Future Salon

Joe Quirk Interview about Singularity and Sociobiology

Joe Quirk did an excellent job last Friday at the Sociobiology Future Salon in showing us some of the scientific research of our human relationships. I really enjoyed it.

We had so much fun with his low tech flip chart presentation and Q&A that we didn't even get to talk about the Singularity, even though he titled his talk: WHY THE SINGULARITY WON'T WORK WITHOUT SOCIOBIOLOGY.

But the title of our Future Salon sparked the interest of RU Serious and he interviewed Joe regarding it over at the 10 Zen Monkeys.

I love the interview. Reading it is like listening to good Jazz, one starts a thread and plays a bit with it and then the next one picks it up playfully and takes it to the next level or let a new aspect flow into the piece. Everything smooth and effortless and funny to beat.

Joe repeats his recommendation from Friday to check out the human universals: When we talk about the Singularity, it should be grounded on universal things about human nature. Everyone should look at Donald Brown’s list of human universals.

I link to the interview from the Future Salon Sociobiology Wiki page that I started. Please add additional information to it too.

See you next time when we will have Dr. Leonard Shlain presenting The Alphabet versus the Goddess: Friday 23rd if I am not mistaken.

 

Reminder: Sociobiology Future Salon this Friday 19th

I love the Edge's yearly questions. They are always, and often the answers even more, thought provoking. This year's question is an upbeat one: What are you optimistic about?

Clay Shirky is hopeful about Evidence:

Evidence will continue to improve society, but slowly — this is long-view optimism. The use of evidence dragged the curious mind from the confusion of alchemy into the precision of chemistry in the historical blink of an eye, but its progress past the hard sciences has been considerably slower ...

It is only in the last hundred years that evidence has even begun spreading from the hard sciences into other parts of human life. Previous platitudes about the unpredictability or universal plasticity of human behavior are giving way to areas of inquiry with names like Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology, and Behavioral Economics.

Hurray. In celebration of the evidence based approach I am so happy that we have Joe Quirk presenting at the Future Salon this Friday the 19th the research that lead to his very funny book: Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women

More details in my last post. Please Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/y5gpx5)

The last 15 minutes of the Future Salon we want to spend on discussing what can and should be done to further that information alter our approach of what we learned from Joe. I have created a Sociobiology Future Salon Wiki page to capture these ideas as well as any links that or information that are mentioned during the session. Please create a user and put your ideas there. We will have free Wifi in the room, so bring your computer to do these updates right there and then.

General Logistics: A Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+ pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross or Cafeteria depending on your  Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/y5gpx5), 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public, spread the news.

If you can't join in person we will Webcast the event: Point your Quicktime viewer to the following address: rtsp://207.105.30.90/salon.sdp

IRC chat as always use the server: irc.freenode.net and the Channel: #futuresalon

Sociobiology Future Salon 19th of January

Happy New Futuristic Year.

We will start it in January with a Sociobiology Future Salon with the Author Joe Quirk. (RSVP please)

He has participated in the Future Salon many times and I am really happy that it finally works out and he will present his Sociobiology research/insights that he is made very accessible for you and me in his funny book: Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women..

Here in his own words what is going to happen on Friday the 19th of January:

WHY THE SINGULARITY WON'T WORK WITHOUT SOCIOBIOLOGY

Fellow Futurists,

Mark Finnern founded our Futurist Salon so we can figure out how to harness accelerated change to bring us more love, more joy, more peace, better conversations, and better sex.  Isn't that the mission statement of geeks?

Access to all the information in the world won't fulfill us unless we have wisdom.  Wisdom is the deep understanding of human nature and human relationships.  Communication technology must be based on a biological understand of behavior.  Without a deep scientific understanding of human nature, we won't have anything to base our technological revolution on.

I propose a bottom-up approach.  Let's learn who we are.  We're privileged to live in a time when many of the questions that Aristotle puzzled over are being illuminated by evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and game theory.

I'm convinced that evolutionary psychology is the science of wisdom.  My passion for the biology of behavior has made my relationships fulfilling, increased by empathy, and stirred my awe.

How and why did human relationships evolve?  I'll focus on sex and love.  By the time I'm done, you should have a better idea of how to get love and get laid.

Here is a sum-up of the pitch I made to publishers:
http://www.joequirk.com/category/blog/

His pitch succeeded and his new book is out: Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women. It contains great little anecdotes from his own life.

He promised to do his presentation low tech with a big flip chart and you can check that out as he has a little video on his site where he has done that before. Very funny I can't wait for the Future Salon. Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/y5gpx5)

Author Bio:

Joe Quirk uses science to help geeks get love and get
laid. His technique is to combine meta-analyses of statistical
correlations with cartoons of testicles. This gets his fellow geeks so
excited, they have to grab their asthma inhalers before their
glasses fog up.

Joe Quirk was known for four things in high school:
getting detention for being a smart-ass, getting A's in
biology, being horny,and having a name like Quirk. He decided to combine
these four talents in his second book. Now he gets
paid to be a smart-ass biologist, and nobody gives him a wedgie.

A Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+ pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross or Cafeteria depending on your  Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/y5gpx5), 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public, spread the news.

If you can't join in person we will Webcast the event: Point your Quicktime viewer to the following address: rtsp://207.105.30.90/salon.sdp

IRC chat as always use the server: irc.freenode.net and the Channel: #futuresalon