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Finding Life Beyond Earth – Carl Sagan Day 2014
Finding Life Beyond Earth – Carl Sagan Day 2014
Dr. David Morrison
Nov 9, 2014
The search for life in the universe is one of the grand quests of current science, and there are multiple approaches that are likely to yield results within the next few decades. Depending on the nature of these discoveries, there may be a variety of impacts on society.
Morrison was one of Carl Sagan’s first graduate students, and he will also share some thoughts about Carl and his influence on science and science literacy. We can speculate on how Carl would respond were he alive today, when there are so many who are not simply uninformed, but who are actively anti-science.
Dr. David Morrison is the Director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. He was also the founding Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) and a senior scientist in Astrobiology at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1969 and has published more than 170 technical papers and a dozen books. Morrison is a passionate advocate for science education, and he has written extensively about the struggle against pseudoscience, such as the denial of evolution and global warming. He is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a member of the advisory council of the National Center for Science Education.
Humanist Community Forum (2014-11-09): Finding Life Beyond Earth (Dr. David Morrison) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
Consumer Debt, Corporate Profits and Stock Market Value – from 1950 to Present Day
Consumer Debt, Corporate Profits and Stock Market Value – from 1950 to Present Day
Martin Squibbs
May 11, 2014
Before the 2008 financial shock and stock market crash, our speaker, Martin Squibbs (Humanist Community member and leader) had little knowledge or understanding of our monetary, financial and investment systems. Since then, he has tried to learn about these areas as best he can. During this process, he discovered that consumer debt growth (considering households and government as consumers) can contribute directly, with some delay, to corporate profits and so to stock market value. After analyzing the USA ‘s macro economic history from 1950 to the present day, he concluded this has very likely been the case in the USA to a significant degree since 1980. Thus, he suspects, as we reduce our unsustainable levels of consumer debt growth, it is likely that corporate profits, earnings, and stock market value will be substantially reduced.
Click here for a PDF of Martin’s Presentation
Emily Harris
Why California Can’t Buy Its Way Out of the Prison Crisis
Emily Harris
January 12, 2014
Our criminal justice system – including our prisons and jails – is broken AND expensive. The United States, with less than five percent of the world’s population, has nearly 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population. California has one of the highest prison and jail populations in the US. Our recidivism rate at more than 67% is also among the highest.
Emily Harris, Statewide Coordinator of Californians United For a Responsible Budget (CURB ), will speak. CURB’s goal is to stop the expansion of the failed system and replace the brutal practice of putting people in cages for long periods with evidence-based treatment, rehabilitation and training programs to facilitate their reintegration back into society.
Martin Squibbs
Reality and our Memories of it
A theory of Memory and Mind, and its Implications
Martin Squibbs
October 20, 2013
I have introduced my theory regarding the form and nature of our minds and ourselves in previous talks. In this talk I want to focus on it and clarify it.
At its core, I propose that our brains not only hold our memories of our past, our knowledge, and our future; they actually form these memories in the first place. In fact, I propose the brain is the only place in reality where such memories are formed, exist and can be found. And we, ourselves, exist and live within our brain surrounded by this “world” of memories. I wish to consider the processes by which we form these and other different types of memory, along with distinguishing between our emotional and objective worlds. I wish to recognize the language and measurement systems we have abstracted from our memories in order to compare, consider, store, share and better understand them, and what methods we employ for storing and sharing them. Finally, I wish to consider some of the scientific and ethical implications of my theory, if it’s true. That is, beyond Philosophical curiosity, what difference does this theory make; to ourselves, to our human worlds, to life, and to reality as a whole? How does it help us to live more ethically, more truthfully, more joyfully, and with greater integrity?
Slides from Martin’s presentation are available here.
Dealing with Life
We remember them, wonderful, true,
Who gave us life, would see us through
We remember their love, kind and warm,
That’s cherished our worlds since we were born
And others too, of civilized means
Who created each country from fields of dreams
Who took the bitter anger of hate
And transformed it into a civilized state
And yet still more, with science in mind
Their dream, mysterious reality to find
They fill up time, with a Universe to know
Their job, true knowledge, to gently grow
Then those with a vision to improve our lives
With creative tools, and so they strive
To shape our science into technology new
And so, with computer, I write to you
And so many others, that live for our sake,
With the grain they grow, and the bread they bake
From constructing our houses, to packaging our tea
They’re shaping the dreams of the few into reality
And let’s not forget, the warrior soul
In honor and bravery, lies their role
From visions cruel, disturbed in offense
For their children above, they fight in defense
Yes, let us remember this human mind
Filled with this history of human kind,
And its dreams and its futures yet to come
Of so much work yet to be done
But my point, my friends, goes beyond these tales.
To nature, real, within which they are held.
So let us not forget where these minds persist
Within this body of life, is where they exist
Within this brain, with its billions of cells
Within this body, which poops and smells
Breathing in life, beating with heart
Walking on Earth, from the start
Relying on tree, and river, and vale
To know of now, and tell its tale
So for all the heroes remembered above
And joy and sadness, and fear and love
For all the stories we each proudly hold
Of dreams anew and pasts untold
They all depend on this living creation
Family, friends, company and nation
We must protect living nature real
To keep alive these worlds in which we deal
Martin Squibbs