About

So you’re wondering: what is Future Tech, exactly? And who are we? Perhaps we can best begin by clearing up some common misconceptions:

Future Tech is not about the flashiest new gadgets to hit the street. Rather, it’s about the way that the new technology fundamentally alters the way we interact with one another, society as a whole, and our environment. It’s about discovering new ways to use existing technology that defies existing standards.

Future Tech is not about waiting for the Singularity to bring about utopia. Rather, it’s about recognizing the rapid technological developments of our time and attempting to understand what changes will come along with improved artificial intelligence. It’s about recognizing the dangers and benefits that come along with increasing amounts of automation, and facing the risks head-on.

Future Tech is not about panaceas. Rather, it is about improving the human experience, through research and experiment. It’s about finding ways to have longer days, accomplish more, and be happier. It’s about learning how to recognize our own internal biases and how to use that knowledge and Bayesian logic to reach sound conclusions. It’s about life optimization—living every day to the fullest.

We are a group of Harvey Mudd College students (and hopefully others) interested in this topic. We discuss research, report findings, attend conferences, and work on personal projects. If you are interested in finding out more, come to a meeting!  Join the mailing list! (email listkeeper _AT_ hmc _DOT_ edu and subscribe to future-tech-l)  Or just talk to us in person!

Meetings are on Sundays at 3pm, in the Platt Conference Center at Harvey Mudd College.

For more information, send an email to: contact _AT_ futurehmc.org

HMC Future Tech came together after a group of Harvey Mudd freshmen (and one Caltech-er) took a trip together to the Singularity Summit 2008 in San Jose.  They found themselves exposed to all kinds of new ideas about what the future has in store—not just technologically, but in the very way that we as a people live and think.  Upon their return to Harvey Mudd, the students wished to put together a forum where these and other ideas could be freely exchanged and explored, and so the club that was later to become Future Tech was born.