Speaker – Page 28

Against the Wind: What’s the Deal with Free Will?

Michael Abramson

11 a.m., December 15, 2019

Do we really have a Free Will? If we do, in what sense our choice is “free”? If we don’t and our Free Will is just an illusion, why is this illusion so important to us, and what is behind it? Do we need a Free Will to make moral choices?

These questions were debated for centuries, but now we can try to draw insights from psychology, neuroscience, computer science, and other disciplines. Do we know enough to develop a “model” of Free Will consistent with our subjective experience and moral intuition? What can we learn from it?

Finally, even if our Free Will served us well in the past, can it still be a reliable guidance in the Silicon Age?

Let’s try to find the answers together.

Michael Abramson is a physicist specializing in system modeling and simulations, and a concerned citizen leading a “Positive Agenda” group who is involved with a number of activist organizations.

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

Against the Wind: What’s the Deal with Free Will? – Michael Abramson from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Note: If you would like to speak at a Forum, or know of someone who you think might be willing to speak at a Forum, please send an email about your idea to the HCSV Program Committee.

Bicycle Touring and Zero Waste

Tim Oey

11 a.m., December 8, 2019

Earlier this year, Tim Oey bicycled 5000 miles from San Francisco to Boston while giving 254 talks about Oceans, Plastic, Climate Change, and Kids at schools, aquariums, and museums across the US and raising money to combat climate change. Come learn about the wonders of bicycle touring, how his household of 3 people and 3 dogs generates just a quart of trash a month, and 5 easy things we all can do to save our world for our kids as well as save money. It’s really all about balance.

Tim is a long time cycling and environmental advocate. In addition to a long career in high tech at Harvard, Fidelity, Apple, Sun, and Adobe, he was the VP of Rides for the Charles River Wheelers in Boston, President of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail, vice chair for the Sunnyvale Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission, and a founding board member of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC). He often speaks at government meetings on behalf of bicyclists and the environment and is a bicycling instructor who loves to teach people how to bike and how to bike better.

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

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Note: If you would like to speak at a Forum, or know of someone who you think might be willing to speak at a Forum, please send an email about your idea to the HCSV Program Committee.

How We Know What We Know: Quantum Mechanics

Ron Garret

11 a.m., November 17, 2019

This is another in a series of talks on the history of science and how we came to our present understanding of how our world works. This installment focuses on quantum mechanics.

Ron Garret is a software engineer by trade. He is currently working on easy-to-use-cryptography software. He was a co-founder and CTO of Virgin Charter, and an early hire at Google. He was previously a rocket scientist. He also made a feature-length documentary about homelessness (www.graceofgodmovie.com). His blog can be found at blog.rongarret.info.

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

How We Know What We Know: Quantum Mechanics – Ron Garret from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Note: If you would like to speak at a Forum, or know of someone who you think might be willing to speak at a Forum, please send an email about your idea to the HCSV Program Committee.

Future History; a General and Personal Perspective

Gerald D. Nordley

11 a.m., November 3, 2019

Gerald D. Nordley is a science fiction writer, physicist, and astronautical engineering consultant whose fiction writing is most associated with Analog Science Fiction and Fact. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._David_Nordley)

Here is Mr. Nordley’s summary of his talk:

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There are, of course, many efforts to anticipate future events ranging from the weather forecast for tomorrow to projections of the end state of the universe, done by various professionals for economic, environmental, military, and scientific reasons, which more often than not put out a range of possibilities of, for example, the sea level a hundred years from now.

A science fiction writer, however, cannot rely on a range of possibilities. To tell a story, the wave function of the future must collapse to particulars; with backgrounds, names, events and often numbers. These will certainly vary greatly from the details of the reality to come, but may otherwise shed at least qualitative light on possibilities and offer hope or warning regarding what may come to be. Imagine an ocean of post-historical spaghetti, and then extracting one noodle from all off that to use as the background for a story, or set of stories. This is more or less what I and a number of other writers have done.

For this talk, I’ll look at a very focused non-fiction future history of the development of mass-beam propulsion for interstellar travel, then a couple of science-fictional future histories; Robert A. Heinlein’s, and my own.

Because he published his, I will publish mine at some point, and I have graphics! Heinlein’s is in his 1967 collection, The Past through Tomorrow (I have the 1975 Berkley Medallion Books paperback and it’s on page 661). I should have a copy of mine available for the meeting.

My bottom line is that, while nobody can predict the future exactly, close counts, and the exercise is particularly useful in highlighting where not to go.
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After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

Future History: a General and Personal Perspective – Gerald D. Nordley from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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See videos of our past Forums here.

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The Remarkable Story Of the Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford

Geri Spieler

11 a.m., October 27, 2019

Geri Spieler, a Silicon Valley freelance writer, will discuss her book “Taking Aim At The President: The Remarkable Story Of the Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford” (St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan).

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

The Remarkable Story Of the Woman Who Shot At Gerald Ford – Geri Spieler from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

RSVP on Meetup here.
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See videos of our past Forums here.

To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Note: If you would like to speak at a Forum, or know of someone who you think might be willing to speak at a Forum, please send an email about your idea to the HCSV Program Committee.