Why do Economists and AI Experts Disagree About the Future?Economists expect economic growth to continue at around 2% per year, more or less indefinitely. By contrast, many top AI researchers predict we'll soon have Dyson spheres.This talk aims to explain the gap, why economists are skeptical, and what evidence might change their minds.Speaker: Tamay Besiroglu, Mechanize IncAttend in person ...
The diffusion and transport of elongated and deformable particles, such as fibers, filaments, or threads, through micro-structured media in an extra dilute form has wide range of applications in various fields, including environmental science. In this talk, I will present our ongoing work to examine the applicability of classic diffusion ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Driving Water Resilience in the San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is the third largest municipal utility in California, providing drinking water for more than 2.7 million residents and businesses within San Francisco and three other Bay Area counties. San Francisco customers enjoy some of the nation’s highest quality drinking water. The Regional Water System ...
What do we understand when we understand language? Human language offers a broad window into the landscape of our thoughts. We talk about what we see, believe, and imagine, posing questions and communicating our plans. Language, in turn, stocks our mental inventories with new concepts and theories, communicating ideas that ...
Away from equilibrium, energy can serve as a resource that opens the door to what seems like limitless potential for novel phenomena. To date, however, our understanding of energy’s role has been largely gleaned through individual case studies, leaving it an open question to identify universal principles. In this talk, ...
Dan Wang will speak about his new book, which is based on six years of technology research in China. Breakneck presents China as an engineer state, which builds a lot and makes big mistakes, in contrast with America's lawyerly society, which blocks almost everything, good and bad. In addition to the book, ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Light Dark Matter eXperiment: A Discovery Experiment for Sub-GeV Dark MatterNearly a century after first observing dark matter, we have an impressive understanding of its astronomical and cosmological properties but remarkably little knowledge of its fundamental nature. One leading paradigm postulates new fundamental particles that were in thermal equilibrium with ordinary matter in the early universe - thermal relics - ...
Macro-energy systems modelers are regularly asked to capture greater detail in technology and behavior, often without a sense of how these additions to models could affect projected outcomes. In this talk, Valerie will discuss which attributes of technology and behavior can most affect modeled outcomes and policy prescriptions, using examples ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
The Power of Curiosity: Unlocking the World through Basic Science - LivestreamIt is impossible to predict the future applications of curiosity-driven research, but that is what makes it so exciting. Fundamental science done at Berkeley has proven to uncover major discoveries that change the way we see the world - just take CRISPR-Cas9, the laser, and telomerase, for example. Come hear ...
Where: Cost: Free
United for Disability and Climate Justice - LivestreamDaphne Frias is a 27-year-old Latina and Disability rights advocate with Cerebral Palsy. She was featured in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, and on NPR. In this talk, Daphne explains how disability rights connect to protecting the environment. She also shows how we can learn from the strength of ...
Recent advances in quantum hardware have highlighted both the importance and the growing feasibility of scaling up quantum systems and distributing entanglement across physically separated qubits. Researchers are pursuing multiple paths toward this goal: on one front, novel hardware platforms (e.g. new qubit technologies) promise to support much larger qubit ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
SETI Live: Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean - LivestreamJoin Beth Johnson for a thought-provoking conversation with Professor Dagomar Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University. They delve into the themes of his new book, Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean, set to be released on October 28, 2025.Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean offers a sweeping history of human encounters with ...
The sinking of gravitationally unstable lithosphere beneath high-elevation plateaus is proposed to be a key driver of their uplift and is proposed to have occurred across our planet including beneath the Andes Tibet Anatolia Colorado Plateau and Nevadaplano. Where the lithosphere is actively sinking geophysical imaging affords a snapshot of ...
A deep property of quantum field theory is the irreversibility of the renormalization group flow: as we move to longer length scales, the number of relevant degrees of freedom only decreases. In this colloquium, we will show how ideas from quantum information theory provide a new understanding of this irreversibility. ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
Southeast Alaska - The Splendor and Magic of the Inside Passage - LivestreamPlease join us as photographer-extraordinaire, Jodi Frediani leads us on a trip through the Inside Passage. We'll meet lunge feeding humpback whales, black and brown bears, eagles, lots of other critters and take in this majestic landscape. Along the way, Jodi will share her collaboration with researchers, film crews, and ...
A common model of AI suggests that there is a single measure of intelligence, often called AGI, and that AI systems are agents who can possess more or less of this intelligence. Cognitive science, in contrast, suggests that there are multiple forms of intelligence and that these intelligences trade-off against ...
Where: NovatoCost: Free
Understanding AI - If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesIn 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $18 General in person, $9 online
Much of the discourse around AI frames it as an alien and inscrutable intelligence. But in fact our success at creating "real" AI with general capabilities in the 2020s has come not only by taking many pages from computational neuroscience, but by performing large-scale modeling on human language-- the "DNA" ...
In this talk, I explore the work that is accomplished by centering engagement with Black dance music in urban studies and vice versa. Combining my training as an urban geographer with my practice as a DJ, I argue that mixing insights from urban, sound, and Black studies allows us to ...
Synchronized operation of a large number of similar entities can generate behavior that cannot be expected from single one. This principle combined with the physical concept of coherence in waves enables creation of programmable 3-dimensional focal points that can be used to enable many applications such as wireless energy transfer ...
When Worlds Collide: Galaxy MergersSpeaker: Abigail ReynoldsStudying Carbon Fusion with Machine LearningSpeaker: Valarie MiltonClick here to watch on YouTubeEditor's Note: Baton Rouge is in the Central time zone. Their webpage shows the start and end times in Eastern Daylight time, which we assume is incorrect. We adjust the time for our ...
Where: Cost: Free
Technology for a Sustainable TomorrowThis presentation is part of the College of Environmental Design’s interdisciplinary fall lecture series, Technology for a Sustainable Tomorrow, which explores the role of technology in shaping our landscapes and cities, past and present. Technological innovations of the past 150 years - especially “advances” in transportation, construction, and energy - ...
Where: BerkeleyCost: Free
Thursday, 10/30/25
Federal Funding Impacts for Sustainability & ResilienceFederal rollbacks are reshaping the future of sustainability and resilience. From cancellations of major FEMA hazard resilience grant programs, to repeals of climate provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, to new tariffs driving up the cost of clean energy, the federal government is pulling back just as the need to ...
Internal wave solitons with amplitudes as large as 150 m propagate westward across the South China Sea, eventually interacting with the continental slope near Dongsha Atoll. Here, we present some of the first coherent observations of these waves from deep water (>500 m), through their shoaling transformation all the way ...
Where: StanfordCost: Free
SETI Live: This Microbe Breathes Two Ways! - LivestreamJoin host Beth Johnson on SETI Live as she talks with Dr. Eric Boyd from the University of Montana about a groundbreaking discovery: microbes that can breathe in two ways at once! These extraordinary bacteria simultaneously perform both aerobic (oxygen-based) and anaerobic (sulfur-based) respiration, challenging everything we thought we knew about cellular life.Discover how this incredible metabolic flexibility ...
With the advent of cloud computing and now generative AI, demand for datacenters has never been more robust. This has led to unique challenges with interconnection to the electric grid, with most utilities unable to satisfy interconnection requests in a reasonable (~ 2 years) timeframe. This talk focuses on mitigation ...
Power, Control Technologies, and Sovereignty in the AI AgeBig Tech companies aren’t just large corporations. They’re political actors and economic planners. And their deep pockets and control over social media and personal data only partially explain their dominance, argues economist Cecilia Rikap, University College London.Rikap’s talk at BESI will show how big tech’s real power lies in its ...
Ghost stories and monster sightings have long been an important way for humans to deal with their fears of the unknown. Often these tales come from situations where folklore stepped in to explain science that people didn’t understand yet. Nowhere did this play out quite as spectacularly as in eighteenth ...
Where: Cost: Free
Fright NightLifeTricks, treats, and thrills all night long - summon your crew for our annual after-dark haunt featuring performances by Oaklash. Costumes are highly recommended and welcomed.
Where: San FranciscoCost: Varies
After Dark: CreepatoriumJoin us at Pier 15 for an unforgettable evening of thrills and chills! Traverse through a specially decorated Tactile Dome. Soak in spooky vibes with live jazz from John Brothers Piano Company, touch a carnivorous plant, and dress to impress for our costume contest. Don’t forget to uncover the creepy ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: $22.95 General, free for members
Familes on the LandWe welcome you to an easy "challenge by choice" type of hike day with staff and docents at Bouverie Preserve. Explore the different trails and ecosytems of the preserve or enjoy a nice picnic, this day's adventure is all up to you!Register at weblink
Where: Glen EllenCost: Free
First Saturday: Free Tour of the Santa Cruz ArboretumAround the World in 60-90 Minutes!On the first Saturday of each month, the Arboretum offers a docent or staff-led tour of the Arboretum.Sometimes you will see New Zealand, South Africa, California, and Australia. Sometimes you might see combinations of several gardens or the developing World Conifer Collection or Rare Fruit ...
Where: Santa CruzCost: Free with admission, and for members
Join the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society for a virtual conversation with Bill "The Fox Guy" Leikam! Bill will tell stories about gray foxes that he has studied and learned from here in the Bay Area. Come with your questions about these incredible animals!About Bill Leikam: Since October 2009, Bill Leikam ...
Where: Cost: Free
City Public Star PartyCome join the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers for free public stargazing of the Moon, planets, globular clusters and more!The event will take place in Tunnel Tops National Park, parking is located adjacent to Picnic Place (210 Lincoln Blvd for GPS) with the telescopes setup in the East Meadow.Dress warmly as conditions ...
Where: San FranciscoCost: Free
Jazz Under the StarsJazz Under the Stars is a FREE monthly public stargazing event! Join us for a night of smooth jazz, bright stars, and a lot of fun! We play our jazz from CSM's own KCSM 91.1. Founded in 1964, KCSM has grown to become one of the top 35 most listened to non-commercial ...
Where: San MateoCost: Free
Sunday, 11/02/25
Morning Hike at WavecrestJoin Peninsula Open Space Trust for a very easy 2-mile walk at Wavecrest Open Space in Half Moon Bay! We’ll walk through groves of trees and fields where we’ll have a great chance to spot a variety of birds, especially raptors! We’ll also walk along the coastal bluffs where we ...
Where: Half Moon BayCost: Free
History of Drawbridge - LivestreamJoin Ceal Craig, Ph.D., a 20+ year volunteer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, for a unique opportunity to dive into the history of Drawbridge, a historic town that once housed a thriving community on an island along the South San Francisco Bay. How did this community survive in ...
