Technogearophilia

As technology – especially the Internet and Web 2.0 applications / services such as the plethora of Social Media options – advances our lives become both more interconnected and less so at the same time. We’re also more and more inundated with data that we must either ignore or convert into information.

This is changing people’s lives in very profound ways. The entire concept of social and professional interaction has been radically changed / expanded by the 21st century’s rapid-fire advances in communication methodologies.

Many people do not know how to use and/or balance their lives against the new technologies.  Many of the older generations are distrustful of the new paradigm, and many of the younger generations are so trusting of it and inundated by it that they use it without thought or conscious direction – perhaps to their and society’s detriment.

Some technology leaders and social scientists have noticed this and desire to take steps to correct these problems. Hence the upcoming Wisdom 2.0 Summit in Silicon Valley, CA at the end of April, 2010.

The Wisdom 2.0 conference is a one-of-a-kind event that brings together people from a variety of disciplines, including technology leaders, Zen teachers, neuroscientists, and academics to explore how we can live with deeper meaning and wisdom in our technology-rich age.

The great challenge of our age is not only to live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world. The conference was developed to explore this and related issues.

The conference is for people who want to say yes to a connected life, and also yes to meaningful and effective one. If you are interested in the potential of technology, and wish to engage with it wisely, the Wisdom 2.0 conference may be right for you.

The first two days will include speakers, panels, and short presentations. The third day is devoted to a participant-directed unconference to explore specific subjects of interest. More information is below or click here to register.

They have an interesting mix of speakers for the event, which they describe as an “unconference.” Many business and technology leaders will be present, along with others who are more focused on how people live their lives and why they do so in the way in which they do.

The event begins at 1pm on Friday April 30th, and runs all day Saturday. There is also a participant-directed “unconfernce” day on Sunday, May 2nd. It will be held at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, CA‎.

The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)  is a carnivorous marsupial now found in the wild only in the Australian island state of Tasmania. The Tasmanian Devil is the only extant member of the genus Sarcophilus.

It is also on the brink of extinction.

The existential threat facing the Tasmanian Devil is not anthropogenic in origin. The devils are suffering from a epidemic of cancer which has afflicted and killed over 70% of their wild population. Unless something can be done halt the cancer, Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is expected to kill off the Tasmanian Devil within the next 25 – 50 years.

What is completely unique about DFTD is that it is contagious. The Tasmanian Devils are facing extinction from a transmissible form of cancer. They are literally experiencing and epidemic of cancer.

At least scientists have now discovered the nature of the cancer involved in DFTD.

Scientists have discovered the true identity of a contagious form of cancer that is killing Tasmanian devils. The cancer, called devil facial tumor disease, stems from cells that normally insulate nerve fibers, a new study shows.

Genetic analysis of tumors taken from infected devils in different parts of Tasmania reveals that these insulating cells, known as Schwann cells, became cancerous in a single Tasmanian devil and have since passed to other devils, an international group of researchers reports in the Jan. 1 Science.

Previously, scientists had suspected that a virus might be the source of the infection, but the new study confirms that cancer cells themselves are transmitted from devil to devil.

Knowing the origin of the contagious tumors could help conservationists diagnose the disease more accurately and may eventually lead to a vaccine that would target tumor proteins, says Katherine Belov, a geneticist at the University of Sydney who was not involved with the project.

A vaccine against the facial tumor disease, “while now pie in the sky, in 10 years might not be,” says Gregory Hannon, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y. “Ten years might be enough time” to save the devils from extinction, he says.

– Tina Hesman Saey

As terrifying and freakish as the thought of a contagious cancer is, this is a phenomenon that is restricted to species such as the Tasmanian Devil – and possibly the Cheetah – whose populations have essentially no genetic diversity. They’re so genetically similar to one another that cells, cancerous or not, transmitted between individual animals are not recognized as foreign invaders.

Hopefully though, this new discovery of the form of the cancer ravaging the Tasmanian Devils may enable scientists to develop either a vaccine or a treatment for the animals and thereby save the species from extinction.