General Meeting - Critical Thinking; Spooky Action at a Distance

Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking - Bob Korn

We probably agree that critical thinking is a good thing, and we have a sense for what people mean when they talk about it, but it’s rarely well defined what we’re trying to accomplish and why. If we examine the problem carefully we might be able to do a better job of thinking critically ourselves and promoting it in others as well.

Bob has a Ph.D. in Computer Science in the area of artificial intelligence. He is now retired after a career as a computer scientist and software engineer. He now enjoys thinking about big questions like “How do we know what’s true?” and “How does the mind work?” and things like religion, politics, economics, morality, free will, and consciousness.

Spooky action at a distance…WTF? - Eric Harris

For anyone else who has been struggling to understand recent reports about tests of “quantum entanglement”, Eric will share his understanding of this phenomenon and test results. Along the way, he’ll discuss “Schrodinger’s cat” and Einstein’s use of “spooky”, both of which are commonly misrepresented in public media. If this subject is new to you, it promises to blow your mind.

Bio: Dr. Harris has over 30 years experience in neuroscience and 25 years experience in drug development: he earned his PhD at the University of Virginia studying the brain reorganization after damage, did post-doctoral work at the University of California, Irvine, studying the pharmacology of communication between brain cells, worked in drug discovery at AstraZeneca focusing on neurological diseases, and drug development (clinical trials, FDA interactions) at Cato Research in RTP. He is now retired, and passionate about science education and science literacy.

Parking Directions:

From Varsity Dr, turn into the road that leads to the parking decks behind the WebAssign building. Park in the parking deck marked by the X and walk up the stairs to the back entrance as indicated. Someone will open the door for you. There is an entrance facing Main Campus Dr, but we may not have someone at that door, so please park in the parking deck in the back. There will be no towing after 6pm, and parking will be free and plentiful.

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