Milken hosted a panel last night that was, in a word, brilliant. For over two hours he orchestrated incredible speakers, movie clips,famous quotesand hard-core statistics. I fear that it was lost on those in the audience who checked out early to network at the bar, but for those who stayed it was a real treat. Milken’s passion for the topic, the future of mankind and what defines us as humans, was apparent as his energy only increased as the conversation got deeper, more philosophical and spiritual.

One of the hard parts about spending the last couple of months in LA has been the dearth of intelligent conversations that take place in LA. Last night was like an oasis for meif only there was a dinner party once a week in LA where smart people came together to think and talk. Man I miss New York.

Here are some photos, I’ll post some more comments about the talk if I have time. More on the panel here.

Michael Milken, Chairman, Milken Institute; Chairman, FasterCures / The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions; co-Founder, Milken Family Foundation

Lee Hartwell, Nobel Laureate, Medicine, 2001; President and Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle

Charles Elachi, Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Sherry Turkle, Abby Rockefeller Mauz?rofessor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT; Founder and Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self

Danny Hillis, Co-Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Applied Minds, Inc.

Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate, Physics, 1997; Chair, Department of Physics, Stanford University; Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Stanford University