"A mind stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension" Oliver Wendall Holmes

Evolution into the Next Millennium

Contact Charles Ostman

About Charles Ostman - Institute for Global Futures

Events, Books, Newly Evolving Existence Matrices

What appears to be the future for some, is already the past for others, who are currently unfolding it into the present Charles Ostman

> A World In Transition > Nanotechnology, > NanoBiology, > Synthetic Sentience, > Artificial Lifeforms, > "GelWare" > "Agents, Avatars, Synthetic Societies" > "Internet as an Organism - Human / Internet Symbiosis" > "Transactional Process Brokeraging of Virtual Commodity Assets" > "Xenomorphic Entities" Evolvable Systems, Molecular Biobots . . . this is just the beginning

Enter here for Full Graphics Version of Evolution into the Next Millennium with

Charles Ostman

Sr. Fellow - The Institute for Global Futures(see below)

"Strategic Synergist" - Research, trend analysis and forecasting, technology development, author, lecturer

Biota III - The program, themes, speakers

Presentation - The Anthropological Implications of Digital Biota

Explore the worlds of Digital Biota, where the integration of lifeforms, synthetic and real, form the anthropological ecology of the future

Listen to Art Bell interviews, theEvolution Channel, and the Discovery Channel with "RealAudio" streaming audiofiles . . . visit 21st Century Online, CNN Interactive, the latest book releases, the CyberLife! book site, papers and presentations, video and audio stream sites . . . .

Nanotechnology is the Next Revolution . . . the ultimate threshold of convergence, the "test", and beyond . . Strategic Synergist - At the forefront of evolving technologies.

Live Audio Files - Interviews with Charles Ostman on the Evolution Channel

We have approached the threshold boundary of an evolutionary eventstream unparalleled in scale, velocity, and complexity by any era of known human history, poised at the edge of a spectacular, and irreversible eventhorizon . . .

Listen to Charles Ostman - on the Evolution Channel Online

Enter into the Evolution . . . .and experience the History of the Future . . .

A World in Transition -

Internet as an Organism -

Live Audio files - Listen to Discovery Channel Online interviews with the RealAudio audio-streaming player . . .
Synthetic Humans . . . Cybernetic Enhancements
"Neuroprosthetics are inevitable" says Charles Ostman, a senior fellow at the Institute for Global Futures, "Biochip implants may become part of a rote medical procedure . . . after that, interface with outside systems is a logical next step" from the article - Is Human Chip Implant Wave of the Future?

This is the test, the "rights of passage" into and beyond the event horizon of the Next Millennium

the Evolutionary Eventstream

It has been noted by some who have witnessed, and chronicled, the ever increasing pace, as an accleration vector in the temporal domain, the rate of technological, societal, and cultural evolutution of the human species.

Recent interviews on the Art Bell radio program - audiostream files online

http://ww2.broadcast.com/artbell/sept99.stm Program begins with Dr. Steven Greer, founder of CSETI - 2nd hour begins with Charles Ostman - 9/24/99 01:00:00 http://ww2.broadcast.com/artbell/aug97.stm Program begins with Leonard Nimoy 7/22/97 02:34:10 - Charles Ostman begins 2 1/2 hours into program http://ww2.broadcast.com/artbell/apr97.stm Entire program - start through finish with Charles Ostman 4/23/97 00:00:00 - Start of program

Available audio files of current and previous appearances on the Art Bell program . . . . The RealAudio G2 audio/video streaming media player is free, and can be donwloaded directly from ArtBell.com, Download.com, or directly from RealAudio. It can run on Explorer or Navigator. When an audio stream is loaded, a numerical counter is visible in the lower right corner of the G2 Player window. An arrow / slider is available which allows the user to fast forward to the desired location in the streaming file - reference numbers are indicated for each indicated audio streaming file
CNN Interactive
See the article by Sam Witt on CNN Interactive online

There is currently an emergent "virtual asset commodity" based economic ecology, in which the primary indices of valuation are transitioning toward the brokeraging of processes, and the inception of ubiquitous computing and telecommunication infrastructures, as an emergent "operational ecology", populated with artificial life, genetic and evolutionary algorithms, hierarchical autonomous agent "coloies" and societal systems. Biological and non-bilogical nanotechnology, and its myriad variant applications already in advanced stages of development in many cases, are the material artifacts of this operational ecology. Nanotechnology is not a singular niche technology or arena of potential commercial interest . . . it is a concept, a transformative threshold which the human species is about to encounter, on a truly evolutionary scale. In virtually every conceivable realm of human endeavor, ranging from computing, to advanced materials, from superconductors, to the bio-terraforming of entire ecosystems, genetic bio-engineering of ourselves as a species, the creation of synthetic lifeforms . . . and an extraordinary realm of molecular manipulation enterprises, the ultimate outcome of which may eventually be the replication of virtually any existing object, and the creation of objects and materials which would otherwise not be possible, nanotechnology will indeed have its influence. This nanotechnology realm, many fundamental aspects of which are indeed much closer to implementation than most might perhaps believe, are already being aggressively funded via both private and institutional organizations here in the US, and throughout most of the technically developed nationstates of the world. The economic, societal, and cultural implications are as "evolutionary" as the current and future implied technologies themselves. My focus is to examine, in detail, a systematic metaview of the this next transformative age we are about to encounter, voluntarily, or otherwise.

the Evolutionary Eventstream

There is a state of change at hand, the rate and complexity of which is an acceleration vector never before experienced in human history. The relationships between rapidly evolving technologies, ever exapnding volumes and complexities of of information resources, and socio-economic system substrates are going to reshape almost every aspect of life as it is currently understood to be. To study the nuances and implications of this synergistic codependancy is to become an adaptable entity, capable of evolving and utilizing the tools embedded in this interactive, bi-directional experiential knowledge conveyance system which will be referred to here as the "media matrix". Examine the details of this conceptual paradigm as a learning experience at San Francisco State University,

Biota III - The program, themes, speakers

Presentation - The Anthropological Implications of Digital Biota

Explore the worlds of Digital Biota, where the integration of lifeforms, synthetic and real, form the anthropological ecology of the future

Presented at the SCI 98 / ISAS 98 Conferences - World Multiconference on Systemics, Cyberbetics, and Informatics & 4th International Conference on Information Systems Analysis and Synthesis - Orlando, Florida Synthetic Sentience as a Strategic Commodity Resource

Knowledge velocity, scale, and complexity are exceeding human capacity for effective decision rendering, particularly in mission critical applications compressed into ever shorter time cycle increments.The substrate of socio-economic systems, valuation indices of commodities and currency systems, the status of industry base strata and their attendant distribution strucutres, are already in a state of flux as this fabric is being drawn into a global connectivity grid, currently referred to as the Internet. As a mission critical commodity resource, contextually enhanced and conditionalized knowledge domains are among the commodities of the harvestable resource base being spawned in this virtual asset driven economic system.

The ISAS 98 / SCI 98 conferences

presented at ALife VI - Artificial Life VI conference, UCLA, 1998 - Digital Biota Workshop / Aesthetics of Artificial Life Art Exhibit Aesthetic Exploration in the "Virtual Nature" of Synthetic Environments and Artificial Ecologies

As a design strategy, I propose that the human species has been deliberately "programmed" to respond to the aesthetic content inherent with nature, with a depth of emotional engagement which transcends mere logical or reasoned responses. Therefore, if such a supposition can be considered plausible, it offers the speculatory potential for experimentation in the arena of utilizing artificial life forms, genetic and mutational operators, and other process dynamics which mimic the physiological and behavioral attributes of living organisms and ecosystems, to generate aesthetic content in synthetic environments.

ALife VI Conference - Nerve Garden, a Public Terrarium in Cyberspace

The "Aesthetics of Artificial Life" expo event

presented at the 1997 AAAI Conference on Computational Anthropology - Washington D.C. Synthetic Sentience on Demand as an Online Commodity - the Virtual Terraform Beyond the New Event Horizon

Never before in history have such a rapidly emerging series of technical, scientific. and socioeconomic developments brought us to the edge of an event horizon of such fundamental, involuntary, and irreversable magnitude.New virtual assets consist of the strategic resource of knowledge engineering, synthetic sentience on demand, ubuitous computing, functionality matrices and the advent of interactive experiential conveyance as a "process deliverable". As a commodity resource, synthetic sentience on demand is no longer confined to the realms of academic curiousity or theoretical paradigms . . . it will become an absolute requirement.

The AAAI - CCA 97 conference

presented at the 1997 Paradox Seminar - Arcosanti, Arizona Homo Carbonis-Homo Siliconis ... A World in Transition

For better or for worse, we will collectively know, well within our current lifetimes, and quite likely within a short handful of years, how we, as the human species on this world at this time, will negotiate the evolutionary tests about to be set before us.This is no easy, or trivial task. No greater burden has ever been placed upon a smaller portion of the population with a greater responsibility to implement such a manifestation of truth.

Paradox 97 at Arcosanti

presented at the 1997 Flesh Eating Technologies Seminar - Banff, Alberta, CA Synthetic Sentience and the Advent of Virtual Immortality

The concept of utilizing the fabric of the Internet as an experiencial conveyance engine is at the very heart of the existance matrix evolving in the near future. Bidirectional telepresense and tele-existance streaming are obvious functionalities embedded into this matrix. It is here, at this event horizon, where we acquiece to a realm where the interface boundary between the real and the virtual, the organic and the synthetic, become seamlessly infused into an irreversable, ever evolving symbiosis of our own creation, and what evolves henceforth. This is . . . virtual immortality

presented at SigGraph 1997, Los Angeles, and Avatars 1997 San Francisco Asthetic Discovery in the Synthetic Environments of the Virtual Terraform

I visualize a world in which the asthetic and behavioral attributes encountered on the virtual terraform, in whatever domain or environment may be represented therein, is not confined to merely a recreation of "common" humanoid related environments or participants. Indeed, the very essense of access to virtual environments represents the potential for encountering experiences, lifeforms, and asthetic content not possibly accessable via any other means. Just as there is asthetic content to be discovered and observed in the nature of the "real" world, there is also unlimited potential asthetic content in the "alternative" nature of "virtual worlds". The creation of virtual worlds, or for that matter, virtual universes, can encompass any range of spatial or temporal domains, ranging from the inifinitely immense, such as a model of the known universe, to the atomic and molecular scale of a theoretical "nanoworld".

Avatars 97 online proceedings

presented to EMCSR '96 - 13th Annual European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research - Austria, Vienna The Internet as an Organism - Human/Internet Symbiosis

Observing the exponential growth of the global internet, the ever increasing complexity of connectivity systems and subsystems, self modifying code structures that can be trained to search for contextually linked information, information processing and management on a scale that would rival most "living organisms" as they are currently defined, and event the potential for a "sentience threshold" that may already be theoretically approachable; is there an argument for observing the growth of the global net as a quasi-organic process? If one were to consider that the global internet system has already crossed the "functional complexity" status of an organic entity, then a symbiotic model can already be shown to exist. The human population is at the threshold being drawn into a hopefully benign, but irreversable state of human / internet symbiosis

The Institute for Global Futures

The Institute for Global Futures is a strategic technologies research group which engages in trend analysis, technology development stream topology identification, and complex forecasting which examines synergistic thread linkages between various technologies and socio-economic systems. The activities of the institute include consulting services, strategic planning, reports, analysis, media programs, conferences, and strategic alliance building for a variety of global clients.

Complex new technologies are rapidly transforming markets, economies, and industries. The Institute for Global Futures was founded to promote the productive, sustainable, and strategic use of advanced leading edge technologies.

Molecular "Nanites", Leggos, myriad Self-Assembling, Self-Organizing Xenomrophic Entities flourishing in "NanoWorld"

Peer Into the Strange and Fantastic NanoWorlds of Charles Ostman. Come in and visit the 3D virtual nanoworlds that Charles Ostman has developed as part of his quest to model and visualize the myriad possibilities that the nanotech of the near future may offer. Molecular machines, self assembling "nano lego" components, nanobots and nanocritters, pseudo proteins, quasi viral components, "artificial" organisms, ubiquitous nano "foglettes" . . . . this may only be the beginning

Nanotechnology Links . . . Nanotechnology Industries - Medical Nanotechnology Nanotechnology in Medicine, Life Sciences "Organomorph" This image was created by the morphing together of two 3D raytraced "virtual world" images, utilizing an artificial life routine to drive the control points in the morphing engine. Both of the virtual world images themselves are renderings of 3D artificial lifeforms, which were subsequently morphed together with an artificial lifeform driven process, hence the title, "organomorph".

Exploring the Alternative Nature of the Virtual Terraform as an Art Medium - "Evolvable Entities"

Spawning entities, flourishing on the virtual terraform - I don't "draw" art, I grow it.Driven by a fascination with structure, form, and the mechanics of interactive forces as they occur in nature, the goal is to create scenes which are the results of compuational models based on these characteristics. Virtually all constructs observed in the nature of the "real universe", such as the branching structures of trees, the construction of a leaf or flower, the distribution patterns of stars in a galaxy, pebbles on a beach, or even the wispy forms of a cloud, can be defined and replicated with a series of formulae and procedural algorithms.

Once these processes have been defined and established as a procedural set of rules, these rules can be modified or "distorted". In other words, there is vastly more potential in creating a synthetic environment which actually contains the dynamic elements of an evolving "organism" or ecosystem, than merely "drawing" a picture of such an environment.

This is the real power of the computer, to be able to create structures and forms, as a process, utilizing interactive forces and influences, as they occur (or don't occur) in nature, to spawn the contents of a scene. It is in this way that "impossible" virtual worlds can be explored, ranging from chaotic events that defy the "ordinary" rules of nature, to the evolution of artificial life forms flourishing in synthetic environments.

Synthetic Neural Dendrites, QuasiViral Components, Integrated BioChips, Molecular Scale Cybernetic Enhancement "Devices", - Medicine and Nanotechnology Converge in the World of NanoBiology

Enter this world, and examine the contents of these renderings of nanoscale systems, intergrated circuitry combined with biomolecular components, and various bio-molecular "device" simulations which are being created as part of an ongoing project with the Institute for Global Futures, and other interested organizations. The very concept of what is currently referred to as "applied medicine" is on the verge of an extraordinary transformation. What is coming, for instance, are nanoscale molecular "devices" which are intended to enter living cells and facilitate their own ability modify and "repair" their internal physiological chemistries. And this is only the beginning . . . The newly emmerging frontier of Nanobiology represents the next great revolution in medicine

Nanotechnology is the Next Revolution . . . the ultimate threshold of convergence, the "test", and beyond . . Strategic Synergist - At the forefront of evolving technologies.

My ultimate focus is on the concept of nanotechnology representing the next great revolution, as an evolutionary threshold which will transform, but also test, the human civilization's capacity to adapt and evolve to this new realm. The substrate of socio-economic systems, valuation indices of commodities and currency systems, the status of industry base strata and their attendant distribution structures, which are already in a state of flux as this fabric is being drawn into the global connectivity grid, currently referred to as the internet, is only a precursory indicator of what the nanotechnology age is about to potentially create.

This entire genre' of development will evolve into an new socio-economic system substrate not conceivable by today's standards of reference. Various aspects of applied and theoretical nanotechnology, neural prosthesis and implantable interface devices, ubiqutous computing and process functionality domains as a virtual asset resource base accessable on the internet, the evolution of newly forming socio-economic substrate systems emminating from the "virtual terraform" . . . these are only a few of the key marker threshold points in an evolutionary event stream which are embedded into the existance matrices of the near future.

In my world, I am not merely an observer, who occassionally writes about such speculations, but rather, am a direct participant in some of the developmental processes which will make these very technologies and their eventual applications possible. It is my personal belief that a series of choices, decision boundaries to be negotiated, will soon become self apparent to the society at large.

We are, as a collective species system, comprised of entities both synthetic and "real", entering . . . A World in Transition

An operational ecolocy is evolving in this emergent realm . . . . with which we, the human species, are already engaged in an irreversable symbiosis . . . The Internet as an Organism

Visit Charles Ostman on the Evolution Channel.

CyberLife - the Nanotechnology Revolution - online

Read Charles Ostman's views, technical analysis, and perspectives of the nanoworld of the present and near future in the book - CyberLife! CyberLife! - ISBN 0-672-30491-0 Nanotechnology, the next Revolution . . . the NanoFuture . . . of NanoComputing, Molecules, and Photons . . . Strange Molecules with Special Properties . . . MicroMachines, Nanotech, and Processes Available Today . . . Biomechanics in the Nanorealm . . . What are the Goals, and How do We Get There?
additional info Charles Ostman additional info Charles Ostman - Science Advisory Board

21st Century Online

Visit 21st Century Online . . . where the future is being invented . . . Authors, scientists, technology developers, and various practitioners in the artform of forging the fabric of the future . . . come together here to explore and share their perspectives on the social, economic, and cultural aspects of how the future is being forged by those who are creating it now. Featured authors on the Inside Magazine homepage . . . Charles Ostman, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Tobias, Alvin Toffler, Roger Dawson, Brit Hume, James Canton . . . and many others

Excerpt from the newly released book by Bruce Damer, "Avatars": ISBN 0-021-68840-9 Life in Digital Space - Bots, Biota and Virtual Pets. The NanoWorlds of Charles Ostman. Charles Ostman is a real wonder of a "Professional Synergist" from Berkeley, California. Ostman brings his years of experience in building successively smaller and more complex electronics at Lawrence Berkeley labs and intense interest in Nanotechnology to bear through his organic art vision. Ostman's works seek to give us a reflection from a future "virtual terraform" inhabited by "synthetic sentients". Ostman sees a time in the future when Nanotechnology (the ability to make things one atom at a time) renders all current economic systems obsolete and transforms human lifestyles and our very perception of reality Ostman is science editor for Mondo 2000 and a frequent guest on Art Bell's Coast to Coast all night radio show. The basic inspirational building blocks of Ostman's art include molecular machines, self assembling "nano lego" components, nanobots and nanocritters, pseudo proteins, quasi viral components,"artificial" organisms, and ubiquitous nano "foglettes". Visit the NanoWorlds of Charles Ostman Excerpt from the newly released book by Celia Pearce, "the Interactive Book": ISBN 1-57870-028-0 A-Life of One's Own - V-Art Another A-life alchemist is Charles Ostman. Ostman's interest lies in the interface between nature and machine. His specialty is nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a technique of manipulation at the molecular level that enables you to do things such as create self-assembling materials, micro-machines, and pseudo-viruses. Self-assembling materials-which at one time were called "nano-leggos" until the name had to be changed due to trademark disputes-consist of molecules that can manipulated through input (such as heat or electrical charge). Pseudo-viruses, perhaps the most interesting of the nano-technological applications, are "good" viruses designed to use the viruses' own techniques to outsmart it. Pseudo-viruses, really anti-viruses, do the same thing to the virus that the virus is attempting to do to the host. It thus quickly elliminates the intrusive organism, letting the healthy host cell return to its proper function. Visit here for more on Charles Ostman .
HTML, text, and Design Elements copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 Charles Ostman.

Aesthetic Discovery in the realms of Synthetic Environments, Evolving Entities, Alternative Universes . . .

This is how I actually see the universe, and how I use a variety of technical tools and processes, combined with computational resources to allow "access" to other parallel universes.

As described in the excerpt from a paper titled "Virtual Reality as an Art Medium" (located above on this webpage), is both the theory and application of utilizing the computer as a computational engine to create synthetic environments and quasi-organic entities flourishing in these virtual realms, as an alternative form of nature (both at the nano and "macro" scale). In this context, the computer can "discover" asthetic content as well as functional models of such domains, not unlike the way a photographer may "discover", and capture the asthetics of nature as it occurs in the "real" world.

The included imgages are computer generated 3D renderings of theoretical nanocomponents, created by the author as a visualization of possible implementations of such molecular substructures and interactive symbiotic components. These are a few examples from a much larger collection of rendered, theoretical nanosubcomponent systems, consisting of various "species" types with specific interactive and symbiotic properties.

pioneer the realms of other worlds as an "art experience"

Visit Berkeley Designs

. . . for a glimpse of the foundry from which these various experiments in evolving artforms are spawned, and proliferate.

The "Brain of Charles" . . .

The "Brain of Charles" - this "virtual brain" was created by the author by raytracing the volumetric data of a 3D scanned brain, which was subsequently surface mapped with a custom developed procedural texturing routine. The topology in the background is actually the result of a chunk of calcite which was also scanned in with the Cyberware 3D scanning system, and then also surface mapped with a procedural texturing routine. This entire scene, complete with the metallic probe entering the lower right corner of the "brain entity", was rendered as part of the scene art featured in the article written by the author for Mondo 2000 magazine, on the topic of current and near future mind-machine interface technology. For further exploration into this, and other such realms, and beyond, please visit Mondo 2000

Enter the Entity . . . from the virtual beyond . . . I surrender my belief barrier, enraptured

Charles Ostman

Evolved Art - Portals into the Virtual Terraform . . . Charles flourishing with his recent "spawnings" at the Anon Salon

Send e-mail to Charles Ostman

About Charles Ostman

Visit the far frontier . . . Get your own Mondo 2000

Resources And Insight . . . . . . for the Entrpreneurial Engineer Midnight Engineering Example articles from previous issues . . . > Goals of Nanotechnology > Enter the Next Revolution > Shape Changing Alloys > Tactile Sensory Technologies

Where Art and Technology Come Together Fine art on various media, virtual and real "entities", environments, custom applications and technology development for the "discovery" of asthetic content . . . Berkeley Designs

Artificial Life flourishing on the Virtual Terraform . . . Enter online, see it "live" at SigGraph 97! Digital Biota Project

Contact . . . at the Contact Consortium Enter the portal to myriad virtual terraforms, worlds, universes, and the technologies and people who make them possible Contact Consortium

Special thanks to Bruce Damer and DigitalSpace Corp. Helping to pioneer the exploration and development of life on the virtual terraform . . . DigitalSpace