FiRe 2019 Theme: Anticipating the Unexpected

Autonomous vehicles have emerged as a strategic national tech asset, with the most economically and geopolitically important technologies directly included in their supply chain. The advent of CRISPR has opened a Pandora’s box of possibilities and risks in gene editing. The confluence of AI and facial recognition has facilitated revolutions in advertising and racial profiling. The limitations of neural networks have become clearer than ever, and their next iteration is just around the corner. FiRe 2019 will feature deep dives on what’s coming next in these fields and many others.

FiRe 2019 Discussions (with more tba)*

Opening Keynote: Exponential Technologies for Preventing and Reversing
Genetic & Epigenetic Disasters
George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Autonomous Vehicles As a Strategic National Asset
Bob Flores, Former CTO, CIA, and CEO, Applicology Inc.; and Georg Kopetz, CEO, TTTech Auto AG; moderated by Mark Anderson, CEO, Strategic News Service; Chair, Future in Review Conference Corp.; and Founding CEO, Pattern Computer Inc.

Centerpiece Conversation: The Era of International Cyberaggression
Dmitri Alperovitch, Co-Founder and CTO, CrowdStrike Inc.; host tba

Surveillance, Cities, and Facial Recognition
David Brin, Scientist, Author, and Chief Visionary, Futures Unlimited; host tba

The Genetically Altered Future
George Church, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; hosted by Mark Anderson

Centerpiece Conversation: Revolutionizing Encryption
Robert Edward Grant, Founder, Chair, and CEO, Crown Sterling Ltd; host tba

Teaching Cars to See: Sensor Tech in the Autonomous Industry
James Barrese, Strategic Advisor and Investor, Altos Group, and former CTO, PayPal; host tba

Reinventing Personal Health Through Circadian Rhythms
Satchin Panda, Professor, Regulatory Biology Department, Salk Institute; Pam Taub, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC San Diego; and Larry Smarr, Founding Director, Calit2 (a UC San Diego / UC Irvine partnership); moderated by David Ewing Duncan, Author and Correspondent; and Co-Founder and CEO, Arc Programs

ReGrid: The Next Generation of Energy Infrastructure
tba

CTO Design Challenge: Building a New Internet to Protect People and Data
tba

Centerpiece Conversation: Humanizing the Machine: How to Optimize AI for the Common Good
Bill Hilf, CEO, Vulcan Inc.; host tba

The Future of Human–AI Interaction
Caitlin Cameron, Chair and CEO, OtoNexus Medical Technologies; Shalev Lifshitz, AI Researcher and Entrepreneur, SickKids Hospital and University of Waterloo; and John Mattison, Emeritus Asst. Medical Director and Chief Medical Information Officer, Kaiser Permanente

How Investment Drives the Future of Tech
tba

Decoding the Microbiome
Jack Gilbert, Professor, UCSD School of Medicine and Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and Group Leader, Microbial Ecology, Argonne National Laboratory; Rob Knight, Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, and Professor, UC San Diego; Kimberly Prather, Distinguished Professor and Distinguished Chair in Atmospheric Chemistry, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UC San Diego; and Larry Smarr, Founding Director, Calit2 (a UC San Diego / UC Irvine partnership)

What the Federalism: The Election Machines Are Broken
Harri Hursti, Founding Partner, Nordic Innovation Labs; and Jody R. Westby, CEO, Global Cyber Risk

Why IT Isn’t Ready for IoT
Steve Fey, CEO, Totem Building Cybersecurity; Derek Harp, CEO, CS2AI (Control System Cyber Security Assoc. International); and Anne Hardy, Chief Security Officer, Join Digital Inc.; moderated by Greg Ness, Interim CMO, Tempered Networks

Scalable Technologies for the Climate Crisis
tba

Tour of Qualcomm Institute and San Diego Supercomputing Center, UC San Diego

Centerpiece Conversation: Paul Jacobs
Paul Jacobs, Chair and CEO, XCOM, and former Chair and CEO, Qualcomm; host tba

In Defense of Democracy: How Taiwan Stands Up to Xi Jinping

Beginning in the late 1980’s, the Republic of China began a historic push to democratize. In an increasingly authoritarian world, Taiwan’s government now stands as a key positive example of a peaceful transition to a democratic system in East Asia. In the era of Xi Jinping, Taiwan’s role as a beacon of free society is increasingly and regularly threatened by an ever more aggressive government in the People’s Republic of China across the strait. Now, more than ever, the U.S.-Taiwanese relationship is critical if freedom, human rights and democratic reforms are to be supported and upheld in the region and beyond.

A discussion with H.E. Ambassador Abraham Wen-Shang Chu, Director General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles; hosted by Evan Anderson, CEO, INVNT/IP

Improving Strategic Leadership in the Boardroom
Vanessa Pegueros, Board Member, BECU and Carbon Black; hosted by Art Kleiner, Editor-in-Chief, strategy+business

Tunnel Vision: Foundational Issues in AI
tba

Incubating Creative Solutions to the World’s Most Difficult Problems
Susi Snyder, President, ICAN, and Project Lead, PAX Nuclear Weapons Project; hosted by Berit Anderson, Director of Programs, Strategic News Service

FiReFilms: Documentary Films Changing the World
Directors’ panel hosted by Sharon Anderson Morris, CEO, FiReFilms

China’s Economic Strategy
Kim Stanley Robinson, Science-Fiction Author; hosted by Mark Anderson

Accelerated: The Next Generation of Computing
Michael Norman, Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center, and Distinguished Professor of Physics, UC San Diego

Speaking assignments and agenda items are subject to change.