Future Salon

3 questions to Blind Spotting Future Salon presenter Peter Marks

As a little tease for the audience we like to ask the Future Salon speaker three questions beforehand. Further down are Peter Marks' answers. Great answers, can't wait for his talk. Please join us on Wednesday the 30th of June RSVP http://bit.ly/9Bny5B.

1)      What was the biggest blind spot that you overcame yourself.

 One thing I've become more aware of is how the "confirmation bias"  affects me.  Most of us, myself included, are confident in our own beliefs.   When challenged, we start looking (only) for evidence that supports our opinion.  Early in school and in my career, my knee-jerk reaction was to bury contrary opinions in an avalanche of facts.

An example of how the confirmation bias plays out,  many conservatives will dismiss liberal news sources and watch only, say, Fox News.   Similarly, liberals will avoid Fox, and listen only to sources that confirm their beliefs.   Confirmation biases affect everything from science to business decisions to decisions to go to war  (with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a recent example).

If we're after the truth, we want to look as hard for disconfirming evidence as confirming evidence.   These days, I try to be slower in coming to conclusions; first looking for contrary evidence.In many cases, the result is a greater tolerance for ambiguity. 

All that said, there comes a time when we have to decide and move forward with action.   Weighing both the disconfirming and confirming evidence gives us a better chance of making the right decision when the time for action comes.

Blind Spotting Future Salon with Peter Marks

We all have blind spots, not only in our vision, but also in our thinking. This Future Salon will help you spot your own blind sides. Please join us on Wednesday the 30th of June RSVP http://bit.ly/9Bny5B.

Imagine if programmers were stuck with the Intel 4004 architecture (perhaps the first microprocessor) and had to write better software to work around its many limitations in memory and speed.   At the least, they'd bitterly complain.  Many would despair of creating modern applications.    Yet, in a sense, that's the situation we face with using our cognitive hardware (our brains) to make modern decisions.   The physiological hardware of our brains has been essentially unchanged for 35,000 years.  

The limits of human cognition are especially apparent with conscious decision making and social or group decisions.   This month's speaker, Peter Marks, has conducted significant  research in what he calls "Blind Spotting."   It turns out that we have more than a hundred documented cognitive and perceptual biases that often hide aspects of reality from conscious examination.  The last decade's stunning research on mirror neurons and imitation figures in this as well.

Video: Brain Plasticity Future Salon with Professor Michael Merzenich Part 1

Brain Plasticity Future Salon with Professor Michael M Merzenich Part 1 from Mark Finnern on Vimeo.

It took us a while to post it, as we were hoping to get the slides. People came up to me after the talk and said that it was one of the best Future Salons ever.

It is only part one, as I maxed out the weekly allowence for uploading video. Next week part II.

Future Salon: The Brain Plasticity Revolution Fr. July 17

Why Humans May Be Too Neurologically Limited To Successfully Rule The World

Super excited about our next Future Salon with Professor Michael M. Merzenich, Ph.D. on July 17 6pm at SAP Labs in Palo Alto please RSVP: http://budurl.com/3abd

Abstract: Brain Plasticity Revolution
We’ll discuss the principles of brain plasticity, on the way to explaining the bases of origin of individual human abilities and the ‘Persons’ who employ them.  We’ll describe how this science has been employed to improve or transform the lives of children and adults in need of neurological help.  We’ll consider some of the greater societal implications of our new understanding of the brain-plasticity bases of normal and abnormal human behaviors.  We’ll try to explain how the empirical, pragmatic and substantially fictitious notions about our self-development and about our humanity that have provided the primary bases for the education, organization and control of human societies are now being challenged by a scientific understanding of the true nature of the processes that account for them.  In its implications for how we view ourselves and our rapidly evolving cultures, this new perspective about our true, limited natures may provide the basis for rapid, further societal degradation -- OR guide us toward large-scale societal corrections, and cultural rejuvenation.  We’ll end our conversation by discussing a few strategies that might guide us toward that better path.

Evo Devo Universe Future Salon with John Smart Webcast Link

We are webcasting via Ustream again: http://tinyurl.com/6776ry  Sound may be a problem as the aplification is not working. If you are coming and have a portable amp, please bring it. Otherwise John Smart and I will do Opera projection ;-)

Evo Devo Universe Future Salon with John Smart Friday April 17th

Update: Here are the videos from the great event.

Evo Devo Universe? Part 1 (55 mins)
http://www.vimeo.com/6013211

Evo Devo Universe? Part 2 (52 mins)
http://www.vimeo.com/6153233

Slides:
http://accelerating.org/presentations/EvoDevoUniverseBAFS2009.ppt

For many of you Future Salon regulars John Smart doesn't need an introduction. The Bay Area Future Salon is modeled after John's LA Futurists meetings that he was hosting for many years. Actually he came up from L.A. to kick off the first Future Salon and helped populate it with many of his connections.

Lately he had his head down writing his book. This is why I am extra happy that he takes a brake to introduce his current big picture thinking at our next Future Salon on Friday the 17th of April. (6-7 networking 7-9pm talk/conversation). Free and open to the public please RSVP http://budurl.com/jcp7/d so we know how many people to expect.

P.S. Extra special treat: Iveta and John are having a Post-Talk Party at their place in Mountain View (216 Mountain View Ave) "from 9:30pm to Whenever" for any folks who want to hang out on couches after the Salon and get to know their fellow futurist friends on a more informal basis. We will have drinks and some snacks but people are always welcome to bring more if they would like.

Evo Devo Universe? A Framework for Thinking About the Future

Abstract: Biological systems evolve, and they also develop. These two processes are very different, but they are both necessary for life and intelligence to exist. While evolution (“evo”) is famously unpredictable, many aspects of development (“devo”) are quite predictable. For example, if you have a sense of what stage a developing system is at in its ‘replication’ cycle (birth, growth, reproduction, aging, or recycling), you have a pretty good idea what stage is coming next. Organic molecules also evolve and replicate/develop. So do stars, and their dependent planets. In fact, that’s how our own life-generating solar system came to exist, through a long process of stellar “evolutionary development” (reproduction of progressively more chemically complex solar systems) in our galaxy. Ideas or ‘memes,’ which replicate between human brains, also evolve and develop. So do technologies, which replicate in cultures. There is some evidence that even our universe itself may replicate, evolve, and develop, according to some of the new cosmologists.