GeekSpeak – Is it time for a global food reset? Join the discussion May 6th at 12pm SLT

 

The way in which food plants are grown is changing.  DNA engineering, hydroculture, recreating ideal environments inside giant containers; all these techniques will soon be widespread.  Food plants are, right now, quite different from the way they were in earlier centuries.  What will they be like in 100 years?

Will all countries grow all the plants that they need when they don’t have to rely on natural conditions?  We will gain food security but lose world trade.  Will countries that now export food suffer?  How will the global economy change?  Will we soon see a worldwide food surplus?

Come to GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss our food.  Bring your own carrots, and all your farmer friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Breaking news: Time Travel is theoretically possible. Join the discussion Saturday, March 18th at 12pm SLT

Time travel (but only to the future) is possible soon.  Come and join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss how we can travel ahead in time and why we would want to do so.

Would you like to travel into the future?  Will you jump ahead 10 or 100 or maybe 1000 years? Or will you stay in the here and now?

Jumping ahead would satisfy your curiosity might make you rich if you have invested wisely, and might mean finding a cure for any disease you have.  But would you be able to understand future people?  Or would you be like a Neanderthal arriving in 2023?

Come to GeekSpeak and tell us how you feel about time.  Bring all your Neanderthal friends!

IM Vulcan Viper teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – What would a Society of Robots look like? Join the discussion on Saturday, February 18th at 12pm SLT

 

Let’s imagine that in 10 years time, robots have taken over the earth.  Humans are either extinct or kept as pets.  What will the new robotic society look like? 

Will robots live together peacefully, or will they have wars like us?  Will they have belief systems and political parties?  Will they build telescopes and spaceships and discover the stars?  Or will they do nothing that is not obviously practical?

Will they form robot families and friendships or be solitary?  Will they be able to change their nature to suit their ideas of the perfect society, as we cannot? 

Will their society eventually fail?  Maybe humans will have to clean up the scraps after the age of the bots.

Join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss the coming robot society.  No robots are allowed, so bring all your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Can we cheat Death? Join the discussion on Saturday, February 10th at 12pm SLT

Will we soon be able to prolong our lives, even perhaps live forever? By uploading our minds to computers, slowly replacing our organic neurons with silicon chips, buying or stealing young organs from others, reversing the degeneration caused by aging, or freezing our bodies?  How many methods of cheating death will become available?

Would cheating death in these ways be wise, or moral?  Would you want to live forever?  Are you afraid you might be forced to live forever even if you wanted to die?

Join us in GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss what all this will mean for humanity.  Bring all your friends!  It’s a matter of life and death!

IM Vulcan Viper teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – The City of 2050! What will it be like? Join the discussion Saturday Jan 28th at 12pm SLT

 

What will the cities of the future look like?  Flying drones everywhere?  Tunnels underground?  A dome over every city?

Will the cities of 2050 be filled with green plants and open spaces?  Or will they be made of tightly packed cubicles?

Will the streets be full of rubbish, or will bots clean it all up?  Will there still be cars on the streets?  Or will we see moving walkways everywhere?  Will there be buildings 1000 floors high, or perhaps 1000 floors deep? And vertical gardens and farms?

Would you like to live in any of these possible future cities?  Please join us in GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to talk about your future, if you are city dwellers.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Earth: A New Hope? Join the discussion on Saturday, January 14th at 12pm SLT

In the darkest part of the year, at the start of a new one, we need to ask what will bring hope to the world.  Hope means something different for everyone and we all have our own personal hopes.  But how can we give humanity as a whole some hope for the future?  What is needed to turn the current feeling of hopelessness around?

Should we talk about all the progress that has been made in the past?  Or describe how the world will look if everything goes well? Does space exploration offer hope?  Is there an invention that would bring hope?  A book?  A movie?  Or even a pop singer?  What do we need to show us a bright future for humanity?

Join us in GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday to talk about all the reasons for hope.  Bring a notebook and your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Should we be more logical? Or are we all right as we are? Join the discussion on January 7th at 12pm SLT

 

Is it dangerous that the world is run by irrational, emotional humans?  Should we turn our culture into a Vulcan culture?  Should we teach kids critical thinking and force politicians to listen to science?  Or even, as some people have suggested, have scientists run the country? 

Or is our natural, human way of doing things the best way?  And why should we trust scientists to get things right when they are just as illogical and human as the rest of us?

Maybe we should use our human emotions to help the world.  Make utopian movies and songs and get people to be optimistic and hopeful about the future.

Come to GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT and discuss how to change the world for the better.  Bring a whiteboard and your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Will there be Christmas on Pluto? Join the discussion Saturday December 24th at 12:00 pm SLT

If you were living there, on Star Date 29941426, would you celebrate Earthly events?  It would be difficult to celebrate a midwinter feast on a planet with a long year where most people never experience winter.  And will you celebrate your Earth birthday or your Pluto or Mars birthday?  Would your age, measured in years, change as you moved from planet to planet?  How do you compare the ages of Earthlings and Marslings? 

If the colonists do celebrate Christmas will they celebrate it every 365 Earth days?  Or will they adjust the date to their own planet?

Will time still be measured in Earth days in the far future?  Will it be easy to adjust to a new day and a new year?

Join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss time and Christmas in the future.  Bring your friends and an atomic clock.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Internet! Does it support freedom or tyranny? Join the discussion on Saturday, December 17th at 12pm slt

 

Come and join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT.  Let’s ask if the internet is good or bad for our world and for democracy. We now have a splintered internet (a splinternet) where dictators can censor parts of it and even shut it down at will.  Will we ever have a free, universal internet again or will it break into more than the 36(!) versions we have now?  What is needed to make it free again?  Are dictators able to use the internet to increase their power and control?

On the other hand, maybe the existence of the internet, even when it is not completely free, helps us to be free.  People in countries where it is banned know about it and will find ways to get at it.  While it exists, even in 36 versions, no one can be completely cut off from the rest of the world.  Join us to discuss freedom and the internet.  Bring your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Will Bitcoin save us from monetary collapse? Join the discussion on Saturday, December 3rd at 12pm SLT

 

Bitcoin recently saw its 13^th birthday.  What is going on nowadays in the bitcoin world?  And why are people still puzzled by it?  Some see it as the best invention ever and think it will save the monetary system of the world.  Others think it is doomed to fail and no one should invest in it.

Is the energy used to mine bitcoin a serious problem?  Is bitcoin still a good investment or is it far too risky?  What will a future where all money is blockchain-based look like?

Bring your friends to GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss the world of bitcoin and its future.  Serious people only.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – How do we save our planet? Join the discussion on Saturday, August 27th at 12:00 pm Noon SLT

There are so many things that threaten Earth or life on Earth or human life on Earth.  What should be done about them all?  And what should we, as individuals, do about all the threats?

Climate change threatens all life.  Plastic pollution threatens all marine life and maybe all life.  Habitat destruction threatens thousands of species.  Pandemics and the dishonesty of Big Pharma threaten human life.  Then there is the threat of an asteroid hit, nuclear war, or a deliberate biological attack. 

What should we be doing?  Is there any hope?  Or maybe you don’t think there is any serious danger?  Or perhaps the only answer is to change the way our societies are run?

Come and join us in GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss the danger we are in.  Bring anyone who is worried about it.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class in the GeekSpeak auditorium every Wednesday, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 18th June at noon SLT: Let’s talk astronomy!

 

This week we will talk about stargazing.  For thousands of years, people have looked up at the stars, imagined pictures in the night sky, and tried to understand how the universe worked, what planets are, and how and why they move.  How would we think about the universe and our place in it if we lived on a planet where we could not see the stars?

Do you stargaze?  Join our star party at noon SLT on Saturday to talk about the stars and how we can enjoy the night sky. 

This is a field where amateurs can still do real science.  And it is so much fun.  Bring your friends.  And a telescope!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 28th May at noon SLT: How do we fight misinformation?

 

Misinformation is the problem of our era.  All the time people post untruths for political, ideological, or financial reasons, or just for fun.  Millions of people believe things that are not true.  The situation will get worse as technology improves and deepfakes become common. 

The worst examples of false information come from North Korea and Russia but there are plenty from the West as well.  How can we trust anything?

How do we fight it?  Could AI help, perhaps by checking everything posted?  But why would we trust AI?  Or the people who program AI? Are there other solutions?

Will there ever be a time when people can rely on information?  Was there ever such a time?

Come to GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to ask if we are lost.  Bring your factsheets and your friends!

IM Vulcan, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 21st May at noon SLT: What if we could all understand each other?

 

Will we all speak just one language in the future?  Will that one language co-exist with thousands of local languages? Or will it be the only language we know?

Or will we understand each other because we have AI devices, either external or internal, that can translate anything?  Will that revolutionize the world?  Suddenly you can have a deep discussion about Shakespeare with your Iranian neighbour or watch a football game with your Norwegian friends.  People will even be able to invent their own languages.  Will this AI bring peace to the world or will it bring more problems?  What happens if the AI devices suddenly stop working?  Babel AI?

Come to GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday to discuss the world of words.  Bring a dictionary and your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 16th April at noon SLT: Is the Age of Abundance coming?

 

There is a theory that in the coming year's many essential items in the world economy will become (almost) free.  Free food, clothes, housing, medicine, energy, education.  Maybe even free transport, free computers, free holidays, free cosmetic surgery.  An age of plenty is coming for everyone.

Will that happen?  How will it happen?  Will increasing technology and increasing knowledge mean that the cost of keeping 20 billion humans alive and happy will become marginal?  Do you find it hard to believe in the Age of Abundance in a world where people still starve to death?

What will it be like to live in such a world, if it does happen? Come to GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday and discuss our hopefully very near future.  Bring all your stuff!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – What is our purpose? Eat, Drink and be Merry? Join the discussion March 26th at 12pm slt

What is your purpose in life?  Is it enough to eat and drink and enjoy as much of life as you can?  Or do we all need a higher purpose?  Do we need a purpose that is just for us?

Does having your own purpose make you happier?  Is it worth trying to find one?  Will we still be looking for a purpose even if all our wishes on earth are met?

Can you find a purpose in the future of our species? In the colonization of other planets perhaps?  Or in the end of disease or war?  Do duties and obligations provide a purpose?

Come and join us in GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday to discuss what drives us and where we are going.  Bring all your friends, and a map!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 5th March at noon SLT: How much of the world is hidden from our senses?

 

We tend to think these days that we can observe and measure everything but there is a lot going on out there that we are not aware of.  There are birds that react to differences in air temperature and others that can detect magnetic fields.  There are animals that can see infrared or ultraviolet.  Plants can detect and respond to chemicals given off by other plants.

There are ecosystems deep in the ocean or underground that we know nothing about.  There are processes in deep space that are too slow for us to sense.  And some living processes, like birdsong, are too fast for us.

Join us in GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday and re-learn how to see the world.  Let’s imagine how it might look if we had more and better senses.  Bring all your eyes and ears!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 26th February at noon SLT: Is this the Best Time to be Alive?

 

Would you rather live 1000 years in the past, or 100 years in the past, or maybe just 20 years in the past?  In the past ordinary people could understand technology and see where we were heading and perhaps it was a more hopeful, and in many ways a more beautiful, world then. 

Or would you like to live in the future?  In the year 3000, or 2100 or maybe the year 2042?  Will the future be better or worse than the present?  Is there any way to tell?  Can you see signs of what is to come?  Or is the future completely unpredictable, determined by unknown ‘black swans’?

If we survive the next 20 years what world will we see?  Will we wish we were back in 2022?  Will we have to start all over again?  Or will everything be better?

Join us in GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday to see the future.  Bring your crystal ball!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 19th February at noon SLT: Can we live without money?

 

There are some people who firmly believe that humanity should stop using money.  They point to those who are homeless or starving or dying from lack of medical care and say that all these problems would be solved if we lived in a society that did not depend on money.

Many different forms of money have been used through the ages: beads, shells, cigarettes, gold.  But has there ever been a society without any form of money at all?  What would happen to us if we stopped using it?  How would society work?  Or perhaps you think it would not work at all? 

Join us in GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss a world without money.  Would it be a utopia or a dystopia, or simply chaos?  Bring your friends and something to barter with.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 12th February at noon SLT: What will be the most profound technology in the next 10 years?

 

As a species, we are facing a future with huge changes.  AI, new materials, abundant energy, biotech, gen therapy, abundant internet, underpopulation, mass unemployment, all these, and many more will make big differences in the next 10 years.

How will we deal with all this? Is Universal Basic Income the answer?

If not, will we see a ‘digital divide’ with an elite and a lot of people in the useless masses?

And what is on the other side?

Come and discuss the future in GeekSpeak at noon SLT this Saturday.  Your life depends on it.  Bring your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday in the GeekSpeak auditorium, if you have ideas for new subjects.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Danmu/143/127/51

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