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The Technology and Culture Forum is a ministry of the Episcopal Chaplain at MIT, and grows out of the church’s commitment to peace, justice, and upholding human dignity. Our programs challenge participants to consider how their work as scientists, engineers, managers, and citizens furthers these ideals. During the academic year, TAC hosted programs on where morals come from and why it matters, financing Islamic terrorism, international development, the dignity of difference, on-line gambling, Lebanon's political gridlock, Massachusetts health care policies, Darwinism and intelligent design, computer-generated inventions, women as peacemakers, contemplative science, mind and physics, global climate change, international development and international development ethics.
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Past ForumsForums 2007-2008Youth Summit on Global WarmingSaturday, May 10 Join us for the 2nd Annual Youth Summit on Global Warming hosted by T&C and the Boston Latin School's Youth Climate Action Network. MIT President Susan Hockfield will make opening remarks, along with Boston's Mayor Tom Menino. The day will be filled with informative and fun workshops, free food and prizes. Last year's summit was a big success and this year's promises to be even better. To register, please click on here and connect to the BLSYouthCAN registration page. Is Development Good?A Talk by Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Associate Professor of Law and Development As part of Technology and Culture Forum's ongoing look at Development Ethics, Professor Rajagopal will address the question, "Is development good?" Prof. Rajagopal served for many years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia, and has consulted with UN agencies, international organizations and leading NGOs on human rights and international legal issues. Co-Sponsored with the MIT Program in Human Rights and Justice. What Are Ethical Development Practices?A talk by Paul Polak American entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dr. Paul Polak, was named by Scientific American magazine as one of the Scientific American 50- the noted magazine's second annual list recognizing outstanding acts of leadership in technology in 2003. Polak was named policy leader in Agriculture because of his work with rural farmers in developing nations worldwide. The founder/president and CEO of the non-profit organization, International Development Enterprises (IDE), Polak has worked for decades to help the world escape the devastating effects of poverty through facilitating income generation. Polak works from the base knowledge that lack of water, particularly clean water, is the cornerstone of poverty. IDE has pioneered the development and rural mass marketing of affordable technologies through the small enterprise private sector in developing countries. Co-sponsored with D-Lab International Development Night @ MITThe 15th Annual J. Herbert Hollomon Memorial Symposium From Imagination to Innovation: Pioneering Solutions to Global Challenges Reception and Expo to Follow Join us for an exciting evening featuring a talk by AMY SMITH. Amy Smith, MIT class of 1984 and a 2004 MacArthur "genius" grant recipient, teaches MIT's D-Lab and is the co-creator of MIT's IDEAS Competition. She is co-founder of the International Development Initiative and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Immediately following Amy's talk, please join us for an fascinating expo and reception featuring the latest innovations coming out of MIT. These events are in conjunction with the International Development Conference at Harvard. Advancing the Legacy of William James:The Radically Empirical Study of the Mind April 2 at 7pm at MIT Simmons Hall Contemplative Science, Mind, & Physics:Conversations with Alan Wallace April 3, 2008 at 10:30am B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., is a dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Wallace continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind. A scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, Dr. Wallace has taught Buddhist theory and meditation throughout Europe and America since 1976. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford. With his unique background, Alan brings deep experience and applied skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world. Co-Sponsored with MIT Prajnopaya, The School for Humanities and Social Sciences, and the MIT Department of Philosophy. Dissolving War: Women as PeacemakersSanam Naraghi Anderlini Friday, March 14 Sanam Naraghi Anderlini's latest book, "Women Building Peace: What They Do, Why it Matters," continues her ground-breaking exploration of gender and conflict. A longtime consultant to the U.N. and NGOs on these issues, Anderlini has produced several important field studies and analyses of how women build and sustain peace in their war-torn countries and communities, often in unconventional ways. Sanam Naragi Anderlini was born and raised in Iran and educated at Cambridge University in the U.K. She has held leadership posts with International Alert, Women Waging Peace, and is now, in addition to her consultancies, a Research Affiliate of MIT's Center for International Studies. She worked as a marketing consultant and television news researcher before joining International Alert in 1996 as a speechwriter and researcher to the then Secretary-General. In 1998 she co-authored Civil Wars, Civil Peace, An Introduction to Conflict Resolution (Pluto Press 1998) before joining the Forum on Early Warning and Early Response as Managing Editor. In 1999 she researched and authored Women at the Peace Table: Making a Difference, for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) see http://www.unifem.undp.org/peacebook.html. Throughout 2000 she was the Senior Policy Adviser on the global campaign: Women Building Peace: From the Village Council to the Negotiating Table, advocating for a UN Security Council resolution on women peace and security. Co-Sponsored with the Center for International Studies. Computer-Generated Inventions: Risks and Ethical ImplicationsThursday, March 6 We think of inventing as a uniquely human activity. Yet now computers are automating substantial parts of the inventive process, producing designs for everything from toothbrushes to antennas currently on a NASA space mission. Yesterday's inventors designed the physical details of their inventions. In contrast, today's inventors are beginning to invent by writing abstract descriptions of the problems they wish to solve, providing those problem descriptions to computers, and then sitting back while the computers produce concrete designs for machines that solve the problems described. Although such "artificial invention" technology promises to increase our capacity to satisfy our material needs more easily than ever before, it also will require us to rethink what it means to be an "inventor" and how to draw the line between a description of a machine and the machine itself. For example, does someone who uses a computer to create a new antenna qualify as an "inventor" of that antenna, even if that person does not understand how or why the computer-generated antenna works? Artificial invention also raises ethical questions. For example, is someone who publishes an abstract description of a harmful machine ethically responsible for harm subsequently caused by that machine when someone else uses a computer to transform the description into the machine itself? Although such scenarios may sound like science fiction, courts have already begun to wrestle with the legal aspects of such questions in real lawsuits. Join us to learn about the revolution that is computer-automated inventing and its implications at this presentation by Boston intellectual property lawyer Robert Plotkin,MIT '93, author of a forthcoming book on artificial invention. Darwin, Design and Religion: Lessons from the Dover Monkey TrialThursday, February 21, 2008 Kenneth Miller, Brown University biology professor, textbook author and lead witness, will give an informal talk for teachers and community members. The format will allow Q and A and discussion about preserving the right to teach evolution in public schools. Re:Design — A play based on the correspondence between Charles Darwin and Harvard botanist, Asa GrayThursday, February 14 at 7:00pm A theatrical production written by Craig Baxter and produced by the Darwin Correspondence Project at Cambridge University in Great Britain. This one act play is based on Darwin's correspondence with his close friend Asa Gray, an American botanist at Harvard. The Atlantic Ocean between them, Darwin and Gray worked to reconcile orthodox Christian beliefs with Darwin's emerging theory of evolution by natural selection. We enter their minds and worlds as — in their own words — they debate the great issues of science and religion, war, and slavery, but also share news of personal tragedies and triumphs, holidays and gardening. The play raises crucial questions about the implications of Darwin's theory of evolution for religious ideas of creation and design. Each performance will be followed by a discussion moderated by MIT Museum Director John Durant and Harvard Darwin scholar Professor Janet Browne. To watch the video of the production, go to this link. Co-sponsored with the MIT Museum Darwinism and Intelligent Design:
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