GeekSpeak – Is Space a waste of money? Join the discussion on March 11th at 12pm slt

Why do we spend so much money on Space when there are so many causes that need money down here?  Shouldn’t Earth come first?

This is an often-heard complaint about the space industry so let’s address it.  Why do we spend money on launching satellites, going to the moon or Mars, exploring Pluto, finding out about exoplanets, and planning a future in space? 

Perhaps you think we should not put money into space.  Or do you see a benefit from space research?  Join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to discuss our choices.  Bring all your alien 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 – 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 – The Next Big Thing- Join the discussion on Saturday, January 21st at 12pm SLT

What do you think is the next big change that will push humanity in a different direction?  Something so important that people will look back afterward and wonder what life was like before it happened.

Any suggestion is welcome.  It could be an invention, a big natural change, a new scientific theory, a development in medicine, a change in our diet, or maybe a new cultural or religious idea.  What do you see as the most important thing that will happen in this century?

Join us in GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT.  We want to pick your brain and see if it is working.  Bring a pen 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 – 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 - 2023! Where will it take us? Join the discussion Saturday, December 31st at 12pm SLT

 

What are your predictions, hopes, and fears, for 2023 and beyond?

Will we see asteroid mining, a moon base, people on Mars?  Worldwide democracy, an end to war?  A cure for cancer?

Or will we see World War 3?  And the collapse of civilisation? And new pandemics from artificial viruses?

Where do you see Europe, USA, Iran, China, Russia going in 2023? 

Tell us what you fear and hope for, for the world or personally. Where are we all going? And what do you want for yourself in this new year?

Join us at GeekSpeak on Saturday at noon SLT to talk about the future, and what we all hope from it.

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 – 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 – Why do technologies fail? Join the discussion on Saturday Jan 4th at 12pm SLT.

There are technologies that disappear simply because the next technology is better.  But some technologies had a big promise but never got anywhere. What happened to carbon nanotubes, nanotechnology, 3d printing?  Where are the personal submarines?  Where is 3d television?  Where is the Segway?

Why were some technologies not repurposed for other uses?  Surely more could have been done with the trebuchet?  Why did the Chinese never use gunpowder for warfare?  Why does nobody have an atomic clock? 

Let’s discuss why some technologies stall for years, or disappear altogether.  What technologies can you think of that should have taken off but never did?
 Start up your steam engines and get to GeekSpeak.  Bring your friends.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a class on meditation in the GeekSpeak auditorium every Wednesday at 1pm SLT, if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Is it our purpose to colonise the universe? Join the discussion Saturday November 30th at 12pm SLT

If we assume there is no other life in the universe, should we humans try religiously to ‘seed’ the universe with life?  Would that be our purpose?  If not, what is our purpose?
If we cannot colonise distant planets, will some religious groups start sending capsules of bacteria out to distant stars? 
Will that be the religion of the future?  Should we all become ‘seeders’ for the ‘church of the universe’?  Will it ever work?  Come and talk about our future ‘children’ in the stars.  Bring a friend!

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Are the World’s Currencies about to collapse? Join the discussion Saturday Nov 23rd 12pm SLT

The voices that say a collapse is imminent are getting louder and louder.  Even the most serious hotshots in the world markets are starting to scratch their heads. 
What would such a collapse look like?  Will there be safe havens in other currencies?  How long will they be safe from the collapse?

What will the aftermath look like?  Will the world’s governments come up with a solution, and how fast?

Will we ever get out of this eternal boom and bust cycle? Come and discuss with us why your budget is always short.  Bring your friends.

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Healing the Earth- Join the discussion Saturday Nov 16th at 12pm SLT

So much damage has been done to the planet.  Deforestation, seas filled with plastic, acid rain.  This week we will be talking about the various ways in which humanity has started to clean up the world.  There are many efforts underway, from recycling plastic to planting millions of trees.

What is really needed to make cleaning up economically viable?  Can we think of ways to make money out of it?  Will there be ‘recycling billionaires’?  Can we trust the people in charge of recycling not to tip it all into landfill?

What are we doing to reduce the stream of waste that we produce?  Do you see an era coming when everything will be made from renewable materials?  What will that world be like? 

Can we ever succeed in healing the planet completely?  Is it worth trying to do so?  Join us in the discussion.  Bring your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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SL GeekSpeak – Do you look at the future with Fear or with Hope? Join the discussion September 21st at 12pm SLT

On the one hand, we are all healthier than we were and living longer.  The number of people in severe poverty decreases all the time.  Technology improves all the time.  We now accept our responsibility to protect the natural world.  And we will soon be moving out into space and founding colonies on other planets.
On the other hand, there is always the danger of a third World War, government agencies increase in power all the time, new diseases have appeared, fanaticism of all sorts seems to be increasing, and of course the whole planet may be destroyed by an asteroid.
Can we solve our problems and continue our journey into a better future?  Or are we facing disaster?  Tell us what you think our chances are.  Are you hopeful or fearful?  Or both?  Bring your friends to discuss it.
IM Vulcan Viper if you have any ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – how do we stop the paperclip maximizer? Join the discussion Saturday September 7th at 12pm SLT

The paperclip maximizer is an AI that makes paperclips and never stops making them.  Its existence, or possible existence, presents us with the problem of how to talk to an AI.  For example, if we say “AI, make me a lot of paperclips” will the AI then start to convert the entire solar system into paperclips.  Can we stop such a runaway AI?  Or will it eventually kill itself? 

If the paperclip maximizer spreads across the universe, will different versions of it form different opinions as to what a paperclip is?  Will the different AI factions start a war with each other?

What should we do to prevent any of this from ever happening?  How should we talk to an AI?  Or are we all doomed to be turned into paperclips?

Come and discuss our future as AI feedstock.  To get warmed up, watch this video: The Paperclip Maximizer 

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GeekSpeak – reaching a Kardashev Type 1 civilization. Join the Discussion on Saturday, August 31st at 12pm SLT

Reaching level 1 on the Kardashev scale means storing and using all the energy that the earth gets from the sun.  We will reach this when we increase our energy production about a million-fold.  Can we ever get there?  Will we need to hollow out the earth and use all the asteroids around?

What will happen if we do not reach it?  Will we fall back to stone age energy levels, or is there a middle way?

What will life be like if we do reach it?  Imagine spending a terawatt for your morning breakfast!

Come and discuss our energy future on a long timeline.  Bring your friends.

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – what should we do with all the objects in space? Join the discussion Saturday 29th June at 12pm SLT

Would you like to hitch a ride on Oumuamua, the extra-solar traveller that stayed here for a short time?  Do you support Comet Interceptor, the ESA plan to be ready for the next interstellar visitor, so that we can gather information from it?  Who knows, some interstellar visitors may be alien drones.

Or would you like to capture an asteroid as JAXA plans to do?  To mine it, to understand it, to figure out how we could live in it. 

Or do you have wilder ideas about how to deal with the solar system?  A telescope on the far side of the moon, a gas station on Titan, an underwater restaurant on Pluto?  Come and tell us!  We are exploring the usefulness of our neighbours in the solar system.  Bring some mining equipment.

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Where is money going? Join the discussion Oct 27th at 12pm SLT

This week is the 10-year anniversary of the invention of Bitcoin.  Let’s take this opportunity to explore what bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have brought us.

Many countries around the world are now ditching the US dollar.  What currency will they take up instead?  Could this be the best chance for cryptocurrencies?

What will the financial future of the world look like?  Will we end up with a world currency?  Will all our present currencies disappear?  What effect will the change in currencies have on the world economy?  Which parts of the world will thrive and which will perish?

Can you see a future world without money at all?  How would such a world work?

Come and get some insights into our financial future.  Your retirement depends on it.

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects

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GeekSpeak – book and link exchange party! Join us on Saturday July 21st at 12pm SLT

Which science books, science websites or science youtube channels are your favourites?  And why?  This week we will be talking about the best science spots on the net or in the library.  

What do you like best?  Are there some books or websites you like but don’t understand?  Maybe you can find help at GeekSpeak.  Or maybe there are some science subjects that you think should be written about.  Maybe someone at GeekSpeak will write about them.

Come and tell us about your experiences with science books or websites.  Share your favourites with others and find a few you have never heard about.

IM Vulcan Viper if you have ideas for new subjects.

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GeekSpeak – Uploading minds to Computers- Part 2 Join the Discussion Saturday March 31st at 12pm SLT

Do you think it will ever be possible to copy the pattern of neurons in a person’s brain and then upload that information to a computer so that the person continues to live as a form of AI?  If that were done would the new AI be the same person as before?  Would it be a conscious, aware person at all?

If minds could be uploaded to computers would you want to do it yourself?  Would you want it for people you love, who would otherwise be dead?

What would the world inside a computer be like?  Would we walk around in robot bodies?  Or would we live in virtual worlds in the computer?  Could uploading into a horrible virtual world be used as a form of punishment, a punishment that might last forever?  Would we see the beginning of a real Hell and a real Heaven?

When will all this happen?  Thousands of years in the future or maybe, as some think, in 10 years time?

Please IM Vulcan Viper if you have any ideas for future subjects.

Happy Easter!

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SL GeekSpeak – Uploading Minds to Computers- Join the Discussion on Saturday March 24th at 12pm SLT

Do you think it will ever be possible to copy the pattern of neurons in a person’s brain and then upload that information to a computer so that the person continues to live as a form of AI?  If that were done would the new AI be the same person as before?  Would it be a conscious, aware person at all?

If minds could be uploaded to computers would you want to do it yourself?  Would you want it for people you love, who would otherwise be dead?

What would the world inside a computer be like?  Would we walk around in robot bodies?  Or would we live in virtual worlds in the computer?  Could uploading into a horrible virtual world be used as a form of punishment, a punishment that might last forever?  Would we see the beginning of a real Hell and a real Heaven?

Come and talk to us about the year million.

Please IM Vulcan Viper if you have any ideas for future subjects.

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SL GeekSpeak – Censorship and our resistance to it. June 10th at 12pm SLT

Most people know that they live in a world where speech and images are censored, on television, in films, on social media.  There are some things that cannot be said and that we are not allowed to see.  But does anyone know how much is censored or who decides what is to be censored and why?

What would happen if nothing were censored?  Would that mean freedom or disaster?  Do you think we need more censorship?  Does censorship make some people more free?  Does it protect us from bullies or perhaps from actual violence?

Who is in control of the censorship?  Did we vote for the censors?  If we didn’t vote for them do they have the right to censor us?  Who do you think should be in control?  Should we know who decides what is to be censored?

Come to GeekSpeak to ‘take the news from behind.’

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GeekSpeak – life on an orbital station: Join the discussion Saturday April 22nd at 12pm SLT

It is already possible to visit the International Space Station as a tourist.  When there are several giant space stations just a 10 minute flight from earth many people will want to visit.

What will life be like on a zero gravity space station?  Will the stations be the most popular tourist destinations ever?  Or cheap theme parks with bad food?

The views of earth will be amazing.  Zero gravity will be fun, at least for a while.  Will ordinary earth sports be possible on the stations?  Will there be new zero gravity sports?  Will new laws be needed?  How long will tourists be able to stay before they become physically unable to return to earth?

If some people live and work there permanently will they, or their children, differ physically from earth people?  Will the sky people consider themselves superior?

Come and help us write the future travel guides to space, with a hitchhiking section of course.

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