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Lawyers and policy wonks with a futurist bent are advised to take note. The University of Miami School of Law is organizing a conference called "We Robot: Inaugural Conference on Legal and Policy Issues Relating to Robotics." They're seeking scholars, lawyers, and roboticists who want to discuss a topic that will probably be making headlines in a decade: How the law will regulate robots. The school bills the event as one of the first conferences of its kind. Attendees will "examine how the increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues." More »
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If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you. More »
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Want to know what presidential candidate Barack Obama will do to make the U.S. a great nation for science again? Among other changes, he promises to create a position of "chief technology officer" for the country, and to recreate a space advisory council that reports directly to the president. In addition, he claims the rDNA Advisory Committee will have his administration's ear. Obama discussed his science policies in detail for Science Debate 2008, a group of thousands of scientists, engineers, and science-oriented groups like the AAAS, who are working to keep the public educated about presidential candidates' science policies. Here are the highlights. More »
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There's no doubt that io9 needed a spoiler policy. So, we surveyed over 1000 readers about their opinions. Then people debated it in comments, and meanwhile offline I was arguing with Charlie about it. Although Charlie writes the "morning spoiler" roundup, she is very strict in her no-spoiler-without-warning policy. I am a bit more lax. In last week's vote about io9's spoiler policy, I was one of the pathetic 4.3 percent who voted for spoilers anywhere on the page, without warning. Now I recognize that I am a freakish outcast among nerds, and that io9's spoiler policy needs to be a bit less radical than my own point of view. Without further ado, here is io9's current spoiler policy - by popular demand. More »
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