Concept Exchange Society

THE CONCEPT EXCHANGE SOCIETY

A group of people in West Sonoma County, California calling themselves The Concept Exchange Society met every month from March 1996 to July 1998 to hear and explore the ideas and concepts the volunteer speaker presented. The volunteer could chose to talk about any topic at all. The important thing was that the speaker prepare something in advance so that the rest of us might have the benefit of considered thought. The participants were from a wide variety of backgrounds. No scientific discipline - nor any occupation at all - was common to them all. We were laymen for the presentations. (See Who Are We?) The name, Concept Exchange Society, was chosen simply because it best described the polite but eager and passionate exchange of world views that characterized the sessions.

History of the Society

Listed below are the meeting dates, the titles of the offerings and the topics discussed. Clicking on underlined words produces a report on that meeting.

DATE	TITLE	TOPICS DISCUSSED
March 1996	on Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett	neural darwinism, philosophic (mind/matter) dualism, qualia
April 1996	the Tucson Consciousness Conference	Do computers think? Can there be truths inaccessible to science? Neural nets.
May 1996	the Teachings of Gurdjieff	spiritual teachings, Gurdjieff's All and Everything, free will, Spinoza
June 1996	Quantum Loss of Identity	Unseen objects lose identity; the conundrum of quantum mechanics. A demonstration of the effect.
July 1996	the Birth and Death of Stars	How astronomers reach conclusions from observations. The significance of star clusters. What the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram tells.
August 1996	How Measure Information?	How define information? How measure it? Connection to uncertainty. What a bit is. Compression coding.
September 1996	Real Magic	Spiritual exercises, their mystical roots. God, the kabala, occult method of prayer, active meditation, hermetic magic
October 1996	Holography: Data Storage and the Holographic Mind	What holography is, how it works, how it provides a metaphor for thought processing in the brain.
November 1996	Anatomy of an Antinomy	Mathematical paradoxes. Georg Cantor. Infinite sets. The Turing machine. Counting integers and rationals. How construct an irrational number.
December 1996	The Philosophy of Gratitude	Spiritual pursuits. Selfless vs. selfish. Distortions of meaning. What is a philosophy of Gratitude?
January 1997	In The Beginning There Were Masers	Lasers evolved from masers; microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. What this means. How it is made to happen.
February 1997	Year One Celebration: Conceptual and Culinary Treats	Dowsing, spiritual vs. scientific outlooks, the joys of fellowship.
March 1997	Feng Shui & The Dynamics of Qi	The 'resevoir of knowing obscured by rationality'. Are mystical beliefs valid? A role for superstition. Fantasy vs. rational thought.
April 1997	The Sphinx, New York Taxi Drivers and Layers of Strategy	Levels of strategy. Anti-self-interest behavior. Pscho-logic and myths.
May 1997	Basic Color Terms - Window on Human Language Evolution?	Linguistics. The birth of words used for color. Universality among languages.
June 1997	On The Book Food of the Gods by Terrence Mc Kenna	Psychedelic mushrooms and human evolution of consciousness. The evils and the blessings of authority.
July 1997	What Is Light?: A Book Report	Is there a metaphysical alternative to physics? The pursuit of simplicity. How distinguish substance from illusion? Using the establishment.
August 1997	A One-Lecture Introduction To Group Theory	The mathematical group; its definition, significance and implications
September 1997	Mind Play: The Meaning In Words	What does it mean to speak of 'meaning in life'? Epigrams; packaged truths!
October 1997	Show And Tell Potpourri	Human motivations. On justice. On free will. On the appeal of mathematics. The internal combustion engine. Spirituality.
November 1997	The End Of Certainty, A Report	Entropy, the self-organization puzzle. Pagans among us. Poetry vs. understanding
December 1997	Philosophy Expo	Does 'progress' exist? Miracles. Ineffables. Im ponderables and explanation. Reductionism; scientific and religious.
January 1998	Qaballah	Mysticism. Symbology; a language of qualities. Getting what you want.
February 1998	Categories and Metaphors	Metaphor generates meaning; the philosophic implications.
March 1998	Creative Thinking	Self-help on creativity. Imitate the creative!
April 1998	Who Are We?	Participants' biographical tidbits.
May 1998	On Dawkins' Selfish Genes	Purpose in the universe? Natural selection; cause and effect. Nature of consciousness.
June 1998	Eve Spoke	Origin of speech. An evolutionary advantage of a physical ability.
July 1998	The Life of the Cosmos	Cosmic natural selection. Black holes.
May 2007	Garden World	Is the world a better place?

February, 2011
Marvin Chester
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