Category: Forums

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My Theory of Everything – Putting Time in Motion and Worlds in Brains

Martin Squibbs

Martin Squibbs

11 a.m., September 17, 2023

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I have long held the theory that time may not be a real physical 4th dimension as it is commonly believed to be, and modeled in the sciences. Instead, perhaps reality is simply the motion of physical things in only 3 dimensions, absent of time. And within this reality, our brains are creating virtual, abstracted “forms” of physical reality beyond them, and storing these forms as memories. These forms being our perceptions, and these memories being their past. And you and I, ourselves, exist here in our brains, and experience these perceptions and observe these past memories as our objective world in mind. In this case, I believe time, or more accurately time bases, may be just particular types of these objective past memories; regular repeating ones. We, ourselves, remember and count these different times, and use them to order and measure the relative duration of our other past memories. And we also use these times to order and measure the duration of futures we imagine and predict in our minds; these futures being our projections of yet-to-be-perceived, experienced and observed past objective memories. So between our self and our brain, we create our future objective memories here in our brain.

9/17/2023 Martin Squibbs from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
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Climate Change: Why Facts Don’t Matter

Helen Floersh

A video by WISECRACK about Climate Change

11 a.m., September 10, 2023

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This Sunday we will discuss a “Climate Change: Why Facts Don’t Matter,” a video that examines why climate change denialism survives in the face of overwhelming evidence. It covers many of the attempts to falsify data about the greenhouse effect and global warming, and create the illusion that there is doubt among those who have studied it.
This video is produced by WISECRACK, sponsored by Curiosity Stream, and hosted by Helen Floersh .
WISECRACK is a collective of academics, filmmakers, artists and pop-culture junkies who are curious about the world and explore big ideas like philosophy and critical thinking.
Curiosity Stream is an American media company and subscription video streaming service that offers documentary programming including films, series, and TV shows.

You can preview this 22-minute video at https://youtu.be/MMCL_ooDWJ0?si=XRD6Q0GO2aJn44hU

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
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You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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Hot or Not: Steven Koonin Questions Conventional Climate Science and Methodology

Steven Koonin

A video about Hot or Not: Steven Koonin Questions Conventional Climate Science and Methodology

11 a.m., September 3, 2023

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This Sunday we will watch and discuss a video from Uncommon Knowledge from the Hoover Institution about “Hot or Not: Steven Koonin Questions Conventional Climate Science and Methodology.”

“In this wide-ranging discussion, based in part on his 2021 book,Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Koonin gives a more refined look at the science behind the climate issue than the media typically offers, guiding us through the evidence and its implications. As Koonin explains in this interview, he was “shaken by the realization that climate science was far less mature than I had supposed” and that the “overwhelming evidence” of catastrophic implications of anthropogenic global warming wasn’t so overwhelming after all.”

You can preview this 55-minute video at https://www.hoover.org/research/hot-or-not-steven-koonin-questions-conventional-climate-science-and-methodology

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
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You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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Critical Race Theory

Professor Sam Richards

Four videos about Critical Race Theory

11 a.m., August 27, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

Critical Race Theory, CRT, has become a big issue in the culture war we keep hearing about. This Sunday we will look at what is CRT, what is taught and what should be taught in schools.

We start with a 6-minute video, “Critical race theory: Experts break down what it actually means” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svj_6w0EUz4).

In a 3-minute piece “What is critical Race Theory” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gdxrkwpPKc), Berkeley sociology professor Prudence Carter is interviewed on PBS NewsHour.

A 2-minute piece, ‘Critical Race Theory in Public Schools” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBzt6vhseww), by News2JAX, presents conflicting views on new rules proposed by Florida’s Board of Education.

Finally, “Should Critical Race Theory Be Taught in Schools?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwbK0qVjBsA) is a short, 17-minute segment from an introductory class on race and culture taught by Professor Sam Richards at Penn State University. “Dr. Richards reshaped a class on race relations, taking it from one of the least popular in the Liberal Arts College to one of the most popular courses campus-wide.” (Portrait by Ddiptee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108961142)

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

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The Blind Spots of the Green Energy Transition

Olivia Lazard

A video of Olivia Lazard

11 a.m., August 20, 2023

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The world needs clean energy, but de-carbonization calls for a massive increase in the mining and extraction of minerals like lithium, graphite and cobalt. Olivia Lazard, a fellow at Carnegie Europe, sheds light on the scramble for these mineral resources – and how the countries that control their supply chains could find themselves at the center of a new global stage. Lazard thinks planetary security depends on our ability to de-escalate resource competition.

Lazard’s research at Carnegie Europe focuses on the geopolitics of climate, the transition ushered in, and the risks of conflict and fragility associated with climate change and environment collapse. She has twelve years of experience in the peacemaking sector at field and policy levels.

She has worked for various NCOs, the UN, the EU, and states in the Middle East, Latin America, Sub-Saharan and North Africa, and parts of Asia. Her focus was to understand how globalization and the international political economy shaped patterns of violence and vulnerability patterns as well as formed new types of conflict systems that our international governance architecture has difficulty tackling.

You can preview this 18-minute video at https://www.ted.com/talks/olivia_lazard_the_blind_spots_of_the_green_energy_transition

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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
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Retweet our Twitter announcement here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
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