the conference, noting the excitement surging through the conference, said, “Technologists are providing almost religious visions, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.” (The Rapture is when true believers ascend to heaven at the Second Coming. The critics dubbed the spirit of the Asilomar conference “the rapture of the nerds.”) That same summer, the movies dominating the silver screen seemed to amplify this apocalyptic picture. In Terminator Salvation, a ragtag band of humans battle huge mechanical behemoths that have taken over the earth. In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, futuristic robots from space use humans as pawns and the earth as a battleground for their interstellar wars.

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And the cars that drive themselves are not making independent decisions as they scan the horizon and turn the steering wheel; they are following a GPS map stored in their memory. So the nightmare of fully autonomous, conscious, and murderous robots is still in the distant future. Not surprisingly, although the media hyped some of the more sensational predictions made at the Asilomar conference, most of the working scientists doing the day-to-day research in artificial intelligence were much more reserved and cautious. When asked when the machines will become as smart as us, the scientists had a surprising variety of answers, ranging from 20 to 1,000 years. So we have to differentiate between two types of robots.

A Crack in the Edge of the World
by Simon Winchester
Published 9 Oct 2006

Eldridge Moores, one of the great discoverers of the processes that led to the making of the American West, is shown here in suitably heroic pose, with a sequence of ophiolites, the key to the mystery, spread out before him. to the structural peculiarities there that led to all the San Francisco earthquakes, culminating in the disastrous event of 1906. Professor Moores remembers the moment of his realization only too well. It was 20 December 1969, and he was in Pacific Grove, California, at the Asilomar Conference Center. He was listening, fascinated, halfway through a session of the second of the annual Penrose Conferences that the Geological Society of America now holds to ruminate on the most important new developments in earth science.* At this legendary gathering ‘the full import of the plate tectonic revolution burst on the participants like a dam failure’, he later wrote.

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Everything was being answered by this devastatingly simple notion: that plates floated about on top of the plastic mantle and collided with one another, scraped alongside one another, broke into pieces or welled up under the influence of the immense heat from below. The ‘marvelous dance of the plates’ is how one of the conferees put it, with the rapture of the collective Eureka! It was, reflected Moores, ‘one of the most exciting moments of my life’, and everyone else at this most remarkable gathering of geologists appears to have felt the same. Asilomar was a turning-point in science like few had ever known. His own moment came as he was listening to the conference convener, Bill Dickinson, presenting his summary. Moores had drifted off message for a moment, thinking about a discussion the previous evening about just where the world’s ophiolite sequences were, when, ‘in a blinding flash of insight, it came to me’.

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Copyright 1956 Robert Frost Index Page references for maps and illustrations are in italics 1906 26–32 1906 earthquake xxv–xxvii, 32–3 books on 371–3 Chinatown 299–301 as divine intervention 304–5, 309–10, 311 effect on San Francisco’s supremacy 301–3 epicentre 149–52 eyewitness reports xxviii–xxxvi, 213–23 felt map 231 fire 261–71, 270 human response 272–93 insurance companies 293–9 maritime reports 223–5 measurement 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240–45 Olema 144–7, 146 outer areas 225–32 physical damage 245, 248–61 Adams, Ansel 23, 258, 259, 265 Adams, Henry 116 African Plate 36, 38 Agassiz, Louis 114, 248, 250 Agnew’s State Hospital for the Insane, Santa Clara 228 Aiken, Charles 209 Alaska 89, 337–40, 346, 350–51 Alaska Highway 341–5 Alcatraz 226, 312 Alliance 223 Althing 43 Amarillo, Texas 107, 112, 117 American Commonwealth, The (Bryce) 88 Ames, Frank 221 Amherst, Massachusetts 63 Anaheim 230 Anchorage 339, 340, 347–8 Anderson, J. 367 Angel Island 225–6, 312, 314–19, 318 Angmagssalik 47, 50 animals 213 Annalen der Physik 26 Annals of San Francisco 180, 191, 193 Annsville Event 63, 71 Antarctic 59 Antarctic Plate 36 Appraisers’ Building 281 ‘April’ (Watson) 1 Arctica 57, 58, 59, 61, 62 Ardsley, New York 85, 86 Argo 223–4 Argonaut 250–51 Armstrong, Neil xvii, xviii–xix, xxi art 319–24 aseismic creep 156 Asilomar Penrose 125–6 asperities 244 Assan, Marcelle 208, 210 Assembling California (McPhee) 126 asthenosphere 52 Atherton, Gertrude 319 Atlantic Ocean 46, 61 Atlantica 58, 59, 60 atmospheric pressure 355 Auden, W. H. 27 Audion 28 Azusa Street, Los Angeles 230, 305, 308–10, 308 Babes in Toyland (Herbert) 211 Baltica 58, 59, 60 Bam 65 banks 286 Barringer, Mr 109–110 Barrymore, John 209–10, 255 Bartleman, Frank 309–10 Bartlett, Washington 178–9 basalts 45–7, 48 Baudelaire, Charles 7 Bear Flag Revolt 89 Beaufort, Sir Francis 355 Bennett, Sir Courtney 215, 245, 261, 287–8, 301 Berkeley xxviii, xxxii–xxxiv, 105, 241 Berkshires 63 Betjeman, John 29 ‘Bhaja Govindam’ (Sankara) 60–61 Bible 304, 306, 309, 310 Bicknell, Ernest 291–2 Bidwell, John 93, 94–6 Bierce, Ambrose 197, 319 Big Bend 162, 164, 167, 172–3 Blosseville Coast 46, 52 Bohemian Club 320 Bohemians 319–21 Bolt, Bruce 149–50, 151 Bonneville, Benjamin 93 Bosch-Omori seismographs 238 Botanic Garden, The (Darwin) 337 Boyle, James 225 Bradbury, John 78–9 Branner, John 290 Brawley Seismic Zone 172 Brewer, William 21–2, 23 Brewer, Mount 22–3 Bristol’s Recording Voltmeter 235 Brooks, Jared 79 Browne, Sir Thomas xv Browns Park, Colorado 115 Bryce, James 88 Bulletin 197 Burke, William 285–6 Burnett, Peter 102 Burnham, Daniel 202, 324–5 Burnham Plan 202, 324–8 Burns, Robert xv, xix Burns, William 197 Bush, Reverend James 253 Bushveldt Intrusion 47 Butte Record 193 cable cars 188–9, 214 Caldwell, Charles 264 California 10, 23, 85 geology 17–20 history 13, 88–106 California Decorative 322 California Development Company 170 California Powder Works 281–2 California Star 178–9 Call Building 198, 217, 371 camels 165–6 Canada 57–8, 59, 343–5 Cape Ann, Massachusetts 84, 86 Carmel-by-the-Sea 320 Carmen 206, 208–9, 284 Caroline Plate 36 Carquinez Indians 11, 24 Carquinez Strait 11, 24 Carrier, Willis 66 Carrizo Plain 143, 160–62, 166 Caruso, Enrico 206–9, 207, 221, 222–3, 223, 268, 284 Cascadia Subduction Zone 141 Cerro Prieto Geothermal Area 171 chance-medley 221 Charleston xxxi, 62, 64–71, 69, 72, 84 Chiayi Earthquake 4 Chico, California 95–6 Chile 5, 338 chimneys 253–4 China 232–4, 236, 237 Chinatown 103, 190–95, 194, 264, 265, 267–8, 299–301, 312 Chinese 181, 191–5, 225, 311–19, 341 Chinese Exclusion Act 313, 315 chromium 48 Chronicle 326 City Gardens 189 City Hall 198, 252, 276, 277, 326, 327 destruction 218, 250–51, 255–6 ‘City that Will Not Repent, The’ (Vanchel) 174 Civil War 102 Claus Spreckels Building 198, 371 Clemens, Samuel 197 Clemens Well–Fenner–San Francisquito Fault 168 Clinopodium douglasii see yerba buena coal 13–14, 15, 18–19 Cocos Plate 36 Colima 141 Collins, Paul 371–2 Colombia 2, 31 Colorado River 119–21, 170 Colton, Walter 91, 92, 97, 101 Columbia 59, 61 concrete 252–3 Congo 61 construction vulnerability 359–60 continents 45–6, 49–50, 52–5, 56, 57–62 Cook, Constable Jesse B. 216–17, 244 Copeland, Ada 116 coping strategies 265–6 Coquille, Oregon 229–30 Cordilleran Geology 122 corruption 196–7, 251, 327 Cowell, Harry 321 Crater Lake, Oregon 340 Crespi, Juan 169 cribs 186, 187 crimps 186, 187 Crocker, Charles 198 crush zone 136 Daisy Geyser 350, 351 Daly City 146, 150–52, 231 Dana, Richard Henry 91, 98, 177 Darwin, Charles xxiv Darwin, Erasmus 337 Davidson, George xxix–xxx, xxxii, 241 Davis, Richard Harding 210 De Forest, Lee 28 De Young, Charles 326 De Young, Michael 326 ‘Death of King George V’ (Betjeman) 29 Delano, Alonzo 99 Delmonico’s 210 Denali Fault 340, 346, 351 Denny, James 224–5 Diablo, Mount xxviii, 7–17, 8, 19–20, 21–2 Diablo Beacon 21 Dickinson, Bill 126 Dictator, The (Davis) 210 Diego Garcia 83 Dixon, Maynard 320–21 Domengine Formation 13–14, 18–19 Douglas, David 174 Drake, Sir Francis 90 dynamite 281–2 Eagle 191 earthquakes Alaska 337–40, 346, 350–51 Bam 6, 65 California 169 Charleston 62, 64–71, 69 Chiayi 4 Chile 5 Ecuador–Colombia 1–2 Elastic Rebound 153–5 epicentre 144–5, 147–9 intensity 355–63 intraplate events 84–7 Lisbon 32, 33, 33 magnitude 363–9 Meers 83–4 New Madrid 71, 72, 75–7, 77, 79–81 Parkfield 159–60 prediction 84, 332–3 St Lucia 3, 359 San Francisco 173, 204–6, 328–30 San Miguel 130–32 seismographs 232–8, 233 Shemakha 3–4 Sumatran Tsunami 6, 61, 66, 213, 273–4, 333, 338 Tejon 164–7 United States 63–4, 70–71 see also 1906 earthquake EarthScope 158 East Gondwana 59 East Pacific Rise 138, 139 Ecuador 2 Ehlert Triples 235 Einstein, Albert 26–7, 29, 240 El Cabo de San Francisco 2 Elastic Rebound 153–5 EMS-98 (European Macroseismic) Intensity Scale 359–63 epicentre 144–5, 147–52, 244 Euphemia 183 Eurasian Plate 36, 41, 43 Eureka, California 232 Everybody’s Magazine 213 Ewing, James 235 Exclusion Act 313, 315 Fairbanks, Charles 275 fallen building clause 297–8 Farallon Islands 225 Farallon Plate 36, 128, 138–9, 140, 141, 171 Farquhar, Francis 23 faults 139–40 see also San Andreas Fault Filben, Thomas 300 Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company 298–9 fires 184–5, 195, 199–201, 212, 297 1906 earthquake 245, 248–9, 256, 261–71, 270, 276 Fisk, Missouri 79 Flamsteed, John 55 Flaugergues, Honoré 75 Flood, James 198 Forel, François 357, 369 Formosa 4 Fort Sill 81–2, 83 Fort Tejon 164–7 Fremstad, Olive 208 Freud, Sigmund 27 Frost, Robert 204 Funston, Frederick 274–7, 275, 280, 281 gabbro 124 Gadsden Purchase 90 Gaia Theory xviii, 6, 337 Galitzin-Wilip instrument 237 Genthe, Arnold 188, 194, 267–70, 270, 321 Geologic and Geographic Survey of the Fortieth Parallel 113–16 Geologic and Geographic Survey of the Rocky Mountain Area 118–22 Geologic and Geographic Survey of the Territories 112–13 Geologic and Geographic Survey West of the 100th Meridian 116–17 geology xvii, xviii, xx–xxv ophiolites 123–9, 125 surveys 110–23 geysers 113, 350–51, 352 Gieseke, Christy 130–31, 133 Gilbert, Grove Karl xxviii, xxxii–xxxiv, xxxvi, 109, 117, 118, 145, 146, 147, 218 Glenallen, Alaska 345–6 glossolalia 306 Goerlitz, Ernest 221 gold 14, 48, 82, 111 Gold Rush 13, 96–102, 98, 179–83, 190–91 Golden Gate Park 190 Goldstein and Co. 267 Gondwanaland 49, 50, 59, 60, 62 Good Friday Earthquake 337–8, 339 Goodnow, New York 85 Gorda Plate 36, 140 Gracie S. 224 Grady, Constable Michael 217 Grand Banks Earthquake, 1929 85, 86 Grand Canyon 119–21, 122 Grant, Ulysses S. 113 Great Comet 75 Great Western Surveys 112–23 Greely, Major-General Adolphus Washington 274, 275, 276, 279 green rocks 127 Greenland 44–9, 50, 52, 55, 57, 59, 61 Gregori–Hosgri Fault 140 Grenada 3 Gunn, Lewis 101 Haines Junction, Yukon 344 Hall of Justice 276, 277, 281 Hamburg-Bremen Company 299 Hansen, Gladys 291–2 Harbor View Camp 283 Harding, Warren G. 207 Harlocker, Judge 229–30 Harte, Bret 12, 14, 197, 319 Hay, John 116 Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer 112–13 Hayes Valley Fire (Ham and Eggs Fire) 263 Hayward Fault 173, 205, 332 Hearst, William Randolph 209 Heath, Cuthbert Eden 295–7, 296 Hecker, Dr 235 Heimaey 42 Hekla 42 Herbert, Victor 211 Hertz, Alfred 222 Hewitt, Fred xxviii, xxxiv–xxxv, xxxvi Holy Bible 304, 306, 309, 310 hoodlums 187, 195 Hopkins, Mark 198, 200 Hopper, James Marie 213 horizontal cut 298 Hotaling, A.

Fodor's California 2014
by Fodor's
Published 5 Nov 2013

Coast Guard memorabilia. | Asilomar Ave., between Lighthouse Ave. and Del Monte Blvd. | 93950 | 831/648–3176 | www.pointpinos.org | $2 suggested donation | Thur.–Mon. 1–4. Beaches Asilomar State Beach. A beautiful coastal area, Asilomar State Beach stretches between Point Pinos and the Del Monte Forest. The 100 acres of dunes, tidal pools, and pocket-size beaches form one of the region’s richest areas for marine life—including surfers, who migrate here most winter mornings. Leashed dogs are allowed on the beach. Amenities: none. Best for: sunrise; sunset; surfing; walking. | Sunset Dr. and Asilomar Ave. | 831/646–6440 | www.parks.ca.gov.

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AMERICAN | Grilled marinated rabbit, roasted half chicken, filet mignon, and other meats are the focus at this café, which serves hearty European-inspired food in a casual, open-kitchen setting. | Average main: $20 | 1199 Forest Ave. | 93950 | 831/655–0324 | www.tastecafebistro.com | Closed Sun.–Mon. Where to Stay Asilomar Conference Grounds. RESORT | On 107 acres in a state park, Asilomar stands among evergreen woods on the edge of a wild beach. Thirteen of the 30 buildings at the former YWCA retreat were designed by Julia Morgan between 1913 and 1928. The complex mostly serves groups and conferences, and a stay here may bring back fond memories of summer camp: there are games in the social hall, campfires outside, and paved paths between the buildings.

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Standards are the sea garden salads topped with your choice of fish and the fried seafood plates with fresh veggies. Diners with large appetites appreciate the fisherman’s bowls—fresh fish served with rice, black beans, spicy cabbage, salsa, vegetables, and crispy tortilla strips. | Average main: $22 | 1996½ Sunset Dr., at Asilomar Blvd. | 93950 | 831/375–7107 | www.fishwife.com. Joe Rombi’s La Mia Cucina. ITALIAN | Pasta, fish, steaks, and chops are the specialties at this modern trattoria, which is the best in town for Italian food. The look is spare and clean, with colorful antique wine posters decorating the white walls.

Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A. I. To Google, Facebook, and the World
by Cade Metz
Published 15 Mar 2021

Then he took it to extremes. The Future of Life Institute was less than a year old in the fall of 2014 when it invited this growing community to a private summit in Puerto Rico. Led by an MIT cosmologist and physicist named Max Tegmark, it aimed to create a meeting of the minds along the lines of the Asilomar conference, a seminal 1975 gathering where the world’s leading geneticists discussed whether their work—gene editing—would end up destroying humanity. The invitation the institute sent included two photos: one showing the beach in San Juan, the other showing some poor soul shoveling through a snowdrift that had buried a Volkswagen Beetle somewhere in colder climes (meaning: “At the beginning of January, you will be much happier in Puerto Rico”).

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Although researchers like Sutskever were initially reticent about voicing their views, Elon Musk did not hold back. Nor did the lab’s other chairman: Sam Altman. In the first days of 2017, the Future of Life Institute held another summit, this one in a tiny town on the central coast of California called Pacific Grove. Pacific Grove was home to Asilomar, the sprawling rustic hotel among the evergreens where the world’s leading geneticists gathered in the winter of 1975 to discuss whether their work in gene editing would end up destroying the world. Now AI researchers gathered in the same beachside grove to discuss, once again, whether AI posed the same existential risk.

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“If there is ever to be something approaching absolute power”: Ibid. when it invited this growing community to a private summit: Max Tegmark, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (New York: Random House, 2017). it aimed to create a meeting of the minds along the lines of the Asilomar conference: Ibid. Musk took the stage to discuss the threat of an intelligence explosion: Robert McMillan, “AI Has Arrived, and That Really Worries the World’s Brightest Minds,” Wired, January 16, 2015, https://www.wired.com/2015/01/ai-arrived-really-worries-worlds-brightest-minds/. That, he said, was the big risk: Ibid.

American Foundations: An Investigative History
by Mark Dowie
Published 3 Oct 2009

Speech to 1999 Annual Meeting of Environmental Grantmakers Association, Asilomar, California. 11. Author interview with Tim Hermack. 12. Brian Tokar, Earth For Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwasb (Boston, South End Press, 1997), p. 28. 13. Interview with Tim Hermack. 14. Tokar, Earth For Sale, p. 28. 15. Pew Charitable Trusts, Annual Report 1994, p. 17 (cited by Brian Tokar in Earth for Sale, p. 28). 16. E-mail from Jim Britell. 17. Speech to 1999 Annual Meeting of Environmental Grantmakers Association, Asilomar, California. Chapter Six 1. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization figures (cited in the Rockefeller Foundation's 1997 "Agricultural Sciences Program Overview," Rockefeller Foundation Archives. 2.

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It does not share the council's view of foundations as public trusts, and most members were repulsed by the 1977 council proclamation that foundation endowments were "not our money but charity's." 23. Emmet D. Carson, "Grantmakers in Search of a Holy Grail," Foundation News and Commentary (January/February 2000): 26. 24. Speech to Environmental Grantmakers, October 1999, Asilomar, California. Epilogue 1. Waldemar A. Nielsen, Inside American Philanthropy: The Drama of Donorship (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1996), p. 125. 2. Quotes from a recorded conversation between Vincent McGee and Susan Beresford, president of the Ford Foundation. 3. Quoted in Kenneth Danforth, "Out With a Bang," Foundation News (January/February 1993): 24. 4.

Frommer's California 2007
by Harry Basch , Mark Hiss , Erika Lenkert and Matthew Richard Poole
Published 6 Dec 2006

The modern $11-million, 37,000square-foot museum features interactive exhibits, a gallery of changing exhibitions, an orientation theater with a short video on Steinbeck’s life, educational programs, a gift The Monterey Peninsula Point Pinos Cannery Row 3 9 Carmel Beach City Park 15 Carmel Mission 16 Lovers Point 6 un s et D r Asilomar Blvd Links at Spanish Bay 11
S Monterey Peninsula CALIFORNIA Los Angeles PACIFIC OCEAN Spanish Bay Marine Gardens Park 7 Monterey Bay Aquarium 4 Asilomar State Beach Spanish Bay Golf Course and Resort Point Joe 17 11 i -M Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course 8 le S l o at Rd. Path of History 2 Cypress Point Cypress Point Clubhouse Golf Course Lake Clubhouse Sunridge R d.

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Steak and pasta dishes are also available, and all main courses come with vegetables, bread, black beans, and rice or potatoes. The kids menu features smaller portions for less than $6. 19961⁄2 Sunset Dr. (at Asilomar Beach). & 831/375-7107. www.fishwife.com. Main courses $9.50–$18. AE, DISC, MC, V. Mon–Sat 11am–10pm; Sun 10am–10pm. From Hwy. 1, take the Pacific Grove exit (Hwy. 68) and stay left until it becomes Sunset Dr.; the restaurant will be on your left about 1 mile ahead as you approach Asilomar Beach. MEXICAN/LATIN AMERICAN Peppers is a casual, festive place with good food at reasonable prices. The inviting dining room has wooden floors and tables, lots of pepper art, and a perpetual crowd of regulars who come to suck up beers and savor spicy but well-balanced seafood tacos and fajitas or house-made tamales and chiles rellenos.

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An excellent shorter alternative, or complement, to the 17-mile Drive (see “Pebble Beach & the 17-mile Drive,” below) is the scenic drive or bike ride along Pacific Grove’s Ocean View Boulevard . This coastal stretch starts near Monterey’s Cannery Row and follows the Pacific around to the lighthouse point. Here it turns into Sunset Drive, which runs along secluded Asilomar State Beach (& 831/648-3130). Park on Sunset and explore the trails, dunes, and tide pools of this sandy shoreline. You might find purple shore crabs, green anemone, sea bats, starfish, limpets, and all kinds of kelp and algae. The 11 buildings of the conference center established here by the YWCA in 1913 are landmarks, designed by noted architect Julia Morgan.

Fast Times at Fairmont High
by Vernor Vinge
Published 1 Nov 2001

She'd do good work on any team. I've been watching her." That last was news to Juan. Aloud he said, "I know she has a stupid brother over in senior high." "Heh! William the Goofus? He is a dud, but he's not really her brother, either. No, Miri Gu is smart and tough. Did you know she grew up at Asilomar?" "In a detention camp?" "Yup. Well, she was only a baby. But her parents knew just a bit too much." That had happened to lots of Chinese-Americans during the war, the ones who knew the most about military technologies. But it was also ancient history. Bertie was being more shocking than informative.

Frommer's California 2009
by Matthew Poole , Harry Basch , Mark Hiss and Erika Lenkert
Published 2 Jan 2009

The Monterey Peninsula Point Pinos Cannery Row 3 9 Fisherman's Wharf 1 Links at Spanish Bay 11 Lovers Point 6 Monterey Peninsula Su nset Dr Sacramento San Francisco CA LIFORNIA Los Angeles PACIFIC OCEAN Spanish Bay Marine Gardens Park 7 Monterey Bay Aquarium 4 Asilomar State Beach Spanish Bay Golf Course and Resort . 10 Dr Point Joe 1 Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course 8 Asilomar Carmel River State Beach 18 11 D r. 17 -M il e Carmel Mission 16 Blvd Carmel Beach City Park 15 le Mi 7- Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History 5 t Sloa Rd. Path of History 2 ck Bird Rock Sunset Point ake Sunridge Rd. Clubhouse Dr .

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Moderate The Fishwife at Asilomar Beach Kids SEAFOOD The restaurant dates from the 1830s, when a sailor ’s wife star ted a small food mar ket that became famous for its Boston clam chowder. Today locals still return for the soup as w ell as some of the finest seafood in Pacific Grove (everyone raves about this casual, affordable place). Two bestsellers are calamari steak sautéed with shallots, garlic, tomatoes, and white wine; and Cajun catfish topped with salsa brav a. All main courses come with v egetables, br ead, black beans, and rice or potatoes. 19961/2 Sunset Dr. (at Asilomar Beach). & 831/375-7107. www.fishwife.com.

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An excellent shorter alternative, or complement, to 17-Mile Drive (see “Pebble Beach & 17-Mile Drive,” later) is the scenic drive or bike ride along Pacific Grove’s Ocean View Boulevard . This coastal stretch starts near Monterey’s Cannery Row and follows the Pacific around to the lighthouse point. Here it turns into Sunset Drive, which runs along secluded Asilomar State Beach (& 831/648-5730). Park on Sunset and explore the trails, dunes, and tide pools of this sandy shor eline. You might find purple shor e crabs, green anemone, sea bats, starfish, limpets, and all kinds of kelp and algae. The 11 buildings of the confer ence center established her e b y the YWCA in 1913 ar e landmar ks, designed by noted architect Julia Morgan.

Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks
by Susan Casey
Published 29 May 2006

—CHARLES WARREN STODDARD, WITH THE EGG PICKERS OF THE FARALLONES, 1881 OCTOBER 10–11, 2003 The ocean is filled with unfinished stories: endings with unknown beginnings, blind guesses where there are usually facts. On a blustery and frigid December day in 1981, the nineteenth to be exact, a yellow surfboard washed ashore at Asilomar Beach, near Monterey. Two men, who happened by on their way to do some surfing of their own, stumbled across it. The board sent a ghastly message: A massive, ragged half circle had been ripped from its center. And its provenance was all too well known: It had belonged to a twenty-four-year-old surfer named Lewis Boren, who had last been seen taking advantage of a fifteen-foot storm swell, surfing by himself just north of Pebble Beach.

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(There’s one downside to the larger boat, however: The sharks aren’t as likely to approach it.) Groth himself has been spending much of his time in Guadalupe, where the water is a crystal-clear seventy degrees, and clients sign up for three-thousand-dollar weeklong trips in the sunshine. Everyone continues to surf. Yesterday, in fact, Kevin had ridden waves at Asilomar, near the site of Lewis Boren’s attack, and had a fantastic session despite a near closeout, with surf breaking close to the beach. Sidelined for most of the fall after slipping in his boat and bruising a rib while trying to tag a shark, Scot says he intends to make up for lost time when the season winds down.

Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner
by Po Bronson
Published 14 Jul 2020

His colleagues urged him to pause his work and convene a conference to discuss it. Berg listened to his peers. The now-legendary Asilomar Conference was held in Monterey, California, in February 1975. One hundred forty people showed up, most of them scientists, but also lawyers and ethicists. Biohazard principles were established. Risk-assessment protocols were implemented, and risk-containment strategies were endorsed. The following year, Genentech was founded to usher in the era of recombinant genetic engineering. Berg would go on to share the Nobel Prize in 1980. The Asilomar Conference happened shortly after President Richard Nixon resigned because of the Watergate scandal.

Faster, Higher, Farther: How One of the World's Largest Automakers Committed a Massive and Stunning Fraud
by Jack Ewing
Published 22 May 2017

Adding to the pressure, CARB obtained a 2016 model Volkswagen and began making plans to test it, raising the risk that the regulators would make further damaging discoveries. Volkswagen had run out of excuses. On August 18, Johnson approached Ayala at an industry conference they both attended in Pacific Grove, California, organized by the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis. The gathering took place at a resort known as Asilomar, set amid dunes and pine forests adjacent to a broad sandy beach on the Monterey Peninsula. It is a congenial place for a meeting, offering rustic wood and stone buildings clad in weathered shingles. The attendees included experts from government and academia as well as people from the auto industry.

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Bosch was a cosponsor. That day Johnson admitted to Ayala that the Volkswagens contained a defeat device. Johnson, who apparently made the confession despite orders from above not to, also informed Christopher Grundler, the director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the EPA, who was also at Asilomar. Ayala was furious, and he let Johnson know it. He allows he might have used a few obscenities. For well over a year, CARB had been giving Volkswagen the benefit of the doubt, expending countless hours to solve what the company insisted was a technical problem. Now Ayala realized that Volkswagen had knowingly squandered California taxpayer dollars.

Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
by Marc Goodman
Published 24 Feb 2015

One such case was the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, which was held at Asilomar State Beach in Monterey, California. The event gathered 140 biologists, lawyers, ethicists, and physicians to discuss the potential biohazards of emerging DNA technologies and drew up voluntary safety guidelines. As a result of the event, scientists agreed to stop experiments involving mixing the DNA from different organisms—research at the time that held the potential to have radical, poorly understood, and potentially disastrous consequences. The lessons and successes of Asilomar are well worth repeating.

Innovation and Its Enemies
by Calestous Juma
Published 20 Mar 2017

Questioning Science Regulatory uncertainties plagued genetic engineering from the beginning, but the scientific community self-regulated those concerns in many instances, understanding the potential dangers genetic engineering posed to the public and to science. Genetic engineering’s transformative power was evident from the time the gene-cloning technique was developed in 1973 by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen. Two years later, participants at the 1975 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA called for a voluntary moratorium on genetic engineering to allow the National Institutes of Health to develop safety guidelines for what some feared might be risky experiments. By being proactive, the scientific community took responsibility for designing safety guidelines that were themselves guided by the best available scientific knowledge and principles.

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See Koran, printing of Arab Spring, 91 Archery, 15 Argentina Bt cotton in, 234 genetically edited crops regulation, 254 transgenic organisms, dispute over, 241 Armenians, as printers in Istanbul, 81–82 Al’Arraq, Muhammad ibn, 50 Arthur, W. Brian, 22, 319n5 Artificial ice industry, 197 Artificial intelligence, 13, 199, 281, 284 Artists, relationship with technology, 223 Asbestos, 31 Asia. See also specific countries agricultural systems in, 253 transgenic crops, response to, 251 Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, 236 Assemblies, technology as collections of, 22–23 Associations. See names of specific organizations and associations Atatürk, Kemal, 89 Attaix (current-generating device manufacturer), 38–39 Attitudes, as barriers to technological innovation, 33, 36 Audiffren (refrigerator brand), 190 Audio recording system, magnetic, 41–42 Auerbach, Junius T., 186 Austin, Samuel, 176 Australia, genetically edited crops in, 234, 254 Authority, technological innovation and, 30–31, 71 Automation, 14, 281, 283–284.

Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety
by Marion Nestle
Published 1 Jan 2010

In looking at these issues, we will see that despite protestations of industry and government to the contrary, it is impossible to separate science from politics in matters related to the safety of these foods. HEALTH CONCERNS When scientists first discovered how to move genes from one organism to another, they wondered whether such manipulations could be harmful to health or to the environment. In 1975, researchers met in Asilomar, California, to review the potential hazards of genetic manipulations. To prevent unanticipated problems that might emerge from the new recombinant DNA techniques, they proposed stringent research guidelines. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) soon required recipients of its research grants to follow such guidelines.

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See USDA Agrobacteria, 301, 331n35 Alcohol, 35, 56 Alexander, Stuart, 111 Allergic reactions, 2, 3, 4–5, 9–11, 13, 14, 16–17, 19–20, 25, 142, 172–76, 192, 208, 241, 243 Alliance for Bio-Integrity, 244 Alliance for Food Security, 269 Alto Dairy, 89 American Cancer Society, 29 American Cheese Society, 128, 323n38 American Corn Growers Association, 224, 245 American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), 24, 123 American Dietetic Association, 120, 165 American Federation of Government Employees, 108 American Meat Institute, 71, 76, 77, 81, 82, 83, 91, 100, 124, 134, 254, 295 American Medical Association, 206 American Public Health Association (APHA), 66–67, 76, 80–81, 106, 271–72 American Seed Trade Association, 4 American Veterinary Medical Association, 295 Amino acids, 9, 147, 174, 183–84, 185, 196, 198, 300, 301, 331n35, 343n5 See also Tryptophan Anemia, 160 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), 56, 58 Animal feed, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 43, 47, 56, 113, 146, 147, 151, 174, 175, 251–55, 288 Animal rights, 200, 229 Animals as carriers of pathogens, 29, 34, 37, 42, 43, 44–48, 52, 62, 250–57, 342n4 cattle, 25, 28, 40, 41, 42, 44–45 (See also Cattle, infected) poultry, 34, 37, 46, 54, 57–59, 95, 115, 134 Anthrax, 25, 33, 126, 248, 249, 250, 257–60, 265, 301, 344n23 Antibiotics, 176–77 farm animals treated with, 43, 46–48, 113, 176, 177, 179, 199, 259, 295 and protection against anthrax, 258–60 resistance to and genetically modified products, 142, 176–79, 192, 221, 229, 238, 243 microbial, 19, 41, 43, 45–47, 118, 127–28, 176, 199, 259, 265, 279, 294–95, 301 Antitrust laws, 232, 244 APHA v. Butz, 66–67, 76, 80–81, 106 Archer Daniels Midland, 8 Argentina, 150, 237, 238, 239, 240 Armour company, 90 Army, U.S., 122 Arsenic, 136 Arthritis, 40 Artisanal cheese, 128 Asilomar conference on biotechnology, 171 AstraZeneca, 159–60 Australia, 109, 238, 239 Austria, 238, 278 Aventis CropScience, 2–8, 11–14, 16, 139, 234, 260 Azteca Milling, 6, 8 Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), 3, 6, 151, 180–81, 183, 196, 207, 216–19, 220, 301 Bacteria genetically modified, 139 mutations in, 184 Bacteria, foodborne, 27, 28, 35, 36, 37, 40–42, 57–59 antibiotic-resistant, 19, 41, 45–47, 118, 127–28, 176–77, 199 and safe handling labels, 66–67, 76–77, 82, 83, 90 spread by processing practices, 49, 50, 117–20 spread by production practices, 43, 44–45 and warning labels, 66–67, 98–99 See also Microbes, foodborne; names of bacterial species Bayer, 5, 259, 260 Bayer CropScience, 260 Beachy, Roger, 151, 326n13 Beef ground, 29, 40, 45, 77, 78, 81–84, 97, 101, 102, 104, 125, 283, 284, 286, 288–90, 294–95 imported, 114 irradiated, 122–26, 136 nonintact, 103 rare, 29, 35 See also Hamburger Beef America, 101 Beef industry accountability of, 83, 124, 129 and cattle diseases, 44–45, 135, 187, 249, 250–57, 289 government alliance with, 62, 63, 65, 70–71, 74, 84, 253, 255 government influenced by, 31, 46, 76, 77, 79–80, 91–92, 94 through lobbying, 62, 64, 65, 71, 79, 80, 91, 118 government inspection of, 50–54, 59, 65–66, 70, 71–72, 73, 79, 80–84, 86, 87, 100, 101, 107–11, 134, 136, 257 government regulation of, 62, 63, 65–67, 74–76, 80–84, 283 and fragmentation of regulatory authority, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 70 by HACCP, 63, 67–71, 68, 69, 75, 75, 76, 81, 84–85, 86–92, 94–99, 104–10, 112 largest producer in, 79, 101 and recalls of food products, 53, 87, 100–102, 121, 123, 288–90, 294–95 and resistance to government regulation, 28, 63, 65, 70, 71, 72, 76–77, 82–84, 86, 92, 94, 97, 103–7, 110–12, 120, 295 responsibility denied by, 63, 73, 75–76, 102, 103, 110, 112, 124, 136 and safe handling labels, 66–67, 76–78, 78 and science-based approach, 63 See also Meat processing Beef Packers, Inc., 294 Beets, 278 Belgium, 3, 4, 7, 47 Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, 198, 200, 203–4, 204 Berkeley.

Your Computer Is on Fire
by Thomas S. Mullaney , Benjamin Peters , Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip
Published 9 Mar 2021

Is a Many-Splendored Thing: An Interpretation and Design Methodology for Message-Driven Games Using Graphical Logics,” in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (Asilomar, CA, 2010); Joseph C. Osborn, Dylan Lederle-Ensign, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, and Michael Mateas, “Combat in Games,” in Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (Asilomar, CA, 2015); Joseph C. Osborn, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, and Michael Mateas, “Refining Operational Logics,” in Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (Cape Cod, MA, 2017); Noah Wardrip-Fruin, “Beyond Shooting and Eating: Passage, Dys4ia, and the Meanings of Collision,” Critical Inquiry 45, no. 1 (September 1, 2018): 137–167.

The Passenger
by AA.VV.
Published 23 May 2022

When the van stopped, the boys hopped out. They went around to the trunk, grabbed their backpacks off the built-in clothing hooks, hugged their parents, and walked through the front gate of their elementary school. * Traveling the length of Route 68, a twenty-mile (thirty-kilometer) road running from Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove to South Main Street in downtown Salinas, is like going from one version of California to another. On the Monterey Peninsula side of the “lettuce curtain” (as the invisible barrier separating Salinas from richer neighboring towns is often called) are exclusive beach communities, famous golf courses such as Pebble Beach, and a thriving tourism industry; at the opposite end of the highway, a working-class city with a poverty rate well above the state average.

Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines
by Richard Heinberg and James Howard (frw) Kunstler
Published 1 Sep 2007

The essay was later published in the anthology Living a Life of Value, edited by Jason A. Merchey.16 “Fifty Million Farmers” is the edited text of a speech delivered in November, 2006 to the E. F. Schumacher Society (which has published the full version).17 Over the past few months I have offered essentially the same message to the Ecological Farming Association in Asilomar, California, the National Farmers Union of Canada in Saskatoon, and the Soil Association in Cardiff, Wales. Each time I discussed the likely impacts of Peak Oil and gas for modern agriculture, and emphasized the need for dramatic, rapid reform in our global food system. “Five Axioms of Sustainability” came from many years of frustration over the widespread, careless use of the terms sustainable and sustainability.

Architects of Intelligence
by Martin Ford
Published 16 Nov 2018

MARTIN FORD: There’s a step-change, though, between real risks and existential risks. RAY KURZWEIL: Well, we’ve also done reasonably well with existential risks from information technology. Forty years ago, a group of visionary scientists saw both the promise and the peril of biotechnology, neither of which was close at hand at the time, and they held the first Asilomar Conference on biotechnology ethics. These ethical standards and strategies have been updated on a regular basis. That has worked very well. The number of people who have been harmed by intentional or accidental abuse or problems with biotechnology has been close to zero. We’re now beginning to get the profound benefit that I alluded to, and that’s going to become a flood over the next decade.

…

That’s a success for this approach of comprehensive ethical standards, and technical strategies on how to keep the technology safe, and much of that is now baked into law. That doesn’t mean we can cross danger from biotechnology off our list of concerns; we keep coming up with more powerful technologies like CRISPR and we have to keep reinventing the standards. We had our first AI ethics Asilomar conference about 18 months ago where we came up with a set of ethical standards. I think they need further development, but it’s an overall approach that can work. We have to give it a high priority. MARTIN FORD: The concern that’s really getting a lot of attention right now is what’s called the control problem or the alignment problem, where a superintelligence might not have goals that are aligned with what’s best for humanity.

12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next
by Jeanette Winterson
Published 15 Mar 2021

* * * Musk was part of the 2017 Future of Life Institute conference that aimed to build a set of aims for current AI use – and, later, AGI. The Boston-based Future of Life Institute was set up by Max Tegmark, a professor of Physics at MIT and author of several books about AI, and Jaan Tallinn – founding engineer of Skype. Over a weekend at the Asilomar conference centre in California, 100 or so scientists, lawyers, thinkers, economists, tech gurus and computer scientists put together 23 principles to guide AI development. These are a significant advancement on Isaac Asimov’s famous Three Laws of Robotics, that first appeared in his 1942 short story ‘Runaround’: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

California
by Sara Benson
Published 15 Oct 2010

With a gray whale sculpture out front, PG’s Museum of Natural History (Map; 831-648-5716; www.pgmuseum.org; 165 Forest Ave; admission free; 10am-5pm Tue-Sat; ) has old-fashioned exhibits about Big Sur, Native American tribes, sea otters, coastal bird life and butterflies. It’s often overrun by schoolkids. Sleeping Modest motels cluster at the western end of Lighthouse Ave. B&Bs have taken over many historic mansions around downtown and by the beach. Asilomar Conference Grounds (Map; 831-372-8016, 866-654-2878; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave; d $105-195; ) Sprawling over more than 100 acres of sand dunes and pine forests, this state-park conference center is a find. Skip ho-hum motel rooms for historic houses designed by early-20th-century architect Julia Morgan, where cozy, hardwood-floored rooms share a sociable fireplace lounge.

…

On the tip of the Monterey Peninsula, at the northwestern end of Lighthouse Ave, humble-looking Point Pinos Lighthouse (Map; 831-648-5716; adult/child $2/1; 1-4pm Thu-Mon) is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast. It has been warning ships off this hazardous point since 1855. Inside are exhibits on its history and its failures – local shipwrecks. It’s an excellent spot for whale-watching from December to April. The lighthouse grounds overlook the Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links (Map; 831-648-5775; 77 Asilomar Ave; greens fees $20-45), where black-tailed deer freely range. If you’re in town during monarch season (roughly October to March), the best place to see them cluster by the millions is at the Monarch Grove Sanctuary (Map; 831-648-5716; Ridge Rd; admission free; dawn-dusk), a thicket of trees off Lighthouse Ave.

…

It’s an easy stroll over to the beach, or you can borrow a bicycle for free; some rooms even have decks overlooking the dunes. Rates include an extended continental breakfast. The famous seafood restaurant next door (with different owners) is only so-so. Sunset Inn Hotel (Map; 831-375-3529; www.gosunsetinn.com; 133 Asilomar Blvd; d $159-229) At this small motor lodge near the golf course and the beach, the attentive staff will check you into luxuriously redesigned rooms that have king-sized beds. Some are equipped with hot tubs and fireplaces. Wi-fi in common areas. Centrella Inn (Map; 831-372-3372, 800-233-3372; www.centrellainn.com; 612 Central Ave; d $149-309; wi-fi) For a romantic night inside a Victorian seaside mansion, this turreted National Historic Landmark is dreamy, with enchanting gardens and a player piano.

Jim Henson: The Biography
by Brian Jay Jones
Published 23 Sep 2013

For now, she would remain an active performer for as long as she could—and would always stay involved with the company even as she devoted herself nearly full-time to the children. But with the Muppets showing no signs of waning in popularity—and Jim increasingly anxious to expand into other media—Jim was going to need help sooner rather than later. That summer, Jim, one-year-old Lisa, and a very pregnant Jane made the trip to the Puppeteers of America convention in Asilomar, California, driving out this time in a much more comfortable but significantly less flashy station wagon. While Jim didn’t necessarily regard this as a recruiting trip, he was always interested in watching others perform and making contacts. His trip to the Detroit convention had sparked a professional friendship with Burr Tillstrom and led him to Bernie Brillstein.

…

At age fourteen, then, he had joined Lettie Schubert’s traveling Vagabond Puppets team at the Oakland Recreation Department, then performed regularly—and without pay—at Fairyland Amusement Park, where he struck up a friendship with a young man named Jerry Juhl, five years his senior, and an equally talented performer who had lately become a regular in the Oznowicz home “salon.” Oz had come to the Asilomar convention mainly to perform with Juhl and another Vagabond puppeteer in a show Juhl had written called The Witch Who Stole Thursday; he also wanted to participate in a talent contest, which, predictably, he won. While his parents had met Jim in Detroit a year earlier, Oz knew nothing about him, though he was slightly familiar with the Muppets, thanks to the Wilkins and Wontkins commercials Jim had produced for the regional carbonated drink CalSo.

The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
by Ray Kurzweil
Published 14 Jul 2005

Gene engineering, however, has the potential to bypass these evolutionary protections by suddenly introducing new pathogens for which we have no protection, natural or technological. The prospect of adding genes for deadly toxins to easily transmitted, common viruses such as the common cold and flu introduced another possible existential-risk scenario. It was this prospect that led to the Asilomar conference to consider how to deal with such a threat and the subsequent drafting of a set of safety and ethics guidelines. Although these guidelines have worked thus far, the underlying technologies for genetic manipulation are growing rapidly in sophistication. In 2003 the world struggled, successfully, with the SARS virus.

…

As I mentioned above, the Foresight Institute, as one example, has devised a set of ethical standards and strategies for assuring the development of safe nanotechnology, based on guidelines for biotechnology.43 When gene-splicing began in 1975 two biologists, Maxine Singer and Paul Berg, suggested a moratorium on the technology until safety concerns could be addressed. It seemed apparent that there was substantial risk if genes for poisons were introduced into pathogens, such as the common cold, that spread easily. After a ten-month moratorium guidelines were agreed to at the Asilomar conference, which included provisions for physical and biological containment, bans on particular types of experiments, and other stipulations. These biotechnology guidelines have been strictly followed, and there have not been reported accidents in the thirty-year history of the field. More recently, the organization representing the world's organ transplantation surgeons has adopted a moratorium on the transplantation of vascularized animal organs into humans.

Parks Directory of the United States
by Darren L. Smith and Kay Gill
Published 1 Jan 2004

Today, only remnant parcels of this woodland community remain in the valley; most of it was cleared for farming and housing. ★1519★ ASILOMAR STATE BEACH & CONFERENCE GROUNDS c/o Monterey District Office 2211 Garden Rd Monterey, CA 93940 Web: www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=566 Phone: 831-646-6440 Size: 107 acres. Location: Adjacent to Sunset Drive in Pacific Grove. Facilities: Beach, conference center (including meeting halls, 314 guest rooms, and dining facilities), hiking trails, nature trails (uu). Activities: Fishing, hiking, wildlife viewing. Special Features: Asilomar Beach is a narrow one-mile strip of ★1522★ AZALEA STATE RESERVE c/o North Coast Redwoods District Office PO Box 2006 Eureka, CA 95502 Web: www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?

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State Parks 313 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 239 110 1 63 194 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 103 96 48 173 245 2 128 143 16 9 80 255 10 11 12 224 93 199 13 5 104 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 260 19 227 228 263 101 233 68 132 134 314 32 147 236 59 137 232 75 56 163 3 222 37 133 17 201 15 206 251 140 169 240 52 161 San Francisco 171 5 40 187 192 202 50 680 119 49 5 91 215 235 43 85 139 214 141 248 13 186 148 223 158 205 102 153 152 86 190 185 38 253 170 219 164 100 257 88 101 162 149 247 144 San Jose 79 175 126 26 196 580 44 95 179 34 58 22 31 25 107 84 112 191 18 94 36 64 30 209 33 213 73 20 90 151 Sacramento 21 159 69 65 193 230 208 252 78 6 176 25 26 27 28 29 122 142 77 69 234 109 229 Lake Tahoe 262 11 82 14 70 238 80 29 117 7 116 154 203 92 120 55 113 146 249 99 23 1 256 46 183 24 Admiral William Standley SRA Ahjumawi Lava Springs SP Anderson Marsh SHP Andrew Molera SP Angel Island SP Annadel SP Año Nuevo SR Antelope Valley California Poppy SR Antelope Valley Indian Museum SHP Anza-Borrego Desert SP Armstrong Redwoods SR Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland SP Asilomar SB & Conference Grounds Auburn SRA Austin Creek SRA Azalea SR Bale Grist Mill SHP Bean Hollow SB Benbow Lake SRA Benicia Capitol SHP Benicia SRA Bethany Reservoir SRA Bidwell Mansion SHP Bidwell-Sacramento River SP Big Basin Redwoods SP Bodie SHP Bolsa Chica SB Border Field SP Bothe-Napa Valley SP 264 39 89 123 167 237 C-1 B-3 D-2 H-2 F-2 E-2 G-2 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 I-6 38 I-6 K-8 E-2 J-6 G-2 D-4 E-2 B-1 E-2 F-2 C-1 E-2 E-2 F-3 C-3 C-3 F-2 E-5 K-6 L-7 E-2 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 Brannan Island SRA Burleigh H.

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Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WY). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4283 4284 4396 4397 4441 4440 4442 4439 4495 4496 4494 4537 3056 4536 4653 4654 4704 4705 4775 4776 State Archeological Parks Madira Bickel Mound State Archeological Site (FL). . . . . . . . . . Medicine Lodge State Archaeological Site (WY). . . . . . . . . . . . . Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park (TN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park (TN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1992 4794 4264 4269 State Beaches Asilomar State Beach & Conference Grounds (CA) . . . . . . . . . . Bean Hollow State Beach (CA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bolsa Chica State Beach (CA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cardiff State Beach (CA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity
by Amy Webb
Published 5 Mar 2019

Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Pub. L. No. 106–398, 114 Stat. 1654 (2001). http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-106publ398/html/PLAW-106publ398.htm. French, H. Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin Books, 2012. Future of Life Institute. “Asilomar AI Principles.” Text and signatories available online. https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/. Gaddis, J. L. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. . On Grand Strategy. New York: Penguin Press, 2018. Gilder, G. F., and Ray Kurzweil. Are We Spiritual Machines? Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong AI. edited by Jay Wesley Richards.

Chaos Engineering: System Resiliency in Practice
by Casey Rosenthal and Nora Jones
Published 27 Apr 2020

Sigelman, et al., “Dapper, a Large-Scale Distributed Systems Tracing Infrastructure”, Technical Report (Google), 2010. 4 In Resilience Engineering this concept is known as Safety-II; see Eric Hollnagel’s description: https://oreil.ly/sw5KR. 5 Peter Alvaro, et al., “Automating Failure Testing Research at Internet Scale”, Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Cloud Computing (SoCC 2016), Santa Clara, CA: ACM (October 2016). 6 Lennart Oldenburg et al., “Fixed It For You: Protocol Repair Using Lineage Graphs”, Proceedings of the 9th biennial Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR 2019), Asilomar, CA, 2019. Part IV. Business Factors Chaos Engineering exists to solve a real business need. It was born at Netflix and now has adoption across thousands of companies, a large portion of which are not primarily software companies. This part of the book provides more context about how Chaos Engineering fits into the larger context of business concerns.

Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming
by Mckenzie Funk
Published 22 Jan 2014

House of Representatives, closed-door sessions led by DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency), studies by the Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service, policy statements by the American Meteorological Society and Britain’s Met Office, a design competition by Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an ethics conference at Asilomar, a report by the Rand Corporation, a side event at the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen, funding from the U.K. government for limited field research, a neologism-spawning endorsement (“climate remediation”) from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, and a place in the 2014 IPCC report.

The Scientist as Rebel
by Freeman Dyson
Published 1 Jan 2006

Perhaps they would have acted, if Joseph Rotblat had been there to urge them on. Thirty-six years later, the sudden discovery of recombinant DNA technology presented a challenge to biologists, similar to the challenge which the discovery of fission had presented to physicists. The biologists promptly organized an international meeting at Asilomar, at which they hammered out an agreement to limit and regulate the uses of the dangerous new technology. It took only a few brave spirits, with Maxine Singer in the lead, to formulate a set of ethical guidelines which the international community of biologists accepted. What happened at George Washington University in 1939 was quite different.

The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-First Century
by Ronald Bailey
Published 20 Jul 2015

There is no little irony that today Cambridge promotes itself as “one of the world’s major biotech centers.” Needless to say, more than forty years after gene splicing was invented, no plagues, much less epidemics of infectious cancer, have emerged from the world’s biotech labs. In the context of this furor, some 140 molecular biologists convened in 1975 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, to draft guidelines for conducting gene-splicing experiments. They self-consciously thought that they were avoiding what they saw as the mistakes made a generation earlier by Manhattan Project nuclear physicists when they unleashed the power of the atom.

Western USA
by Lonely Planet

InterContinental–Clement HOTEL $$$ ( 831-375-4500; www.intercontinental.com; 750 Cannery Row; r $200-455; ) Like an upscale version of a millionaire’s seaside clapboard house, this sparkling resort presides over Cannery Row. For utmost luxury, book an ocean-view suite with a balcony and private fireplace, then breakfast in bayfront C Restaurant. Parking $18. Asilomar Conference Grounds LODGE $$ ( 831-372-8016; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave, Pacific Grove; r incl breakfast $115-175; ) Coastal state-park lodge has buildings designed by architect Julia Morgan, of Hearst Castle fame. Historic rooms are small and thin-walled, but charming nonetheless. The lodge’s fireside rec room has ping-pong and pool tables.

The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World
by Oliver Morton
Published 26 Sep 2015

A number of these people – Ken Caldeira, Jim Galloway, David Keith, Ben Kravitz, Tim Kruger, John Latham, Jim Lovelock, David Morrison, Phil Rasch, Matt Watson, Jim Galloway, David Victor – are due extra thanks for reading and commenting on part or all of the book; and particular thanks in this regard go to Olivia Judson, my brother John Morton and Francis Spufford. They all made it better; all the reasons that it is not better still are my own. On top of the opportunities to listen, talk and socialise at various geoengineering meetings and summer schools in Asilomar, Berlin, Big Sur, Calgary, both Cambridges, Edinburgh, Heidelberg, Lisbon, Oxford, Potsdam, Santa Cruz and Waterloo, I have enjoyed similar stimulation at the Breakthrough Dialogues convened by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. I am also very grateful to NCAR for a media fellowship in 2009 and to the Skoll Foundation and Sundance Institute for their ‘Stories of Change’ project.

The Power Elite
by C. Wright Mills and Alan Wolfe
Published 1 Jan 1956

See Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Macmillan, 1922), which is still the best account of this aspect of the media. Cf. especially pp. 1–25 and 59–121. 8. Cf. Gerth and Mills, Character and Social Structure (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1953), pp. 84 ff. 9. J. Truslow Adams, The Epic of America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1931) p. 360. 10. Cf. Mills, ‘Work Milieu and Social Structure,’ a speech to ‘The Asilomar Conference’ of the Mental Health Society of Northern California, March 1954, reprinted in their bulletin, People At Work: A Symposium, pp. 20 ff. 11. A. E. Bestor, Educational Wastelands (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois, 1953), p. 7. Cf. also p. 80. 14. The Conservative Mood 1. Cf. Karl Mannheim, Essays on Sociology and Social Psychology (Edited and translated by Paul Kecskemeti) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953), Chapter II: ‘Conservative Thought,’ pp. 74 ff. 2.

Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing
by Kevin Davies
Published 5 Oct 2020

For example, in a 2009 story in the New York Times on the first gene therapy trial using genome editing, Porteus said: “In principle, there is no reason why a similar strategy could not be used to modify the human germ line,” quickly adding that he didn’t think society was ready for such a proposal.24 In January 2015, Doudna hosted a small retreat in Napa, California, where some fifteen invited experts, all Americans, discussed the potential misuses of CRISPR, including the prospect of engineering permanent, heritable fixes into human embryos. The guests included Asilomar veterans and Nobel laureates David Baltimore and Paul Berg, bioethicist Alta Charo, Carroll, Greely, Daley, and Church. Doudna’s concerns were amplified by her newfound celebrity status, which brought her to the attention of desperate parents. Amidst the emails pleading for help to find a cure for their child’s rare genetic disease were letters expressing unconditional love for the genetically disadvantaged.

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
by Vernor Vinge
Published 30 Sep 2001

She’d do good work on any team. I’ve been watching her.” That last was news to Juan. Aloud he said, “I know she has a stupid brother over in senior high.” “Heh! William the Goofus? He is a dud, but he’s not really her brother, either. No, Miri Gu is smart and tough. Did you know she grew up at Asilomar?” “In a detention camp?” “Yup. Well, she was only a baby. But her parents knew just a bit too much.” That had happened to lots of Chinese-Americans during the war, the ones who knew the most about military technologies. But it was also ancient history. Bertie was being more shocking than informative.

Global Catastrophic Risks
by Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Cirkovic
Published 2 Jul 2008

Now it seems to me that an AI capable of language, abstract thought, creativity, environmental interaction, originality, prediction, invention, discovery, and above all self-improvement, is well beyond the point where it needs also to be Friendly. The Dartmouth Proposal makes no mention ofbuilding nicejgoodjbenevolent AI. Questions of safety are not mentioned even for the purpose of dismissing them. This, even in that bright summer, when human-level AI seemed just around the comer. The Dartmouth Proposal was written in 1955, before the Asilomar conference on biotechnology, thalidomide babies, Chemobyl, or 1 1 September. If today the idea of artificial intelligence were proposed for the first time, then someone would demand to know what specifically was being done to manage the risks. I am not saying whether this is a good change or a bad change in our culture.

USA Travel Guide
by Lonely, Planet

InterContinental–Clement HOTEL $$$ ( 831-375-4500; www.intercontinental.com; 750 Cannery Row; r $200-455; ) Like an upscale version of a millionaire’s seaside clapboard house, this sparkling resort presides over Cannery Row. For utmost luxury, book an ocean-view suite with a balcony and private fireplace, then breakfast in bayfront C Restaurant. Parking $18. Asilomar Conference Grounds LODGE $$ ( 831-372-8016; www.visitasilomar.com; 800 Asilomar Ave, Pacific Grove; r incl breakfast $115-175; ) Coastal state-park lodge has buildings designed by architect Julia Morgan, of Hearst Castle fame. Historic rooms are small and thin-walled, but charming nonetheless. The lodge’s fireside rec room has ping-pong and pool tables.