Salon

Since 3 Jan 2005
This is a casual group of people who share an interest in the history of ideas, and a passion for stimulating discussions. We meet once a month (usually the first sunday or monday of the month) at 6-7pm in San Francisco to discuss interesting topics in science, philosophy, history, art, etc. Every month we pick one topic and one person who is in charge of researching and introducing the topic.
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13 Feb 2005 meeting

Theme: The Barbarians
Host: Tara and Chris Langton
Presenter: Tara

Submitted notes:

  • Tara: The best Barbarian pre-reading for the session is Chapter 10 of Robert Wright's Non-Zero
  • The barbarians of the Romans never meant to be barbarians. They wanted to be Roman, they spoke Latin, they converted to Christianity, etc. Even afterwards, they kept claiming to be foederati of the Roman empire.
  • Historically, "barbarian" has often meant "new civilization with new values". Eg, the Egyptians looked down on the Greeks of the 5th c, the Greeks looked down on the Romans, the Italians looked down on the Franks, the French looked down on Elizabethan England, etc etc, and today the Europeans look down on the Americans as barbarians. Each of these has been right on calling the other "barbarian" based on its original values, but failed to see that the "barbarians" were simply introducing a paradigm shift (philosophy, engineering, cathedrals, theater, whatever).

20 March 2005

Theme: The Return of the Barbarians
Host: Tara and Chris Langton
Presenter: Tara
Time: 6:30pm

Submitted notes: see previous month

24 April 2005

Theme: Life in Antarctica
Host: Monica Slakey
Presenter: Kevin

We will be addressing the research that scientists have been conducting to analyze the survival of primitive organisms in the Antarctic environment. The research, funded in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, "focus[es] on one of life's smallest creatures, [while] addressing one of humankind's biggest questions: 'Did life evolve on Mars?'" (The quoted material can be found here) Scientists are using the findings of their Antarctic research to assess the likelihood of the existence of some life form on Mars. The research addresses the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes which might parallel those of the early era of Earth's existence or of present day Mars.

12 June 2005

Theme: Quantum
Host: Steve
Presenter: Paul and piero

August 2005

Theme: Biogenesis and its Artifacts
Host: Beth and Craig
Presenter: Rafael, John

6 November 2005

Theme: The future of evolution
Host: Kelley
Presenter: Rafael, John

9 January 2006

Theme: Winston Churchill and the 'Great Man Theory' of History
Host: Kelley
Presenter: Steve H.

19 February 2006

Theme: Art and Science in the 20th century
Host: Lynn and Steve
Presenter: Paul

2 April 2006

Theme: Joseph Campbell
Host: Beth and Craig
Presenter: Lynn and Ted

June 2006

Theme: Artificial Intelligence
Host: ?
Presenter: Rafael

August 2006

Theme: Future of Artificial Intelligence
Host: Kelley
Presenter: Rafael

September 2006

Theme: Ethics
Host:
Presenter:

October 2006

Theme: Artificial Life
Host: Chris and Tara
Presenter: Chris

December 2006

Theme: Trends of 2006
Host: Steve and Gina
Presenter: Steve H.

January 2007

Theme: Metaphors of Mind
Host: Lynne and Steve
Presenter: Lynne's Steve

July 2007

Theme: Revolution
Host: Beth and Craig
Presenter: Gina's Steve

November 2007

Theme: Time
Host: Tara and Chris
Presenter: Chris

Nominations for future topics

(In no particular order)
  • Invited guest/Tara: Art and Science in Florence
  • Invited guest: Islamic society in the 21st century (Comparative studies on the Quran)

    August 2008

    Theme: Google
    Host: Kelley
    Presenter: Steve

    • Nominations for future topics

    (In no particular order)
  • Invited guest/Tara: Art and Science in Florence
  • Invited guest: Islamic society in the 21st century (Comparative studies on the Quran)

    • Core group

  • Jennifer Deal (theater producer)
  • Lynne Kaufman (playwright, novelist, UC Berkeley Extensions program manager, etc etc, see her website)
  • Kelley Watts (audio, visual, and corporate communications)
  • Steve Harris (lawyer)
  • Chris Langton (A-life founder)
  • Tara Lemmey
  • Craig Sirnio (angel investor focusing in distribution channels and sales management)
  • Gina Harris (artist)
  • Paul Quijada (artist)
  • Rafael Olivas (multimedia designer)
  • Monica Houlihan
  • Diane Olberg (communications strategist)
  • Beth Roemer (lawyer)
  • piero scaruffi (cognitive scientist)
  • Monica Slakey (lawyer)