The Long Now Blog » Seminars

Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:23:07 +0000

There is new media available from our monthly series, the Seminars About Long-term Thinking. Stewart Brand’s summaries and audio downloads or podcasts of the talks are free to the public; Long Now members can view HD video of the Seminars and comment on them.

Watch the video of Alan Weisman’s “World Without Us, World With Us”

David Eagleman Ticket Info

Danielle Engelman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:27:47 +0000

The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking

presents David Eagleman on “Six Easy Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilization”

Thursday April 1, 02010 at 7:30 pm at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco

Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats, join today!

or you can purchase tickets for $10 each.

About this Seminar:
David Eagleman may be the best combination of scientist and fiction-writer alive. Sum, his collection of afterlife alternatives, made a stunning literary debut last year and now appears in 21 languages. Simultaneously he is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, specializing in time perception.

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Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:33:10 +0000

Listen to the Audio of Beth Noveck’s “Transparent Government” (downloads tab)

Long Now Media Update

Stewart Brand — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:15:52 +0000

Dot.Gov

Noveck began with the example of patents, first devised in Renaissance Florence and Venice to protect techniques such as glass manufacture. In England, conferring a monopoly on a tool or technique became a prerogative of the king. In contemporary America, the process of getting a 20-year monopoly on your invention from the US Patent Office is mired in a morass of litigation costs, a huge backlog, insufficient reviewers with insufficient science education, and what Noveck calls “an outmoded conception of expertise.”

Her revolutionary approach is to…

Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary

Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:48:14 +0000

Listen to the Audio of Alan Weisman’s “World Without Us, World With Us” (downloads tab)

Alan Weisman, “World Without Us, World With Us”

Stewart Brand — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:13:44 +0000

Humanity’s impact, nature’s resilience

Weisman’s book, The World Without Us, grew out of two questions, he said. One was, “How can I write a best-seller about the environment?” The answer to that was the second question: “How would the rest of nature behave without the constant pressure we put on it?”

On the border of Ukraine and Belarus is a small intact remnant—500,000 acres—of the primordial forest that once covered Europe from Siberia to Ireland. In the Puszcza Bialowieska, with its towering ash and linden trees and dense growth…
Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary

3 Long Now Events in 8 Days

Alexander Rose — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:57:08 +0000

Long Now has three events coming up over the next 8 days and we wanted to be sure you all had the right info for reserving tickets and making it out to all three.

Long Now and Global Lives Project celebrates the opening of its first installation on Friday February 26th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The event is free, but you’ll want to RSVP so you can be sure to get in. The installation will be up on Saturday and Sunday over the weekend as well.
Beth Noveck on “Transparent Government” Thursday March 4, 02010 at 7:30 pm at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats free, or you can purchase tickets for $10 each.

Alan Weisman on “World Without Us, World With Us.” Wednesday February 24 (Thanks for coming this event went great)

Beth Noveck Ticket Info

Danielle Engelman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:18:45 +0000

The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking

presents Beth Noveck on “Transparent Government”

Thursday March 4, 02010 at 7:30 pm at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco

Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats, join today!

or you can purchase tickets for $10 each.

About this Seminar:
President Obama’s first executive action was the Open Government Memorandum calling for more transparent, participatory, and collaborative government. It is likely that one of the longest lasting effects of the current administration will be how much it changed the culture of Washington by opening government data and pioneering innovations in policymaking.

As the United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and leader of the President’s Open Government Initiative in the White House, Beth Noveck is in the forefront of the Federal government’s implementation of these changes.

Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:24:22 +0000

Watch the video of Wade Davis’ “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”

Alan Weisman Ticket Info

Danielle Engelman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:55:52 +0000

The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking

presents Alan Weisman on “World Without Us, World With Us

Wednesday February 24, 02010 at 7:30 pm at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco

Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats, join today!

or you can purchase tickets for $10 each.

About this Seminar:
Journalist Weisman traveled the world to investigate what happens when humans stop occupying an area. How long do our artifacts last? How does nature recover? What does that say about the human impact on the world? What would be the actual sequence of events if all of humanity suddenly disappeared?

The exercise provides inspiration and techniques for humans to occupy Earth more lightly and therefore more durably.

Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:53:58 +0000

Listen to the Audio of Wade Davis’ “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World” (downloads tab)

Wade Davis, “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”

Stewart Brand — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:12:07 +0000

Native guidance

What does it mean to be human and alive?

The thousands of different cultures and languages on Earth have compellingly different answers to that question. “We are a wildly imaginative and creative species,” Davis declared, and then proved it with his accounts and photographs of humanity plumbing the soul of culture, of psyche, and of landscape.

He began with Polynesians, the wayfinders who mastered the Pacific ocean in the world’s largest diaspora. Without writing or chronometers they learned 220 stars by name…

Read the rest of Stewart Brand’s Summary

How is the internet changing the way you think?

Austin Brown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:46:50 +0000

John Brockman’s Edge has posted the responses from its members to their Annual Question. This year they wanted to know, “How is the internet changing the way you think?”

There are over 160 short essays from members of ‘The Third Culture,’ or “those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.”

There are quite a few Long Now Foundation Board Members that have contributed as well as plenty of SALT speakers, past and present. Here’s a list with links to their thoughts on how the internet is changing their thoughts:

Long Now Foundation Board Members:

Long Now Seminar Speakers:

Long Now Media Update

Danielle Engelman — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:31:28 +0000

Watch the video of Sander van der Leeuw’s “The Archaeology of Innovation”

Watch the video of Rick Prelinger’s “Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4 “

Wade Davis Ticket Info

Danielle Engelman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:47:12 +0000

The Long Now Foundation’s monthly Seminars About Long-term Thinking

presents Wade Davis on “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”

Wednesday January 13, 02010 at 7:30 pm at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco

Long Now Members can reserve 2 seats, join today!

or you can purchase tickets for $10 each.

About this Seminar:

Anthropologist Wade Davis is one of the world’s great story tellers, with personal adventures to match. An Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, he specializes in hanging out with traditional peoples and exploring their religious practices.

He first came to public notice with his discovery of the reality of zombies in Haitian voodoo and the substance used to poison them—chronicled in his 1985 book, The Serpent and the Rainbow. He is the author of 13 books, including One River and Shadows in the Suns, and has hosted, written, and starred in numerous television specials, including “Earthguide,” “Light at the Edge of the World,” “Spirit of the Mask,” and “Forests Forever.” This talk is based on the prestigious Massey Lectures that Davis gave in Canada in 2009.