Category: Forums

Dr. Ralph Merkle

April 30, 2017

History makes it abundantly clear that science and technology are constantly advancing. Flight to the moon was little more than a dream in 1900, by 1969 it had become a reality. Today, medical technology can’t always keep us alive, let alone healthy. Looking ahead, we can already see technologies that will keep us both alive and healthy for as long as we want. How can those of us alive today, who are in need of this future medical technology, reach it? By preserving ourselves using ultracold temperatures. This will stabilize our condition and preserve us, unchanged, until future technologies can be developed that can restore us to vibrant good health. This is the promise of cryonics. This talk will offer a glimpse of these future technologies and how they might work, as well as the practice of cryonics today.

A Stanford University Ph.D. who co-invented public key cryptography, Dr. Merkle (merkle.com) was a research scientist at Xerox PARC, a Nanotechnology Theorist at Zyvex, and a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A winner of the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology, he is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a Director of Alcor, and Department Chair for Nanotechnology at Singularity University.

 

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-30): Cryonics – Preserving Ourselves for the Future (Dr. Ralph Merkle) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Tom Bergstrom

April 23, 2017

HCSV member Tom Bergstrom will discuss how to use mobile phone apps and web commerce to fight right wing groups, how to buy products and invest in socially responsible companies that value ethical behavior, and socially responsible investing and lobbying, mostly through online sources.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Jason Kazarian

April 16, 2017

What’s it like to live in Armenia, a former Soviet republic and a member of today’s Commonwealth of Independent States? Pretty much like living in America before the Great Depression. People have cars, electricity, factory jobs, and homes, but still make their own bread and cheese.

Jason Paul Kazarian worked in Armenia from 2008-2009 as a director of an IT training academy. Join him for an “agri-tour” of this tiny nation in the Caucus Mountains where the 21st century has, in some respects, yet to arrive.

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-16): Forward To The Past: Life In A Second-World Country (Jason Kazarian) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Fred Edwords

April 9, 2017

As we face a strongly divided nation, populated by those with opposing concepts of our national identity, history, and ideals, it’s time to take an honest look at our traditions and answer some hard questions. Do we have a national religion after all? If so, exactly what is it? And where might it take us? This talk will explore often overlooked aspects of American culture, allow us to see ourselves as others see us, and thereby inform the choices we must make for our future.

Fred Edwords is director of planned giving for the American Humanist Association, an organization he served for fifteen years as executive director and twelve years as editor of its national magazine, The Humanist.

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-09): The Religious Character of American Patriotism (Fred Edwords) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Jonathan Karpf

April 2, 2017

The presenter will address the evidence for competing models of where new species – including our own – come from, including evolution within a lineage vs. splitting of a line, geographic isolation vs. adaption to different aspects of the range, gradualism vs. punctuated equilibrium, with a specific focus on the emergence of Homo sapiens from a Homo ergaster ancestor.

Jonathan Karpf is a biological anthropologist trained at UC Berkeley and who has been teaching at San Jose State University in the Department of Anthropology since 1987.

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-02): Models of Speciation: modes and tempos (Jonathan Karpf) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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