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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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 13th 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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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? ...

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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? ...

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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...

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