Meetup : Columbus, OH MEGA-MEETUP, Oct 11-13

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED!

Pre-Register HERE!  (Google Forms are occasionally buggy. If you don't get an email from me within a day or two, then then I didn't get your pre-reg.)

Space is limited! The conference room can hold 50 people, 60 max, and our average meetup draws about half of that. Therefore, pre-registration is REQUIRED.

Pre-registration CLOSES on OCTOBER 4. This is the last day to either pre-register, or to cancel your pre-registration. If you discover you can not come, please cancel your pre-registration so that someone else may attend.

Housing is provided to out-of-towners, on a limited, first-registered, first-serve basis.

If you are interested in giving a talk, leading a discussion, or workshop, please describe what you want to do on the pre-reg page.

Pre-Register HERE!

SCHEDULE

FRIDAY

Socializing begins at 7:30p. There may be a roundtable discussion on community building, depending on interest. (If you come early, there will be TEDxColumbus, which is over-priced, IMO.)

SATURDAY
Official workshop begins at 3p

Introduction- Erica Edelman (me)
Who We Are and What We Do.

Down the Rabbit Hole: Magic as Psychic Entertainment -Jack Strauss
Magician/Mentalist Jack Strauss will present a stage act as a psychic entertainer. Afterwards, there will be a sit-down talkback with the audience. Topics will be determined by audience questions and may include: ethics of performing on stage with a psychic persona, psychology of deception, techniques of cold reading, etc. The only topic off the table will be the specifics of how the act you just saw is performed.

Defense Against the Dark Arts: The Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion- Jesse Galef
How do we convince other people of what's true? What tactics work and don't work? What rhetorical or psychological strategies can we practice to make ourselves better at it? How can we make ourselves less likely to be seduced by the Dark Arts of others? And of course, what's the ethics of all of this? Are all forms of persuasion ethical? How can we make those distinctions?

Rita Messer- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Effective Self-Help: Cognitive tricks for understanding and making your emotions work for you.

Rationality – a synergy of Western and Eastern approaches- Don Sutterfield
In the western tradition (European / American), rationality is understood primarily from the perspective of the individual. In the eastern tradition, (China, Japan etc.) the fundamental framing of goals is less individualistic, given the more communitarian sense of identity that is a key component in “eastern” thought. In the eastern tradition, while not labeled as such, “rationality” takes as its subjects 1- the deconstruction of the concept and constant experience of individuality “the illusion of self”, and 2- the improvement of one’s systems of response to experiences be they negative, or positive. (Mindfulness).

Effective Altruism- Elissa Caffery Fleming
Ever wonder how you can do the most good with your life? Is it rational to give to charity, and which ones? Lots of smart people have spent a lot of time working on those problems, and you might be surprised at what they've come up with!

Applications of Models in Everyday Life- Eric Huff
What does it mean to think about the world using models? This is a style of thinking that's especially developed and formalized in science, but is really useful for everyday reasoning as well. I'll explain what I mean by a model, talk about the differences  between commonly-understood Bayesian reasoning and model-checking, and give some examples pulled from my research and from everyday experience. 

SUNDAY

Mini Maker's Faire (free) at COSI

(Note: Friday and Sunday activities are unofficial, and not sponsored by our hosting organization)