February 5 · 5:30 PM
CQUni Melbourne (Central Queensland Uni, Melbourne Campus)
This is an introductory session, to outline my project to explore the interactions of technology and cognition in the evolutionary history of humans. As humans we are faced with a crescendo of major technological revolutions that are now changing almost on a yearly basis what it means to be human. As an evolutionary biologist and a retired knowledge management systems analyst and designer I have been working since 2001 to unify theories of life and knowledge to understand the coevolution of technologies and human cognition.
I am nearing completion of a hypertext book exploring concepts, our technologies and our evolutionary history, and have established this series to share what I have learned and to road-test the structure and presentation of the book.
In this first session I plan to discuss the following topics:
An important task for this first Meetup is to establish a schedule that will be suitable for the most people.
The plan is to schedule Meetups for evenings, either here in the Melbourne CBD or possibly at Melbourne University or RMIT where I may have access to classroom space. The choice of venue and dates will depend to some degree on the number of interested parties and their requirements.
The proposed format is to begin with a short presentation starting around 6:00 pm (subject to adjustment) summarizing an extract of the book that will be made available for reading in advance of the meeting, followed by wide-open discussion. The formal meeting will close around 7:30-8:00 when people will be invited to join me for dinner and refreshments at a cafe in Chinatown - all within walking distance of public transport.
A somewhat dated Introductory Presentation summarizes the scope of the project. Highlights will be discussed in this Meetup. The presentation slides for tonight's meetup can be found here.
If you are planning to attend, please RSVP so I know whether the venue is appropriate.
Using the functionality of hypertext, the book accesses a body of knowledge that approaches infinite complexity. Like the Mandelbrot figure, no matter how deep you go into its detail, drilling deeper reveals even more detail and sometimes surprising turns. The intent of my book and this exercise is to give you tools for exploring the body of human knowledge without being overwhelmed by it.