Jack Gallant: Reverse-Engineering the Human Brain

Jack Gallant, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley

The human brain is the most sophisticated computer system known to man, capable of impressive feats under challenging natural conditions. Reverse-engineering the brain might enable us to design artificial systems with the same capabilities. Gallant’s laboratory uses a data-driven approach to tackle this reverse-engineering problem. He will discuss how this framework could form the basis of practical new brain-reading technologies and inform development of biologically inspired computer vision systems.

MLF: Health & Medicine/Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 standard, MEMBERS FREE, $7 students
Program Organizer: Daniel Trachewsky

Leonard Susskind: The Theoretical Minimum – What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics

Felix Bloch Professor in Theoretical Physics, Stanford University; Director, Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics

Ever wish you knew more about physics? Want to know how to think like a physicist? Here is your chance. Come listen to world-class physicist Susskind, a father of string theory, to discuss the Theoretical Minimum – an alternative to the conventional go-to-college method. Susskind will discuss what you need to know to start doing physics and provide a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking, 6 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students
Program Organizers: Chisako Ress and Earl Ruby
Also know: Photo by Anne Warren

Science & Technology Planning Meeting

Join fellow Club members with similar interests and brainstorm upcoming Science & Technology programs. All Commonwealth Club members are welcome. We explore visions for the future through science and technology. Discuss current issues and share your insights with fellow Club members to shape and plan programs for the months ahead.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location:  SF Club Office
Time: 6:15 p.m. planning meeting
Cost:  FREE
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress
Also know: Photo: Sapperlott/Flickr

Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe

Alex Filippenko, Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences; Richard & Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences, UC Berkeley; Researcher; Author

We expected that the attractive force of gravity would slow down the rate at which the universe is expanding. But observations of very distant exploding stars (supernovae) show that the expansion rate is actually speeding up. Filippenko, a member of teams that revealed the accelerating expansion of the universe, will discuss some of the implications of this phenomenon as it relates to current research. The universe seems to be dominated by a repulsive “dark energy” – an idea Albert Einstein had suggested in 1917 but renounced in 1929 as his “biggest blunder.” It stretches the fabric of space itself faster and faster with time, creating a “runaway universe.” The physical origin and nature of dark energy, which makes up about three quarters of the contents of the universe, is probably the most important unsolved problem in all of physics.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office

Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Brandon Allgood
Also know: In association  with Friends of Lick Observatory

Michael C. Sekora: Technology-Based Planning, the Foundation of All Competitive Advantage

President, Quadrigy, Inc.

Sekora, who was the founder and director of Project Socrates, a U.S. intelligence community initiative under President Reagan, will posit that the shift from technology-based planning to economic-based planning has caused our nation to lose its ability to compete economically. Sekora contends that technology-based planning is the key to competitive advantage for any nation, region, public or private organization. In economic-based planning, the funds are being manipulated; in technology-based planning, the technology is being manipulated. Come learn what Sekora believes the nation must do to turn itself around and regain its competitive advantage.

MLF: Science & Technology
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress and Julia Reder

Michael B. Eisen: Reinventing Scientific Communication

Michael B. Eisen, Ph.D; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley; Co-founder, Public Library of Science

The scientific literature is one of humanity’s greatest creations – a complete record of the ideas, experiments and discoveries of generations of researchers across the globe. While most of this corpus is now online, it remains as inaccessible to the public as it was centuries ago – with the physical limitations of print journals replaced by expensive publisher pay walls. Eisen, a leader in the movement to reinvent scientific communication, will discuss the origins of this absurd system, why it still exists, how the “open access” movement he helped to launch is finally bringing it to an end.     

MLF: Health & Medicine/Science & Technology
Location:  SF Club Office
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $20 standard, $8 members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Chisako Ress and Kishore Hari