You see here a different kind of happiness book. The How of Happiness is a comprehensive guide to understanding the elements of happiness based on years of groundbreaking scientific research. It is also a practical, empowering, and easy-to-follow workbook, incorporating happiness strategies, exercises in new ways of thinking, and quizzes for understanding our individuality, all […]
I will read the award-winning science fiction short story Tideline by Elizabeth Bear and make some remarks about the power of stories to educate, inspire, and shape or even save our lives. This week's speaker will be Eva-Lise Carlstrom. After the talk, we'll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share […]
Let's plan what we'll be doing for the next quarter! Is there a topic you'd like to give a talk about? Come have a voice in what we do next quarter! Even if you don’t want to volunteer to give a talk, your voice is valuable so that we know which talks to schedule! You […]
This week is our popular Speed Talks event! Three to five speakers get 5-8 minutes each to expound their ideas, followed by our group discussion period where the community react to the ideas presented, discuss their own thoughts on the topic, and ask questions of the presenters. If you have an idea for a talk, […]
Fjorlief will be reading the short story "Packing" by the award-winning author T. Kingfisher. The story, both a requiem and a promissory, is food for thought about moving forward into an unknown future. This week's speaker will be Fjorlief. After the talk, we'll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share […]
The next installment of The Story of Us by the blogger and illustrator Tim Urban of Wait But Why! A single cell is itself a giant—a magical living giant made up of trillions of non-living atoms—and an animal is a higher-level giant made up of trillions of cells. This concept—a bunch of smaller things joining […]
Fanfiction is fan-written fiction about existing characters and worlds created by other writers, usually from popular media such as TV, movies, or bestselling books. When did people start writing fanfiction? Why do people write it? What needs does fanfiction fill that aren't met by writing about characters you make up from scratch? This week's speaker […]
There are doctors whose daily job, their 9-5, is making the blind to see. There are people whose everyday job at the factory is constructing tiny devices that are implanted in people's ears, making the deaf to hear. There are athletes who are double amputees who cannot be allowed to run races against people who […]
The next installment of The Story of Us by the blogger and illustrator Tim Urban of Wait But Why! Building giants was a necessity for ancient humans. A human tribe was more than the sum of its parts, in physical power, in productivity, and in knowledge. Given the powers of emergence, large human giants would […]
The more we work with LLMs (Large Language Models, like ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude), and the more we struggle with the stupid mistakes that they make, the more we see how very *human* their errors are. They struggle to please. They over-estimate their own ability. They fail to cite their sources. They misremember things. […]