George Rebane
There was an interesting essay in the 18/19feb12 WSJ adapted from Alain de Botton’s latest book Religion for Atheists: a Non-believers Guide to the Uses of Religion. It is really a lament about all the things that atheists are missing out on that come to people of faith who gather to worship their God. Everything from “reclaiming community” to finding commonly shared purpose in life, and all the trimmings that go in between for folks in a faith-based organization.
It seems that atheists are somehow not fulfilled in their flirtations with environmentalism, productivity seminars, yoga, moral relativism, and endless group and individual analyses by various therapists and psychological ‘rent-a-buddies’. There seems to be an emptiness underneath it all that is not only perceived by the hard-working career climbers, but is made more stark in the built-in loneliness that comes from attempting to connect with people with whom there is really no common connection.
Well, according to M. de Botton, there is a solution at hand that can bring our secular humanist friends into a chummy communion with other similarly searching souls (which really don’t exist). It turns out that atheists can join with each other just like the bible thumpers, but without all that God baggage. And the solution lies in starting an institution, or is it really a franchise, called Agape Restaurants (I’m not making this up).
The Agape Restaurants would become the locus of congregations following the Book of Agape prescribing a liturgy that is cobbled together from the essential essences of the Catholic Mass, the Jewish Seder, the Zen tea ceremony, … you get the idea. People would assemble there to go through the warm and bonding formalities that bring and hold together people of faith. They would even get to ceremoniously consume the moral?, ethical? equivalent of the Eucharist.
In his ‘Religion for Everyone’ de Botton tells us of the glorious gemütlichkeit of such venues –
Thanks to the Agape Restaurant, our fear of strangers would recede. The poor would eat with the rich, the black with the white, the orthodox with the secular, workers with managers, scientists with artists. The claustrophobic pressure to derive all of our satisfactions from our existing relationships would ease, as would our desire to climb ever higher in social status. …
The Book of Agape would direct diners to speak to one another for prescribed lengths of time on predefined topics. Like the famous questions that the youngest child at the table is assigned by the Haggadah to ask during the Passover ceremony ("Why is this night different from all other nights?" "Why do we eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs?" and so on), these talking points would be carefully crafted for a specific purpose, to coax guests away from customary expressions of pride ("What do you do?" "Where do your children go to school?") and toward a more sincere revelation of themselves ("What do you regret?" "Whom can you not forgive?" "What do you fear?").
So there you have it. You should be able to embrace it all without having to consider any of the aggravating absolutes that come with a religion that teaches transcendence as the gift of grace from a supreme intelligence who created all that IS, and through love and compassion is willing to share all with His critters. None of those things need to divert us from creaming the good parts of 'TAT TVAM ASI!' From a thorough analysis of religions, the secular humanists have finally figured out how to fill their emptiness and enjoy it all. For it’s now or never – remember, oblivion awaits.
And yet, and yet …
TechForum2012 inaugurates a new community event
George Rebane
This afternoon TechForum2012 passed into history as a wonderfully successful new type of luncheon speaker series focusing on the accelerating technologies that will affect all of us in how we work, play, learn, live long, and prosper. The event was sponsored by the Sierra Economics and Science Foundation to support its ongoing and expanding merit scholarship program built around its flagship annual TechTest, now in its sixth year.
It was heartening to see the community join in to support this fundraiser to encourage Nevada County’s young people to choose careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). America’s decline in STEM qualified workers has put our country at risk, and we believe that grass roots programs such as these developed and funded by SESF are a hopeful start on America’s road back. The fundamental objective of the TechTest programs is to serve as a template and resource to other counties and regions across the country, inviting them to stand on our shoulders and start their own merit scholarship support efforts to invite qualified young people to choose STEM careers.
Today’s SRO event had an attendance of over 160 community leaders from the media, government, education, and business. Our guest speaker was Mr Rick Hutley, VP of Global Innovations for Cisco. Rick Hutley is a world class business executive and motivational speaker on the leading edge technologies that are shaping all of our tomorrows. Russ Steele, SESF’s Executive Director, and I had the pleasure of starting the day with Rick with a congenial breakfast at Toffanelli’s.
The entire event was planned and managed by SESF volunteers Ms Laura van den Berg (Event Manager), Mr George Foster, and Mr Russ Steele representing the SESF board. Laura did an outstanding job in pulling together the furball that these projects all start out as, and served as the event’s mistress of ceremonies. Truth be told, she did marshall husband Luuk to help here and there.
Special thanks go to the distinguished array of TechForum2012 sponsors that include NCTV, The Union, KVMR, KNCO, AJA Video Systems, NCCA, Christine Foster Realtor, Olympia Mortgage and Investment, Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce, Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, ERC, the County of Nevada, and, of course Cisco Systems Inc. Their prompt and visible support made this launch a merited and meaningful standard for future TechForum events.
On a personal note, I was heartened to see the extreme interest in the reaction and participation of the attendees. Rick is disposed to an open give-and-take format of a presentation wherein questions can be asked at any time, and they were. This gave rise to a number of interesting and illuminating detours that added to the prepared remarks.
Rick’s talk touched on the implications and impact of the approaching Singularity (q.v.). He outlined the progression of Turing test (q.v.) mitigations as machines become more intelligent. All this progressing to the point of dismissing the utility of that classic test of machines achieving peer intelligence with humans. His conclusion was to substitute the test of whether humans consider machines as useful peers and partners in managing our resources and affairs, that would stand in for Turing and the Singularity. I suggested that perhaps a better test would be the event when machines weigh in and assess the utility of humans as their peers in managing this planet’s affairs. Rick Hutley mused that this indeed might be a better sign of fin de siècle, and graciously named it the Rebane Test. In any event Rick is not a strong proponent of the near-term advent of Singularity, even though on one of his summary slides he did note that machines would replace all human workers by 2035.
As you see, dear reader, this was a lively and informative presentation with the attendees sitting at the edge of their seats. The presentation and its Q&A went well beyond its scheduled time with the room filled to capacity. Afterward, the podium was crowded with people seeking to continue the discussion with Mr Hutley and other attendees.
Rick Hutley set the bar high for our next TechForum, and I want to assure all that SESF and its team of volunteers will do everything possible to meet these standards when we again assemble for TechForum. In the interval, we have the last seminar for TechTest2012 tomorrow at NUHS, and the exam itself will be given on 14 April 2012. Please visit sesfoundation.org for more information.
Posted at 08:24 PM in Culture Comments, Current Affairs, Happenings, Nevada County, Our Country, Our World, Singularity Signposts | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)