Category: Forums

Category for all Forum posts.

How Your Brain Invents Your “Self”

Anil Seth

A video of Anil Seth

11 a.m., August 13, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

Who are you, really? Neuroscientist Anil Seth lays out his fascinating new theory of consciousness and self, centered on the notion that we “predict” the world into existence. From sleep to memory and everything in between, Seth explores the reality we experience in our brains — versus the world as it objectively might be. (This talk and conversation, hosted by TED science curator David Biello, was part of a TED Membership event.

Seth is a professor at the University of Sussex, and co-director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness. Follow him on Twitter at @anilkseth, on Instagram at @profanilseth and visit his website at anilseth.com.

You can preview this video at https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_how_your_brain_invents_your_self

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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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Artificial Intelligence: Its Promise and Problems

Michael Abramson
Dick Duda

Presenters: Richard Duda & Michael Abramson

When: Saturday, August 12th , 2023

Pre-meeting for in-person participants:
6:00 pm – 6:45 pm: (potluck)

Pre-meeting for Zoom participants:
6:30 pm – 6:45 pm: connect to Zoom

Meeting:
6:45 pm – 7:00 pm: check-in for everybody
7:00 pm – 7:45 pm: each presentation is 20 minutes
7:45 pm – 8:40 pm: all-peer discussion

Potluck:
The in-person meeting includes a potluck at the beginning.

Where:
Fireside Room at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto (for potluck and in-person meeting)
Directions to the meeting: https://www.uucpa.org/connection/visiting-us/

Our next Humanists at UUCPA potluck meeting is on Artificial intelligence. It’s a hot topic, so this meeting has two presenters: Richard Duda & Michael Abramson, to be followed by a group discussion.

Dick wrote the following for his presentation:

In November last year, OpenAI, a small company in San Francisco, caused a sensation by making publicly available its AI chatbot — called ChatGPT3. ChatGPT’s breadth of knowledge, fluent use of English, and fast response was quite astonishing.

OpenAI and several other companies have used the same general technology — called “generative AI” — to translate languages, write computer code, create images, compose music, and even command robots.

However, if these programs do not know the answer to a question, they simply make something up — in the jargon, they “hallucinate”. Although engineers are working on this problem, it is not easy to solve, which limits their usefulness. In his presentation, Dick will give a basic explanation of how ChaptGPT works, speculate on its possible applications,
and point out the problems with its use.

The following is mostly written by Michael to describe his presentation.

Instead of focusing on chatbots, Michael will look at the bigger picture.
The “landscape of intelligence” includes
– Human Intelligence (HI). Most familiar to us, but not well understood.
– Programmed Intelligence (PI). Drives most of automation around us.
– The specialized Artificial Intelligence (AI). rapidly progressing
– Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The most powerful, controversial, and dangerous of all.

You will learn that ChatGPT is not an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), not even close, but it shows what could be an impact of AI having unrestricted access to all knowledge from the Internet.

AGI could be created using ideas borrowed from HI and PI, and can be developed surprisingly fast.

AGI can become an existential threat to humans almost immediately if it gets access to the Internet of Things (IoT). Using less advanced specialized forms of AI as the guardrails against the runaway AGI may or may not work.

Come join us.
For our potluck, please bring a dish of your choice:  vegetarian, salad, meat or dessert. Our meetings usually have 15 attendees.

More:
We usually meet on the second Saturday of each month.

To receive the Humanists at UUCPA monthly announcement and reminder, subscribe to our list:
https://www.uucpa.org/connection/affinity-groups/humanists-uucpa/

The Dictator’s Dilemma

Tim Hickson

A video of Tim Hickson

11 a.m., August 6, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

Our video for use in our discussion this week was made by Tim Hickson. He is otherwise known as Hello Future Me on YouTube, and has been making educational content to teach writing, world-building, and narrative for “a while now.” His aim is to create informative, down-to-earth, and accessible educational content for everyone. He is the author of On Writing and Worldbuilding.

This video is a tutorial for fantasy writers and world-builders on the factors that create revolutions. These factors exist in the real world and his analysis can help understand what’s happening today. Hickson’s style may seem deadpan and sarcastic, but his points are very illustrative. To make his points, he uses images from science fiction and fantasy genres to illustrate how they might look in real world scenarios.

You can preview this 15-minute video at https://youtu.be/ZeWOdF3deZI

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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.
Like us on Facebook here.
Retweet our Twitter announcement here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

What Wikipedia Teaches Us about Truth and Beliefs

Katherine Maher

A video of Katherine Maher

11 a.m., July 30, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history, and has consistently been one of the 10 most popular websites. It’s an online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers who disagree on many of the topics on which they collaborate.

So, how do we unite minds and disparate views? Instead of seeking one key truth, we must shift to a minimum viable truth, getting it right enough, enough of the time to be useful enough to enough people.

The speaker, Katherine Maher, is the former CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia. In this talk, she delves into the transparent, adaptable, and community-building ways the online encyclopedia brings free and reliable information to the public — while also accounting for bias and difference of opinion.

This 15-minute TED talk was recorded May 2022. You can preview it at https://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_maher_what_wikipedia_teaches_us_about_balancing_truth_and_beliefs

———-

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.
Like us on Facebook here.
Retweet our Twitter announcement here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar

The Danger of a Single Story

Chimamanda Adichie

A video of Chimamanda Adichie

11 a.m., July 23, 2023

Join the Humanist Forum, in person OR on Zoom.

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Ms. Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature.
Ms. Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction.

Ms. Adichie presented this popular 18-minute TED talk in 2009. You can preview it at https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

———-

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.
Like us on Facebook here.
Retweet our Twitter announcement here.
Linkedin here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
Add this event to your Google Calendar