Inactivity of the Blog

The Hastings Humanists still meet every month (except August) on the second Thursday in the month at the White Rock Hotel but this Blogspot site is no longer being actively updated.

There is an alternative Hastings Humanists blog available on Facebook:
https://en-gb.facebook.com/Hastings-Humanists-353889231431117/

Population Impact

Thursday the 12^th April 2018 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the White Rock Hotel

(Alistair Robertson)

In 1798 Malthus predicted that we would not be able to survive the exponential grow in human populations: So far we have always managed to dodge the bullet….

• The population of the world today (best estimate) is 7,610,975,900, but by the time we meet in a few days’ time, it will have grown by about another 2,500,000.
• On the other hand the population growth rate has dropped from 2% pa to 1.1% pa and the rate of growth is declining as the population age distribution passes peek child bearing age. So peak population is trending towards a maximum of 10 bn.
• But global warming is making it harder to grow the food we need and other resources are being depleted.
• And over half the world now lives in an urban environment
• and there is no doubt that we are degrading our environment by share force of a human population that is also driving another mass extinction event of all other species.

Population is at the heart of so many issues that this evening’s discussion is bound to be interesting and contentious. Do you think we should limit human global population, and if so, at what level and how?

Hastings Humanists are having a discussion on Population and the effect on the individual, our immediate environment and the World as a whole.

                What is the trend for population growth locally and in the World.

                What are the demands on resources and the consequent effects of this growth.

                What is the World doing about population.

                Is there an upper limit on population that we can predict and sustain.

The talk will use some statistics but is very much geared towards the effect on us of Population trends. Come along as this is a discussion where your own views and opinions will contribute to a lively and enjoyable event.

Thank you

The Hidden Life of Trees

Thursday the 8^th March 2018 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the White Rock Hotel

Trees have been around for about 385 million years so it is not surprising that they have developed sophisticated ways of interacting with their environment that we are only just beginning to appreciate. They have to collaboration for the survival of the individual tree, the genus of trees and the collective forest – sounds familiar!??!

Peter Wohlleben’s book “The Hidden Life of Trees” is a very accessible description that explains some of the complex interactions that trees have developed.

Ø  They communicate through the fungi that make up the forest floor

Ø  they protect themselves against predators by apparently putting out airborne volatile chemicals that alert other trees to produce toxins against those predator

Ø  roots seem to communicate distress to neighbours and grow in such a way that they can optimise their group response e.g. to drought, etc.

The sort of issues that we will be discussing are:

·         The importance of trees to our life - as part of the ecosystem that produces the Oxygen that we breath and maintains the temperature of the planet on which we live.

o   Global warming and the South American forests

o   At a more local level: the balance between the needs of new roads and parts of the green belt

·         What about the psychological impact of becoming increasingly remote from our natural environment?

And also

·         Is there a moral imperative that requires that we treat all living things with respect (lest they come back and kill us?)

·         Is there a way in which we can use this better understanding of the complex systems that enable trees to flourish?

Please bring along any of your ideas.

Thank you

Humanist Policing in the 21Century

Thursday the 8^th Feb 2018 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the White Rock Hotel

Is good policing a basic necessity for civil society?  The society’s greater good is secured by all members following the rules, but sometimes our individual interest can best be served by breaking those rules and sometimes the rules need to change to enable society to evolve.  This is not really question of good and bad in the Biblical sense, it is about maintaining a balance between individual freedom and the requirements of the group.

Firstly let’s review the challenges faced by policing today and then see how we need it to evolve over the next 30 years.

There are special challenges in the immediate future with regard to the ‘surveillance society’. How does the public maintain control over invisible policing algorithms that might find you guilty of intent and impose penalties, because it thinks you might do something! We are continuously tracked, not just when you are in your car (number plate recognition is common place) but now face recognition that means ‘society’ can track your every move – even if you choose not to be followed by your mobile phone.

As our identity becomes public property, how can we protect ourselves from an overbearing state and balance personal freedoms to disagree, with societal needs for conformity? And further developments in Block Chain technologies have the potential to change the nature of ‘Trust’ between strangers and that may have a bigger impact than anything!

Note: we may be in a different room at the White Rock Hotel…

Future subjects

·         March – The hidden life of Trees (Nick and Liz)

·         April – Global Population issues (Alastair)

Our future with artificial Intelligence and robotics

Our future with artificial Intelligence and robotics

Next Thursday the 11^th Jan 2018 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the White Rock Hotel

It seems appropriate that as we enter a new year, that we think about some of the great challenges to the way we will organise society in the future.
Our accelerating ability to offload the routine and humdrum (and the vitally important) onto machines that will do it better and cheaper than humans can, will have an impact on everybody. It is the classic middle class jobs that seem most at risk from the industrial revolution 2.0 and it is hard to know what to advise young people to specialise in, as they contemplate the next 50 years of their lives.

The impact of developments in AI and robotics will change the world of work at an exponential rate. But whether this is a boon that improves the lives of everyone, or a disaster that creates an even more unequal society of ‘haves’ and ‘have nothings’, is a matter of political choice. It will pit our great human capacity for collaboration and co-operation, against the equally powerful tendency for group think and competition.

We are approaching a tipping point in which individuals can make a difference, but nobody has a clear view of the questions, never mind being able to construct answers….plenty of room for debate on all the vital issues.

Happy 2018

Future subjects

·         February – Do Humanists need Police? (Mick and Mike)

·         March – The hidden life of Trees (Nick and Liz)

·         April – Global Population issues (Alistair)