FoAM - Long Now

Long Now Brussels meetup - February 02011

christina — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:26:08 +0000

Start: 2011-02-17 19:00 Europe/Brussels

The February Long Now Brussels meetup will take place Thursday 17 February 02011 at 19:00 at FoAM Belgium.

We live in an era of distant frontiers. The seas (spanning 71% of Earth's surface) might one day support permanent human settlements - but few take that distant possibility seriously. Recent exoplanet discoveries are tremendously exciting yet space remains, for all but the very few, almost unthinkable.

The 10,000 Year Clock project http://longnow.org/clock/ represents a major effort to create a sense of frontier in the time dimension. What role did frontier *space* play in driving social innovation historically? While we're all glued to this planet for the foreseeable future how might we open up frontier zones without reverting to discredited models of the past?

We'll be looking at Paul Romer's 02009 talk, "A Theory of History, with an Application" in which he makes a case for the establishment of new charter cities. While his ideas are not without controversy he makes a compelling argument. Come see for yourself!

In case you'd like more info about Paul's talk, you can read Stewart Brand's summary here
http://longnow.org/seminars/02009/may/18/theory-history-application/.
I recommend this
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-politically-inco...
recent examination of Romer's idea by The Atlantic Monthly.

This talk runs about 90 minutes so we will start the video promptly at 19:15. (Please try to be here on time, at 19:00, to settle in!) Also, as we provide refreshments, an RSVP http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/events/15231395/ is much
appreciated. If you feel so inclined, grab some snacks or a drink to share with the group.

If you know of anyone who would make a good guest speaker for a future meetup (or if you have a suggestion for a topic), please let me know!

FoAM is located at Koolmijnenkaai 30-34. (Detailed directions are available here http://x4.fo.am/contact.) Basically, it's a 2-3 minute walk from the Comte de Flandre metro stop. Walk toward the canal. (Koolmijnenkaai runs parallel to the canal.) Take a left. FoAM is about halfway down the block on the left side of Koolmijnenkaai, in a courtyard. It's up on level 4. If you have any trouble finding the place ring me on my mobile and I'll help: +32/494.766.080. I highly recommend that you take public transit if you can. In addition to it being more sustainable it's *super* convenient to FoAM.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
- --Trey

Trey Darley (trey[at]treyka[dot]net) from Long Now Brussels http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/.
To learn more about Trey Darley, visit his/her member profile http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/members/5819584/

Meetup, PO Box 4668 #37895 New York, New York 10163-4668 | support[at]meetup[dot]com

Long Now Brussels meetup - January 02011

christina — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:42:40 +0000

Start: 2011-01-13 19:30 Europe/Brussels

End: 2011-01-13 22:00 Europe/Brussels

The January Long Now Brussels meetup will take place Thursday 13 January 02011 at 19:00 at FoAM Belgium.

We'll be watching Jesse Schell's talk on the gamification of society, entitled "Visions of the Gamepocalypse". This is one of the most thought-provoking and entertaining talks I've encountered in the SALT series. Whether you're a hard-core gamer or crypto-Luddite bookworm, this talk is sure to make you think about the direction we're heading.

This talk runs 90 minutes so we will start the video promptly at 19:15. (Please try to be on time!) Also, as we provide refreshments, an RSVP is much appreciated. If you feel so inclined, grab some snacks or a drink to share with the group.

In case you'd like more info about Jesse's talk, you can read Stewart Brand's summary here.

If you know of anyone who would make a good guest speaker for a future meetup (or if you have a suggestion for a topic), please let me know!

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
--Trey

to sign up please send an email to trey[@]treyka.net or bxl[@]fo.am

Meetup, PO Box 4668 #37895 New York, New York 10163-4668 | support[@]meetup.com

Long Now Brussels meetup - November 02010

christina — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:46:29 +0000

Start: 2010-11-04 19:00 Europe/Brussels

End: 2010-11-04 21:00 Europe/Brussels

Manual for Civilization

Sometimes in the course of human history civilizations suffer cataclysmic breakdown. When this occurs vital knowledge and skills may pass beyond recall. (For an interesting survey of collapsed civilizations see Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed".)

Much that we take for granted today would most likely not be here were it not for the work of ancient monastics and scholars who rescued bits and pieces from the wreckage of earlier societies. During the Cold War humanity narrowly escaped catastrophe on more than one occasion. Our iPhones may not save us. What are we doing for future generations?

Gregory Benford's book, "Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia" (which is unfortunately out of print but readily available secondhand) provides a thought-provoking study of the problem of communicating to far-distant generations.

Time is no friend to information. Books rot, libraries burn, and it's simply impractical to carve every word into stone. One approach - popular in the 20th century - is the time capsule. Basically, the idea is to stick a bunch of stuff that might be useful one day into an air-tight vault, seal it up, and record the location for future generations. (For more info, see the International Time Capsule Society
website: http://snipurl.com/1cf42p)

We've spent the past few decades frenetically storing our information on electronic media. While there may be some chance that 1500 years from now paper books stored in a time capsule may be readable what is the likelihood of people still using Microsoft Office? The information age has given us great freedom and flexibility in many ways but if the power grid goes down future generations are pretty much screwed. Unfortunately, in the case that our civilization were to collapse the power grid would probably be the first thing to go. What would future archaeologists make of our era, if they only had access to our analog artifacts?

As I was thinking about this topic I was reminded of a Long Now blog posting from this past spring. I suggest that you have a look at Alexander Rose's Manual for Civilization post: http://snipurl.com/1cf98z

For the November meetup we will discuss this question: What information would be useful to future generations trying to rebuild and how could we preserve the message?

Please, if you plan to come an RSVP is much appreciated.
RSVP to this Meetup:
http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/calendar/15231628/

The Long Now meetups are facilitated by Trey Darley

Long Now Brussels meetup - September 02010

nik — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:33:44 +0000

Start: 2010-09-23 19:30 GMT+2

End: 2010-09-23 21:30 GMT+2

FoAM will host the Brussels meeting of The Long Now Foundation, whose aim is "to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years."

http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/calendar/14769810/

http://longnow.org/

Long Now Brussels meetup - July 02010

maja — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:58:30 +0000

Start: 2010-07-22 19:30 Europe/Brussels

End: 2010-07-22 21:00 Europe/Brussels

FoAM will host the Brussels meeting of The Long Now Foundation, whose aim is "to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years."

Our monthly discussion about long term thinking begins with a look at Ed Moses' recent talk on the National Ignition Facility (based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the USA) and the ongoing effort to achieve fusion power generation. It's a promising area of scientific exploration. Obviously having viable alternatives to fossil fuels in the near-term is critical. Trouble is that wind, solar, etc. are presently quite capital-intensive and difficult to scale. Fusion is promising, (if it proves to be achievable).

Ed Moses' talk: http://longnow.org/seminars/02010/jun/16/clean-fusion-power-decade/

LIFE [Laser Inertial Fusion Engine]: https://lasers.llnl.gov/

RSVP & Learn more here:
http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/calendar/13916923/

Long Now Brussels meetup - June 02010

nik — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:53:54 +0000

Start: 2010-06-23 19:30 GMT+2

End: 2010-06-23 21:30 GMT+2

FoAM will host the Brussels meeting of The Long Now Foundation, whose aim is "to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years."

http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/calendar/13649599/

http://longnow.org/

Long Now Brussels meetup - May 02010

nik — Thu, 20 May 2010 12:43:54 +0000

Start: 2010-05-27 19:30 GMT+2

End: 2010-05-27 21:30 GMT+2

FoAM will host the Brussels meeting of The Long Now Foundation, whose aim is "to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years."

http://www.meetup.com/longnowbrussels/calendar/13257147/?from=list&offse...

http://longnow.org/