"The crowd was sprinkled generously with those who had amassed wealth beyond imagining in a historical eye blink." — The Wall Street Journal

THE NEW AGE OF WONDER DINNER — 2010
Long Beach, California
February 11, 2010 

A New Age of Wonder

Where the Dawning of the Age of Biology Was Officially Announced

In the summer of 2009, in a talk at the Bristol (UK) Festival of Ideas, physicist Freeman Dyson articulated a vision for the future. He referenced The Age Of Wonder, by Richard Holmes, in which the first Romantic Age described by Holmes was centered on chemistry and poetry, while Dyson pointed out that this new age is dominated by computational biology. Its leaders, he noted, include "biology wizards" Kary Mullis, Craig Venter, medical engineer Dean Kamen; and "computer wizards" Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Charles Simonyi. He pointed out that the nexus for this intellectual activity — the Lunar Society for the 21st century — is centered around the activities of Edge.

Dyson continued to articulate his vision for a new age of biology in a related review in New York Review of Books in which he wrote:

"...a new generation of artists, writing genomes as fluently as Blake and Byron wrote verses, might create an abundance of new flowers and fruit and trees and birds to enrich the ecology of our planet. Most of these artists would be amateurs, but they would be in close touch with science, like the poets of the earlier Age of Wonder. The new Age of Wonder might bring together wealthy entrepreneurs like Venter and Kamen ... and a worldwide community of gardeners and farmers and breeders, working together to make the planet beautiful as well as fertile, hospitable to hummingbirds as well as to humans."

Indeed, Dyson was was front and center in August 2007, at "Life: What a Concept", an Edge Special Event where he joined scientists Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, and Seth Lloyd. According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the event "was one of those memorable events that people in years to come will see as a crucial moment in history. After all, it's where the dawning of the age of biology was officially announced."

As a follow up to "Life: What a Concept", the EdgeMaster Class 2009 featured a two-day course taught by the two leading genomic researchers in the world: George Church and Craig Venter. "A Short Course in Synthetic Genomics" for a small group of scientists, entrepreneurs, cultural impresarios and journalists that included architects of the some of the leading transformative companies of our time (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, PayPal).

Among theEdge contributors are the pioneers in this "new age of wonder".We are pleaed to present some of the important conversations that have taken place in the last five year, which includes over 15 hours of video and transcripts, plus a 43,000-word downloadable PDF book from Life: What A Concept.

— John Brockman

EAT ME BEFORE I EAT YOU! A NEW FOE FOR BAD BUGS By Kary Mullis

A SHORT COURSE ON SYNTHETIC GENOMICS By George Church & J. Craig Venter

MAPPING THE NEANDERTHAL GENOME By Svante Pääbo

ENGINEERING BIOLOGY By Drew Endy

LIFE: A GENE-CENTRIC VIEW - A Conversation in Munich with Craig Venter & Richard Dawkins

A DNA-DRIVEN WORLD: The 32nd Richard Dimbleby Lecture By Craig Venter

LIFE: WHAT A CONCEPT  An Edge Special Event at Eastover Farm?Freeman Dyson, J. Craig Venter, George Church, Robert Shapiro, Dimitar Sasselov, Seth Lloyd

CONSTRUCTIVE BIOLOGY By George Church

CHANGING ONE SPECIES TO ANOTHER By J. Craig Venter

BIOCOMPUTATION A Conversation with J. Craig venter, Ray Kurzweil, Rodney Brooks

Guest List

Chris Anderson, Curator, TED; Chris Anderson, Editor,Wired; Yves Behar, Designer, FuseProject; Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Consortium , MIT; Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com; Zack Bogue, Montara Capital Partners; Stewart Brand, Long Now Foundation; Lawrence Brilliant, M.D., Skoll Urgent Threats Fund; Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology, Google; John Brockman, Edge Foundation; Max Brockman, VP, Brockman, Inc.; Rodney Brooks, Computer Sciencist, Heartland Robotics, MIT; Jason Calacanis, CEO, Mahalo; Jean Case, The Case Foundation; Steve Case, Revolution Health ; Laura Chang, Editor, Science Times, The New York Times; Nicholas Christakis, Network Scientist, Harvard ; George Church, Genomics Researcher, Harvard; Larry Cohen, Gates Foundation ; Jared Cohen, US State Department; June Cohen, Director, TED Media; Keith Coleman, Gmail Product Director, Google; John Cusack, Actor; Daniel Dennett, Philosopher, Tufts; Susan Dennett; Peter Diamandis, X Prize; Esther Duflo, Economist, MIT; Denis Dutton, Founder & Editor,Arts & Letters Daily ; Jesse Dylan, Film Director, FreeForm; Juan Enriquez, Biotechonomy LLC; Tony Fadell, Advisor to Steve Jobs & Former Senior VP, iPOD Division, Apple; Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft; Co-Chair, Gates Foundation; Matt Groening, The Simpsons; Sam Harris, Neuroscientist; Annaka Harris, Co-Founder, Reason Project, Editor; W. Daniel Hillis, Computer Scientist, Applied Minds ; Pati Hillis; Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post; Chad Hurley, Co-Founder, CEO, YouTube; Xeni Jardin, Co-Founder, Boing Boing; Bill Joy, Kleiner Perkins ; Shannon Joy; Daniel Kahneman, Psychologist, Princeton; Salar Kamangar, VP, Product Management, Google; Dean Kamen, Inventor, Deka Research; Rosemary Leith, The World Wide Web Foundation; Steven Levy, Wired; Danielle Lambert, Former Senior VP, Human Resources, Apple; Benoit Mandelbrot, Mathematician, Yale ; Aillette Mandelbrot; John Markoff, The New York Times; Katinka Matson, Cofounder, Edge Foundation; Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience Google; Dave Morin, Facebook; Kary Mullis, Chemist, Altermune, Inc.; Nancy Mullis; Nathan Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures; Jacqueline Novogratz, Acumen Fund; Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media; Dean Ornish, M.D., Preventive Medicine Research Institute; Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products, Google; Lucy Page Southworth, Biomedical Post-Doc, Stanford; Lori Park, Google; Ryan Phelan, DNA Direct; Jean Pigozzi, Investor, Liquid Jungle Lab; Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Grupo Salinas, Grupo Elektra; Nicholas Pritzker, Hyatt Development Corporation; Lisa Randall, Physicist, Harvard; David Rockwell, Architect, The Rockwell Group; Andres Roemer, La Ciudad de las Ideas Festival; Jacqui Safra, Investor, Vintner, Encyclopædia Britannica; Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine; Jeff Skoll, Participant Media ; Galia Solomonoff, Solomonoff Architecture Studio; Michael Specter, The New Yorker; Linda Stone, Hi-Tech Industry Consultant; Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal, All Things Digital; Richard Thaler, Behavioral Economist, University of Chicago; Michael Tchao, VP, iPAD Product Marketing Division, Apple; Anne Treisman, Psychologist, Princeton; Craig Venter, Genomics Researcher, Synthetic Genomics; Karen Wickre, Google; Evan Williams, CEO, Twitter; Anne Wojcicki, 23 and Me; Susan Wojciki, Vice President, Product Management, Google; Nathan Wolfe, Biologist, Stanford; Stephen Wolfram Physicist, Wolfram Research; Elise Wolfram