OFC Meeting 11

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13 Nov 2018:

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

Feel free to add your thoughts here!

AGENDA ITEMS

• Do we go on? Attendance has been "spotty" for the last few months -- partly due to "vacation season" no doubt -- but if interest is dwindling we should just stop; some indications of commitment [or lack of same] would be timely at this stage. Please use our Doodle Poll to indicate whether you plan to come to OFC meetings in 2019!
• If so, where? The Qualicum Foods Board Room has been a nice venue, but it is a long journey for our Nanaimo members, not all of whom have cars. Another possibility might be the meeting room of the North Branch of the Nanaimo Public Library, on Hammond Bay Rd.
• And when? Is 2-4 PM on the second Tuesday of each month still our optimal choice?
• For the December and subsequent meetings, what would be some good topics?
• For our non-driving Nanaimo members: if you are in need of a ride to the meeting, please contact Jess -- I might be willing to pick up and deliver, just to keep a quorum. :-)

POSSIBLE TOPICS

• Add your suggestion here!
• Humans are social animals but our contemporary culture, our universities, workplaces and city design, operate as if the most important unit is the individual. In what ways could we evolve our culture, taking advantage of our knowledge of human psychology (eg what makes happy) and the future symbiosis with intelligent, connected machines (smartphones on steroids) so that it is more community based, more inline with our evolutionary nature? Everyone could have a virtual AI assistant which would know everything about the person (though certain things could be kept secret) and based on privacy settings some of the information would be shared with other AI assistants. Depending on interests and location and time the assistants would suggest and then arrange direct personal interactions (like facebook but more intelligent, not directed to advertising revenue and taking much less time). A university would proactively select prospective students via their assistants. The university would, proactively, or when requested, give all possible assistance to their students to help them have good social lives and complete their courses. Note that this topic relates back to Roland’s ideas on a future meritocracy. -- Philip
• There is much talk of sending a mission to Mars these days. We could discuss whether Mars is the best destination for the first off-Earth colony, as opposed to the Moon or free-flying O'Neill space colonies. We could also discuss whether this fascination represents a "pioneering spirit" or simply an acknowledgement that we have no intention of cleaning up our act here on Earth -- and if the latter, whether ET would be wisest to exterminate us before we get any further. If you're especially interested in this topic, the Outer Space Institute is having a conference at UBC on Nov 16. Sounds interesting!
• There is also a talk at UBC next Wed evening entitled "Are we quantum brains, or merely clever robots?" If anyone wants to go, let Jess know.

MINUTES (of sorts -- maybe more like SECONDS?)

7 people showed up. All were in favour of continuing the OFC. The QF Board room is a pretty nice venue. Keith will prepare a letter requesting a continuation of our reservation for 2019.

There was some discussion of inviting some younger folks to join up (or at least visit), in order to establish some intergenerational communication; after all, when they are trying to deal with this mess, we'll all probably be dead. :-)

We also toyed with the idea of dispensing with "discussion leaders" and just having a free discussion every month (on a predetermined topic, of course) so that more than one short, organized presentation could be accommodated. There was no clear decision on this, but we all recognized the value of at least one person being thoroughly prepared to discuss the topic.

Most of us were interested in the idea of inviting "experts" to give us presentations, if we can successfully recruit same. An alternative might be to play TED talks on a laptop; we'll see if that gives satisfactory results.

Possible topics for next month included "The Robots are Coming", "Accelerated Evolution of H. sap." (by genetic manipulation), "The Future of Free Speech" and "How to Avoid Crippling Pessimism" (this was in response to my bleak outlook, I think).

For next month, I THINK we decided on a reprise of my disastrous inaugural presentation on "Demographics and Immigration" -- perhaps I can do a better job showcasing GapMinder.org and Hans Rosling this time. (Also a great example of How to Be Optimistic!)

-- Jess