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Archived webcasts from the MIT Media Lab H2.0 symposium are available online. Under a theme of “new minds, new bodies, new identities,” the one-day event explored, “how today’s—and tomorrow’s—advances will seamlessly interact with humans, giving us a glimpse into a future where all humans will integrate with technology to heighten our cognition, emotional acuity, perception, and physical capabilities.”

Discussions from the morning session include:

• Deb Roy, “Memory Augmentation: Extending our Sense of Self”
• Rosalind W. Picard, “Technology-Sense and People-Sensibility”
• Cynthia Breazeal, “The Next Best Thing to Being There. Increasing the Emotional Bandwidth of Mediated Communication Using Robotic Avatars”
• Douglas H. Smith, “The Brain is the Client: Designing a Back Door into the Nervous System”
• John Donoghue, “New Successes in Direct Brain/Neural Interface Design”

…and from the afternoon:

• Hugh Herr, “New Horizons in Orthotics and Prosthetics: Merging Bodies and Machines”
• Tod Machover, “Enabling Expression: Music as Ultimate Human Interface”

Article link: Sharper minds

The LA Times is running an article today on new drugs that will change the way we think. By extension, the Times speculates, they may change who we are. Largely funded by the U.S. military, new drugs are being developed to dramatically increase mental acuity. Among the military’s goals: a drug that will enable soldiers to remain active and alert an entire week.

In regard to the impact in schools, “some students think they have no choice [but to take mind enhancing drugs]. ‘You figure you’re being compared to people who are on Ritalin,’ said one Los Angeles student who frequents [an Internet chat site] and recently asked a relative to supply the drug. ‘I just figured it would be more fair if you’re on the same level.’“