Category: Past Events

Solar Geoengineering

A Long Now Boston Conversation with Taylor Milsal.

See the event summary here.

Solar Geo is a controversial idea, existing on the sidelines for many years. Now, as the need to mitigate the effects of climate change becomes more urgent, we need to examine all of our tools, in order to help future generations solve this problem. Taylor will talk about new advances in solar geo, and the arguments in favor of field testing. The Long Now Boston community is invited to participate in this discussion and share your thoughts. Continue reading “Solar Geoengineering”

The Age of Reason Got It Wrong

The Age of Reason Got it Wrong | Understanding Social Conflict Through a Brain Science Lens

See the event summary here.

Most approaches to solving the most pressing social challenges we face are wrong because they are rooted in the deeply flawed assumption that human behaviors and decisions are purely rational. Brain science and hard-won experience demonstrate just the opposite, revealing the primary role unconscious processes play in shaping our behaviors and decision-making, especially in the aftermath of violence and trauma. To thrive in the 21st century, what is needed is a profound reshaping of our approaches to human conflict and division, one that is rooted in a nuanced, empirical understanding of human behavior. Continue reading “The Age of Reason Got It Wrong”

Genomes are The Long Now

Mary Mangan will speak on “Genomes are The Long Now”.

Read the summary of this event here.

The genomes of organisms around us today, and some of those that are no longer alive, carry crucial information about our past and also frame our future directions. In addition, it’s also becoming possible to “Revive and Restore” lost species. Organizing and visualizing DNA sequence data is key to using it effectively to understand the history of life of this planet, and for potentially using it to create new variations with impacts on our health and environment. In this talk, Mary Mangan will demonstrate how researchers currently access species genomic data in the UCSC Genome Browser (genome.ucsc.edu). Highlights of some revealing and important projects will be included, as well as some potential trip-wires in personal genomics data that services like 23andMe provide.
Continue reading “Genomes are The Long Now”

The Persistent Illusion of Knowing

See a Summary of this event here. 

This talk explores the process of invention in the studio. Feeling one’s way through a cloud of unknowing into territories of discovery. In science and art cultivating intuition and trusting the creative process becomes a guide when knowing obscures the new. Making art allows us to embrace the unknown and question our assumptions freeing us from the illusions of preconceived knowledge. In the studio, translations between the imaginary and the real illuminate possibilities for discovery and invention. Continue reading “The Persistent Illusion of Knowing”

Annual Long Now Picnic

Come and enjoy a leisurely late afternoon/early evening picnic with the Long Now Boston Meetup Group. BBQ from (probably) Soulfire of Cambridge will be served. We will be a group of no more than 30. Instead of a speaker, we’ve decided to have very informal “flash talks” from everyone who attends. Continue reading “Picnic at Danny Hillis & Taylor Milsal’s home”

The Long Now and the 10-000-year Clock

See the summary of this event here.

Danny Hillis will be speaking on The Long Now Foundation and details of the Clock project, “a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock created as an icon to long term thinking.” See this page on the Long Now site for further information on the Clock Project: http://longnow.org/clock/.