GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 5th February at noon SLT: Does an empire really work?

There are some terrible empires on this planet, like North Korea and Turkmenistan.  There are also more moderate empires, like the West.  But in both cases, people want more freedom. 

How much freedom should people have?  If we all have complete freedom, is that not anarchy?  Where is the ‘sweet spot’?  What is the difference between being a slave and being free? 

What is needed to bring bad empires down and good empires up?  Could we live without empires?

Come and join us in GeekSpeak this Saturday at noon SLT, if your chain is long enough to get here.  Bring all your free or unfree 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 subject for Saturday 29th January at noon SLT: How do you kill a bot? Will Asimov’s laws protect us?

 

When robots become intelligent enough to roam the streets there could be armies of bad bots roaming around too.  How can we protect ourselves?  Can we make sure that robots are never programmed to do evil?  That no one ever makes bots without the 3 laws of robotics? 

Will the 3 laws be enough?  Even Asimov thought they could fail in the end.

Can we prevent a terminator scenario before it happens?  What options do we have?  Could we all emigrate to Mars after checking the ship for stowaway bots?  Is there a better solution?  Or do you think robots will never be a danger to us?  Come to GeekSpeak at noon SLT on Saturday to talk about it.  Bring all your robots.

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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Here is the GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 22nd January at noon SLT: War! What causes it?

Why do we fight wars?  Why do people who could be good friends try to solve their differences by killing each other? Are wars always about resources, or religion, or justice, or revenge?  Can they be about something that no one outside the conflict can understand? 

What will the wars of the future be about? Will future wars be over almost as soon as they start?  Or will the next war last for 10,000 years?

Can we prevent wars?  Will wars end if we feed everyone properly?  Or are they in our nature?

Come and discuss the best way to peace at GeekSpeak this Saturday at noon SLT.  Bring all your fellow humans.  Guns not allowed.

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 15th January at noon SLT: Are you enjoying Veganuary?

Veganuary – a month living as a vegan!  Many people are doing it.  Are you?  Or are you doing Dry January – a month without alcohol?  Or both?

Should we all learn how to live as vegans?  Is it immoral to live in any other way?  Or do we need to be vegans because of climate change and the increasing population?  Will meat be priced out of existence in the future?  Will anyone still eat animals 100 years from now?  Or are vegans just a moralistic pest?

Will science come to our rescue with lab-produced meat?  Or will we add things like seaweed or insects (not vegan) to our menu?  Or the McPlant?  Or will we live on pills produced by our personal AI?

Come and discuss the future of food this Saturday at noon SLT.  Bring a spoon!

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 8th January at noon SLT: Should Elon Musk end World Hunger?

 

Recently Musk was asked to donate $6 billion to end world hunger.  Would that be possible?  Would there be no more starvation if a few billionaires gave some money?

If it can’t be solved in that way, how are we to end world hunger?  If new inventions guarantee free access to information for everyone, would that help?  Or how about efficient worldwide transport, to distribute the food properly?  Or how about a social change?  Should we all start thinking that it is unacceptable that anyone, anywhere, should die of starvation?

What technology are we hoping for?  Or maybe, what changes in the law?

How many years will it take to solve world hunger?  5, 20, 100?  Or will it never be solved? 

Join us at GeekSpeak, at noon SLT this Saturday.  Admission free, bring your kids!

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 January 1st at noon SLT: 2022, the year of the Starship!

 

Early this year we will see the Starship from SpaceX take off.  It will be one of the most powerful things you will ever see. 

Starship is bigger than the Saturn-5 rocket, and it can land.  It will be able to carry 150 tons of cargo to the moon.  It has several contracts already for commercial launches.  Future launches will catch the returning booster rockets with a giant tower equipped with catch arms so that they can launch again after only a few hours for refueling. 

This will get humans into space big time if we are ever to go at all.  So 2022 is the year in which we become a space-going species.  Hold your helmet, it will go very fast.  Join us at noon SLT on January 1^st to discuss it.  Bring your kerbal 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 subject for Saturday 27th November at noon SLT: How widespread is consciousness?

 

What is consciousness?  Is it something only humans have?  Or do all animals have it? Or all living things?  Or does everything that exists have some form of consciousness? Are galaxies conscious?  Or subatomic particles?

People used to think that each planet had a spirit.  And nowadays Japanese Shintoists think that there is mind in everything.  Could they be right? 

Could an android like Data be conscious?  Or a hologram like the Doctor in Voyager?

We are diving deep this week so hold your hat and come and dive with us.  Bring your pet stone or any other object that may be alive and able to think.

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 6th November at noon SLT: Will the future World Government be a World Company?

Is it possible that one company will suck up all the money and resources of the planet and eventually grow into a world government?  Some countries, like China, are run like companies now.  Could such a country win against an international conglomerate?  Will we be ruled by China or Tesla?

What will the world be like if it is run by a company?  Remember Adam Smith said that rule by company was “perhaps the worst of all governments for any country whatever.”

For those who have read Dune, are we facing something like the galaxy-sized company called Choam?

Or will even future megacorporations get disrupted by some guys tinkering in a garage?

Get out of your garage, bring your friends and discuss your future as an employee of Company X!

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 23rd October at noon SLT: The mysteries of the Inner Earth

 

Can we send a probe to the inner earth?  We know that there is a vast ocean of lava there but there will be many surprises.  For example, oceans have been found beneath the seabed. At present, the record for drilling into the earth is only 12 km, which is not very deep at all.  What will we find if we go deeper?

Why is Earth’s inner core still fluid, while the core of the moon and the core of Mars have both solidified?  What will happen if all that magma in the earth comes a little closer to the very tiny crust we live on?

Does our moon keep the inner core hot by means of gravitational forces? What would happen if these forces unleashed their power and the ‘ring of fire’ burned?

And what does LUCY have to do with it all?

Bring your temperature protective gear and your friends!

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 16th October at noon SLT: The Evolution of Communication!

 In the past we smiled at each other.  Then we invented the smiley (2 bytes).  That became the emoji (30 bytes).  Now people send many complicated emojis and they get bigger all the time.  Soon many kilobytes of information will be sent as emojis.

What will we send in the future?  If the data limit of our eyes is reached will we communicate directly via neuralink to our visual cortex?  Will we send each other pictures and videos?  Will we be able to send emotions directly?

If we can communicate with emotions and pictures will there still be a need for words?  Will we lose the ability to use words? 

Come and discuss the future of communication while you still can at 30 bytes per minute.  Bring your 2 thumbs, and your friends!

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

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GeekSpeak – Is there New Hope for our Climate? Join the discussion Sept. 18th at 12pm SLT

 

Last month a report from a thinktank called RethinkX suggested that certain disruptive technologies will mean that we produce less carbon without even meaning to.  Perhaps these technologies mean that we will not destroy our planet after all.

Let’s talk about these disruptive technologies.  What are they and why are they so disruptive? 

Let’s discuss the speed with which the world changes when disruption hits.  Horses were obsolete 15 years after the first car.  Radio and TV were adopted even more quickly.  Future disruptions could move at light speed.  If you ever wonder why the world changes so fast, hold your hat for the next 15 years. 

Come and discuss  the ways we do things now before they are gone forever.  Bring your friends and a CD, if you can remember what that was.

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class every Wednesday at 1pm SLT 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 28th August at noon SLT: Privacy, good idea or bad for ID?

Let’s discuss why governments and companies want to have all our data, all our histories, all our tweets.

Are you in more danger from your government or from Facebook or Twitter?  If you spend more time on social media and in virtual worlds than you do on the street then maybe social media are more dangerous.  In the Facebook world you are always known wherever you are, while in some countries you do not have to carry ID.  On the other hand, Facebook cannot kill you, not yet.

How do we take back our data once we have released it to the world?  What dangers do we face from making it all public?  Is there hope for our privacy?  Is privacy valuable?

"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.”  Do you agree?

Come and discuss the problem.  Don’t worry about bringing your ID.  We know who you are.  Bring your friends with all their data.

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

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 21st August at noon SLT: Is it time for a Technological Ecosystem?

 

Many people feel that humanity will not last for much longer.  What will replace us?  Should we plan for the future by making machines that can preserve the human spirit and knowledge?  Perhaps a virtual world that can show what life was like for us on Earth?  Or an ecosystem of robotic lifeforms that will outlast organic life?

Imagine alien visitors in the far future, or newly evolved intelligent species on Earth, or maybe our own descendants if our species does survive.  What should we make for them to find?  What will we put into the virtual world or the technological ecosystem?

Whatever we make, can it be preserved if the Earth goes greenhouse and heats up to 800 degrees Celsius?

Is this the way to keep humanity going? 

Come and discuss our technological future selves.  Bring your friends!

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

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Here is the GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 14th August at noon SLT: Will there ever be an end to poverty?

 Are the poor always with us?  Will there ever be a time when every human has plenty to eat, clean water to drink, a home to live in and good, reliable health care?

Let’s talk about what causes poverty.  Historically, natural disasters, such as bad harvests and plagues, caused poverty.  Or made poverty worse, because death by starvation was common in the past.  And it continues today, in countries such as North Korea.

In rich countries, poverty and homelessness are caused by drugs, by debt (including credit card debt) and by greedy corporations.  Will our efforts to combat climate change mean that poverty increases?

Are we setting too high a target if we want to get rid of poverty?  Come and discuss the problem if you have ever worried about money, and that means everyone.

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

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GeekSpeak subject for Saturday 19th June at noon SLT: Reinvent yourself! Live your dream!

 

Is it possible for someone to change completely and become a different person, with a different profession, a different personality, a different way of life?  Are there some things about you that can never change?

Would you like to do that?  Or, maybe, have you done that?  Do you see yourself as a Grandma Moses?  Do you have any tips for the rest of us?

Some people are triggered by retirement or financial problems or simply by moving to a new country.  What else might make you want to change?

Is there any going back?  Should there be?

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

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GeekSpeak – Will we be ruled by an AI in the future? Join the Discussion Saturday, May 8th at 12 pm SLT

Will an AI rule us?  Are we maybe ruled by an AI now?  Many government agencies already use AI in various forms so we are slowly moving towards AI rule.  Does the prospect reassure you or terrify you?

Will AI rule save us or destroy us?  Can we install some safeguards to protect us against evil AI rule?  Could there be AI elections?  Would we be safer if we could choose between AI systems?  If we don’t like being ruled by AI could there be any way back to the old system?

How will the AI rulers see us?  As children, as lower animals, as servants?

Will our future be Star Trek or 1984?   Come and discuss the Future.  Bring your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class at 1pm 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 24th April at noon SLT: Will a moon base change life on Earth?

Last week SpaceX was chosen to land humans on the moon in 2024.  The ship will carry a lot of cargo so we will soon see a permanent moon base.  And there are a lot of other moon projects waiting.  Moon spiders anyone?

Let’s imagine how all of this will change our lives.  When we look up at the moon will it look different?  Will it be a favorite place for honeymoons?  Will there be moon delicacies in restaurants?  Or a new religion based on the moon?  When will the first Pizza Hut arrive?

Will the best and brightest of young people dream of jobs on the moon?  Will there be television reality series set on the moon?

Will our future as a species look more hopeful when there are people on the moon?  Will there ever be a proper colony there?  Or just tourists and temporary workers?

Come and discuss our very near future.  Bring your fellow space geeks!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class at 1pm 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 April 17th at noon SLT: Mass Delusions

These days the internet is flooded with crazy theories.  There are people who believe that the planet is ruled by space lizards, that the earth is flat, that the earth is hollow and we live inside it, that recorded history began in 800 CE.  Crazy ideas were not unknown in the past. The witch-hunting of the Reformation is an example.  But are they more common now?

Why do people believe such things?  And how can we protect ourselves? How can we distinguish the sensible from the crazy?  After all, some conspiracy theories may be true.

Is logic the answer?  “Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide.” – Vulcan philosopher T'Plana-Hath. Or can misapplied logic make things worse?

Join us at GeekSpeak.  Bring your space lizard friends and all the gnomes, witches, angels and flat earthers you know!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class at 1pm 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 10th April at noon SLT: Is Overpopulation a problem?

 Some cities are so crowded that people sleep between the lanes of the highways or live in boxes. Can we produce enough food for everyone?  Is there room for all of us?  And what effect does the increasing population have on the animals and plants in the world?

Is overpopulation just a temporary problem?  Some countries are already experiencing underpopulation, with a birth rate lower than replacement.  Will the population of the whole world decline in the future?  Have people lost interest in having children?  Will the number of humans steadily decrease until there is only one person left, who perhaps will be bitten by a poisonous snake? 

Which scenario worries you most?  Come and discuss population over the fence without too many neighbors.  Bring a barbeque and your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class at 1pm 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 – Will there be life after the Pandemic? Join the discussion on April 3rd at 12pm SLT

Has the virus changed the world for good?  Will some of the imposed restrictions remain?  Social distancing, masks, no hugs? 

Will we always be afraid of new diseases in the future?  What will we do to keep ourselves safe and prevent the next pandemic?  Will we try to vaccinate all animals as well as humans?  Will we live in plastic bubbles in an endless lockdown and interact with each other only in Second Life?  Will we use nanobots to patrol our blood and kill anything non-human? 

Or will we react against the restrictions, give up fighting and just get sick, hoping that some of us will survive?

Come and discuss our smallest enemy.  Bring an electron microscope and hand soap, and your friends!

IM Vulcan Viper, who teaches a meditation class at 1pm 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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