Philippe van Nedervelde

Philippe van Nedervelde (born 1967) is a futurist and transhumanist Belgian reserve officer, virtual reality expert, public speaker, and media specialist with various futurist organizations, and an international vocal public advocate of technology and science.

Philippe van Nedervelde
Philippe van Nedervelde at Het Denkgelag[1]
NationalityBelgium
Alma materKatholieke Universiteit Leuven

Early life and education

Van Nedervelde was born in Belgium and is of Belgian-French nationality. At seventeen years old, he had a globally circulated featured article in the magazine Astronomy.[2]

Van Nedervelde is a Belgian Army reserve officer trained in nuclear-biological-chemical defense.[3] He completed a B.A. in social sciences, an M.A in communication studies, and a postgraduate in interactive media and information science from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He holds a Cambridge University Certificate of Proficiency in English, and is also fluent in Spanish, German, French, and Dutch.[4] He is married and has two children.

Futurist career

Van Nedervelde is a futurist and transhumanist writer, activist, and speaker.[4][5][6][7] He advocates for space settlements to avoid human extinction. He claims that his motivation is due to a desire to answer the big questions of life and to continue life as long as possible. Van Nedervelde is a member of the peer2peer Foundation; on the Board of World Technology Award Judges, Materials category for the World Technology Network; appointed advisor to the board of the now defunct Extropy Institute; on the Board of Advisors to Adaptive A.I. Inc., the parent company of SmartAction; one of the signators to the 2014 Technoprogressive Declaration;[8] a regular speaker at Humanity+'s annual Transvisions Conference; a speaker on Coast to Coast AM, speaking on weaponized nanotechnology and smartdust;[9] and cited by the Human Enhancement Study sponsored by the European Parliament's Science and Technology Options Assessment.[10][4]

Van Nedervelde is one of the co-founders of the Order of Cosmic Engineers (OCE), along with William Sims Bainbridge, Howard Bloom, artificial intelligence theorist Ben Goertzel, Max More, Natasha Vita-More, Martine Rothblatt, Giulio Prisco and others.[11][12]

Virtual reality expert

Van Nedervelde was an early developer in virtual reality. He is the founder of E-spaces, a virtual reality and 3D graphics studio;[4][13] the patent-filing inventor of C-Thru, applying VR to security systems; and co-CEO of X3D Technologies, Inc., a virtual worlds production company co-founded and co-owned by Hollywood movie-director Michael Bay.[14][5] Van Nedervelde directed E-spaces' production of twelve online 3D training simulators for British Petroleum and the broader oil and gas industry to certify well lease operators in the maintenance and troubleshooting of oil and gas well surface equipment. He also developed virtual reality projects for the Munich Airport Center, Simsala Grimm, Virtual Europe, and the transhumanist-themed sculpture in Martine Rothblatt's Teresem Island.[15]

Van Nedervelde co-founded the security-surveillance technology company Panoptic Systems, Inc., by applying his user-interface and virtual reality design knowledge to optimize the ergonomics and performance of security-surveillance systems. Van Nedervelde coined the phrase "Multi-laterally Assured Pervasive Permanent Sur-/Sous-veillance" (MAPPS) to describe an alternative to the Cold War-era doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). MAPPS describes a situation total surveillance and sousveillance, and thus nobody has the opportunity to plan and deploy a large-scale organized armed aggression.[16]

Nanotechnology expert

Van Nedervelde was the Executive Director for Europe of the Foresight Institute, a nanotechnology think-tank, from 1997 to 2014.[4] He also holds the position of Global Task Force member for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.[16][17] As Executive Director for Europe, Van Nedervelde interfaced with the media and represents the institute at European Union events, including EU parliamentary hearings.[4] He has spoken at various conferences, including a working group on unconventional security threats, organized in Washington D.C. by the Strategic Assessments Group (SAG) of the US Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Intelligence.[4] Van Nedervelde co-authored the Foresight Guidelines on Molecular Nanotechnology[18] and was cited in Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near.[19]

Lifeboat Foundation

Van Nedervelde serves on the board of directors of the Lifeboat Foundation, an organization dedicated to reducing existential threats in the world.[20] He also serves as the International Spokesperson for the foundation, representing it by fundraising, giving multimedia presentations, and addressing the media.[21][22] Van Nedervelde stated that the foundation's programs fill a gap left by governments and corporations, which "only think short term, so we felt that it was critical for an organization to focus on the long term and worry about existential risks to humanity."[23]

2045 Initiative

Van Nedervelde is the Director of International Development for the 2045 Initiative, a non-profit that seeks cybernetic immortality by the year 2045.[24] He served as the keynote speaker and engaged the audience with science and technology goals during the 2013 Global Future 2045 conference at the Lincoln Center in New York.[25][21]

References
  1. "Het Denkgelag: van Aap tot Robot". Kritisch Denken. January 25, 2015. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  2. "May 1986 Features". Astronomy. 1986. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  3. Dvorsky, George (November 25, 2013). "Yes, One Person Could Actually Destroy the World". Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  4. "Philippe Van Nedervelde Executive Director, Europe, from 1997-2014". Foresight Institute. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  5. Mitchell, Samantha (August 10, 2018). "The World Ethical Day". Coin Revolution. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  6. Pinchefsky, Carol (June 18, 2013). "Dmitry Itskov Wants To Live Forever. (He Wants You To Live Forever, Too.)". Forbes.
  7. "Philippe van Nedervelde Over Technologie Van De Toekomst" (PDF). Trends. October 26, 2006. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  8. "Technoprogressive Declaration - Transvisions 2014". Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. November 22, 2014. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  9. "Philippe van Nedervelde". Coast to Coast AM. July 19, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  10. "Human Enhancement Study" (PDF). European Parliament - Directorate General for Internal Policies. May 2009. p. 162. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  11. Prisco, Giulio (July 3, 2014). "Virtually Sacred, by Robert Geraci – religion in World of Warcraft and Second Life". IEET. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  12. van Nedervelde, Philippe (2008). "Awaken the Universe - Introducing the Order of Cosmic Engineers". The Journal of Geoethical Nanotechnology. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  13. de Mesa, Alycia (February 27, 2009). Brand Avatar: Translating Virtual World Branding into Real World Success. Springer. p. 14. ISBN 9780230233713.
  14. "Philippe Van Nedervelde CEO E-spaces". Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  15. "Portfolio". e=spaces. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  16. "Towards MAPPS: Multi-laterally Assured Permanent Pervasive Sousveillance" (PDF). August 19, 2006. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  17. "CRN Global Task Force on Implications and Policy". Center for Responsible Technology. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  18. "Foresight Guidelines for Responsible Nanotechnology Development". Foresight Institute. April 6, 2006. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  19. "Prologue: The Power of Ideas" (PDF). Kurzweil. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  20. "Board of Directors". Lifeboat Foundation. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  21. Ge, Shen (February 2013). "The First SPACE Retreat" (PDF). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Scientific Preparatory Academy for Cosmic Explorers. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  22. "Philippe Van Nedervelde". World Transformed. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  23. "Lifeboat Foundation announces new existential-risk programs". Kurzweil. August 17, 2006. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  24. "L'homme qui voulait devenir cyborg: conférence transhumaniste".
  25. Pinchefsky, Carol (June 18, 2013). "Dmitry Itskov Wants To Live Forever. (He Wants You To Live Forever, Too.)". Forbes. Retrieved January 27, 2018. At the Global Future 2045 conference (GF2045) in New York City on June 15–16, 2013, emcee Philippe van Nedervelde said, 'It used to be that the only sure things are death and taxes. Soon, it will just be taxes. And if we get to live and prosper forever, perhaps even taxes will one day go the way of the Dodo too.'
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