OFC Meeting 14

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09 April 2019:

"Free-for-All" Discussion of future Futures Topics

Feel free to add your thoughts here!

You might want to revisit our first, second or third "free-for-alls" to harvest some ideas.

AGENDA ITEMS

• Anne Toby, CEO of the ElderCollege, came to our last meeting and made some great contributions. We hope she will soon give us a talk on her specialty, Human Genetics. (Can humans modify themselves enough, or in time, to "cure" their tendency to destroy everything around them?)
• Keith suggested we might soon discuss

1. the future of Music,
2. the future of Big Pharma and the role of Medical Ethics and the Law.
3. In addition, in our efforts to get much younger people to attend our meetings, we might want to visit the local high school (Kwalikum) to see if it has a student debate group and if so whether some of its members might like to join us on the second Tuesday of each month!

• In our last meeting Philip led off the discussion with a reminder about the central issue of Optimism vs. Pessimism about the Future.
• This time Jess will make a few initial remarks about Farming in the Future, from which we will doubtless move on to who-knows-what. Recommended reading: "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi. Recommended viewing: "AGCC heretic" Freeman Dyson explains the connection between soil and carbon dioxide emissions. Here's another Dyson talk, this one given in Russia: "Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society". (We could probably base half a dozen OFC meetings on his various "heresies".) If you have another hour to spare, you might also enjoy watching Living Soil, a film by the Soil Health Institute. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it seems authoritative.
• Feel free to add an Agenda item here!