Happy Thursday, Nerds! AT LAST I can present to you the details of our April show. However, since one of this month’s topics may hit a little close to home for some people, I urge you to consider the very important content of this video:
With that out of the way, for your consideration, I present, APRIL NERD NITE:
What is Artificial Intelligence? Well before the birth of the first computer, the concept of a thinking machine has captivated the human imagination. Through the 20th century, pop-culture has been flooded with futuristic depictions of a new intelligent race: machines that drive cars, interpret medical scans, advise hedge funds, compose music…when days of machine learning can eclipse a decade’s worth of human experience, we start to wonder what our future looks like. Will AI increase unemployment? Become sentient? Surpass human authority? We’ll tackle these questions by dispelling the misconceptions that pop-culture portrayal has fostered around AI. –Jed Shanley
Jed: short for Jedi Knight, because he delivered himself from the womb through a lightsaber cesarean section. By day, he is a writing consultant for the University of Minnesota, and in his free time, enjoys researching a variety of topics such as minimalism, ethics, linguistics, skepticism, and of course, artificial intelligence.
Diverging Perceptions of Personal Moral Values and the Values of One’s Religious Group. There’s a stereotype that atheists are less moral than religious people. Psychologists (including me) have recently tested the truth of the matter. The answer, it turns out, can be yes or no—depending on how you define morality. -Travis Clark
Travis Clark is an assistant professor at Valley City State University. His research interests include moral psychology and ethics. His favorite color is purple.
Our scheduled third speaker had to drop out because life happened (don’t worry- Kyle and his talk about Satanism will return this summer). We’ll make it up to you in cake form, because it’s our third birthday, and your happiness means a lot to us- so much so that we’re willing to buy it with desserts. See you beautiful nerds on Wednesday April 18th, 7PM, at Fargo Billiards and Gastropub. Be there and be square.
🙂 T