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United We Stand Music/Activism Festival Returns to L.A. for Second Year

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This September the Free and Equal Elections Foundation’s United We Stand festival returns to Los Angeles to present a wide range of socially-conscious musicians, speakers, authors, and other cultural leaders to discuss and celebrate the political process.

Originally launched in May 2014, the second annual United We Stand Festival will take place at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on September 19 from 5-10 pm PST. The 2014 event was seen as a success, bringing together musicians Immortal Technique, Cappadonna & U-God of Wu-Tang Clan, comedian Lee Camp, activists Sean Stone, Jill Stein, Foster Gamble (Thrive), Nick Bernabe (March Against Monsanto), Richard Gage (Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth), journalists Abby Martin, Ben Swann, Amber Lyon, Maytha Alhassen, Luke Rudkowski, Mnar Muhawesh and many more.

The 2015 event will kickoff a series of open presidential debates for 2016 presented by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation. The festival will be broadcast worldwide by freeandequal.org

Free and Equal hopes that the event’s momentum will help inspire people to run for office targeting the Congressional races in 2016. Free & Equal Elections will also launch an open source “Election Assistant” Database. This “Election Assistant” Database will be accessible to all and provide information on every candidate.

The organization aims to bring together a range of speakers on topics including fighting against the Patriot Act, NDAA, NSA, endless warfare, the war on drugs, pollution, election fraud, drones, GMOs, police brutality, and the attack on net neutrality.

“By creating an event that combines the most socially-conscious elements of activism, music, and journalism we are allowing concerned citizens to be a part of a much needed conversation about the failures of our political process and, most importantly, possible solutions,” Free and Equal founder Christina Tobin tells TruthInMedia. Tobin says she hopes the event can contribute to the broad awakening taking place around the United States.

The UWSF 2015 will feature Civil Rights leader Amelia Boynton Robinson as the keynote speaker, as well as Professor Griff from Public Enemy, conscious reggae artist Spragga Benz, journalists Amber Lyon, Luke Rudkowski (We Are Change), and Mnar Muhawesh (MintPress News), radio show host Tony Stiles, Alexander McCobin, Co-Founder and President of Students for Liberty, author Daniel Pinchbeck, former Judge and Vice Presidential candidate Jim Gray, and a host of other musicians, artists, activists and thinkers from around the country. (Full Disclosure: I will be speaking at the event as well)

Tickets for the festival became available online Tuesday, but organizers are expecting tickets to the event to sell out quickly.

Entertainment

Johnny Depp uploads his brain in new film “Transcendence”

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“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BECOMES SELF-AWARE?”

Just two days ago, film director Wally Pfister (best known for being a protégé of Christopher Nolan on the “Dark Knight” franchise, and winning an Academy Award with Nolan for “Inception”) has released trailers for his new sci-fi film “Transcendence.” This is the directorial debut of the longtime Nolan cinematographer.

Johnny Depp is getting his brain uploaded!

Johnny Depp Transcendence

In the film, Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a renowned AI (artificial intelligence) researcher, with work focused on creating a sentient machine. His work as a scientist is centered on the “Singularity,” the point at which artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence and the two merge. (Trivia: In a “TIME” story featuring Google’s Ray Kurzweil, he predicts the Singularity will be reached by 2045.) Depp’s character faces off against anti-technology “extremists” who are seeking to stop his experiments, even as his colleagues question whether the experiments should continue. The climax of the film seems to be when an incident causes Dr. Will Caster to upload his “consciousness” into the mainframe after the “extremists” attack his work.

Check out the trailer:

“For 130,000 years, our capacity for reason has remained unchanged. The combined intellect of the neuroscientists, engineers, and mathematicians pales in comparison to even the most basic A.I. Once online, a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology,” Depp says in a voiceover. “In a short time, its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. Some scientists refer to this as the singularity. I call it transcendence.”

The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Kate Mara, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany. Clifton Collins Jr., and Cole Hauser. Screenplay written by Jack Paglen, produced by Christopher Nolan

director Wally Pfister

Director Pfister said in an interview with EW,” It’s a timely subject as we find we have to update software on our cell phones before we can even make a call.”

The Facebook fan-page says: “The story will feature real future predictions, about the Technological Singularity, AI, Nanotech, and Transhumanism. The Facebook page links to a site that features predictions by Ray Kurzweil, Hugo de Garis, and Jason Silva.
http://www.thatsreallypossible.com/news/755/transcendence-movie-features-real-future-predictions/

Here’s one more trailer, due out April 25th. What do you think about the film and subject?