Town Hall Seattle Science Series

Artificial intelligence is an actively surging field in today’s digital landscape, and as each new AI interface reaches the public it throws into sharper resolution that all the big tech players are getting involved. And quickly. But where are the roots of this rapidly expanding industry’s interests? How does AI impact individuals, established industries, and the future of our society if it continues to grow faster than it is critically examined? In his newest book Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works For Us, author and scientist Gary F. Marcus uses his expertise in the field to help readers understand the realities, risks, and responsibilities the public faces as AI gains widespread traction.

Taming Silicon Valley aims to compare and critique the potential futures that AI– alongside Big Tech strategies and governmental involvement– could present to our world. Marcus asserts that if used and regulated properly, there are openings for huge advancements in science, medicine, technology, and public prosperity. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there lie vulnerabilities to abuses of power, a lack of effective policy, and dwindling protections for intellectual property and fair democracy. Marcus emphasizes that AI is meant to be a tool, not an unchecked entity and that it is up to the public to choose how it is allowed to shape the paths ahead. His work sets out to provide context to how AI has gotten to its current state, guidance towards understanding what coherent AI policy should look like in the future, and a call to action in pushing for what is needed in real-time. In the tradition of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Taming Silicon Valley urges readers towards awareness, analysis, and activism in this pivotal time of new AI integration.

Gary F. Marcus is an author, psychologist, scientist, and prominent voice in the field of artificial intelligence. He is Professor Emeritus of Neural Science and Psychology at NYU and was the founder and original CEO of Geometric.AI. His previous publications include Guitar Zero, Kluge, and Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust.

Ted Chiang is an award-winning science fiction author. His publications include Tower of Babylon, Exhalation: Stories, and Stories of Your Life and Others, which has been translated into twenty-one languages. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, particularly of non-fiction related to the intersections of art and technology.

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The ocean has proven endlessly mysterious and fascinating to all manner of people across the globe, but for centuries true knowledge of the depths was simply out of reach. As modern technologies advance, science has debunked much once held to be true – including the idea of the “silent world” of the ocean. What was once thought to be a muffled marine landscape with little to no perceptible sounds has now been revealed to be a complex interplay of aquatic acoustics. In her debut book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, science journalist Amorina Kingdon turns up the volume on groundbreaking discoveries in ocean soundscapes, why this research is important to our ecosystems, and how human impact is playing more of a role than science realized.

Sing Like Fish explores how the complexity of oceanic noise goes far deeper than the familiar hits like whale song and crashing currents. Sound travels four times faster in water than in air and its reach in environmental impact is as expansive as the seas themselves. Kingdon educates readers on a plethora of natural sonic relationships that have been recorded under the surface – from individual snapping shrimp and communicating fish to rumbling seismic activity bouncing off the seafloor in regions light cannot reach and the biodiversity concerts that live as coral reefs. These revelations also cast into sharp relief the repercussions of humanity’s presence in our seas. Marine noise pollution takes the form of everything from recreational boating and cruise tourism to the global shipping industry to military forces and oil exploration. As science continues to uncover the splendor and nuance of the ocean as an audible entity, Sing Like Fish reinforces the importance of understanding, protecting, and reveling in the symphony of our seas.

Amorina Kingdon is an award-winning writer and science journalist with a focused fascination in marine biology and coastal environments. She previously served as staff writer and contributor to Hakai Magazine. Her science writing has been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays 2020 (Biblioasis), and her fiction works have been included in PRISM Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Speculative North.

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Whether it’s staying up late in front of the screens or waking up before dawn for that early morning flight – it’s easy to tell when something big has thrown off our routines. But what about the little things that add up over the course of a day, a week, or our lives overall? How do small adjustments to our daily practices affect our long-term relationship with the balance between our bodies and the busy technology-driven world we live in? In her new book, author and science journalist Lynne Peeples explores how our often hectic habits can impact our physical, mental, and social health. The Inner Clock: Living In Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms peeks behind the blackout curtains to consider how learning more about our internal systems could help provide an extra boost to ourselves, our performance, and our planet.

Drawing from emerging new fields of research and exciting first-hand experiments, Peeples seeks to understand how the science of circadian rhythms could potentially be applied to a wide range of areas. How could taking a walk in the morning and going to bed at the same time each night keep your body in sync? Why are some doctors prescribing treatments at specific times of day? And how might a better understanding of our circadian rhythms improve educational outcomes, optimize sports performance, and support the longevity of our planet? From jet lag and time zones to artificial light and underground bunkers to new perspectives on mental illness treatment and more, The Inner Clock encourages readers to hone their senses toward what really makes our internal clocks tick and how we may be able to reset them for the better.

Lynne Peeples is an author and journalist exploring the fields of science, health, and the environment. Peeples has appeared on platforms including MSNBC, HuffPost Live, BBC News, Nature Podcast, and more. Her writing has been featured in publications including The Guardian, Scientific American, Nature, TIME, and The Huffington Post, where she previously served as the Environment and Public Health Reporter on staff.

Bill Radke is a journalist, public radio host and humorist. He hosts “Week In Review” on KUOW, 94.9 FM and all the podcast apps.

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With tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle will be instrumental in the future of data and its effects on society. What are the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in? How will data surveillance, digital forensics, and AI pose new threats––and opportunities? In their new book, The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore what might happen with all the data that we collect.

They build on this basic premise: no matter what form data takes, and what purpose we think it’s being used for, data will always have a secret life. They show how this data can be used, by other people in other times and places, and the profound implications for every aspect of our lives––everything from our intimate relationships to our professional lives to our political systems.

Sinnreich and Gilbert have interviewed dozens of data experts to explore a broad range of scenarios and contexts. To manage these possibilities, the authors advocate for creating new laws and regulations, ethics and aesthetics, and models of production. In the face of technological uncertainty, Sinnreich and Gilbert invite us to play an active part in shaping how data influences our lives, both here in Seattle, and the world at large.

Aram Sinnreich is an author, professor, and musician. He is the Chair of Communication Studies at American University. His books include Mashed Up, The Piracy Crusade, The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property, and A Second Chance for Yesterday (published as R. A. Sinn).

Jesse Gilbert is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of visual art, sound, and software design at his firm Dark Matter Media. He was the founding Chair of the Media Technology department at Woodbury University, and he has taught interactive software design at both CalArts and UC San Diego.

Daniela Rosner is a Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington, co-director of the Tactile and Tactical Design Lab, and co-director of the HCDE Masters Program. She holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS), the Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXArts), and the Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). Her work uses modes of design inquiry to examine sites of innovation practice and performance historically elided by technology cultures.

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One instance of grief can be difficult enough to cope with, but for Lawrence Ingrassia, losing multiple family members was not only devastating but perplexing. Typical discussions surrounding inheritance may include heirlooms or estates — not rare tumors in the cheeks of toddlers, as was the case for Ingrassia’s two-year-old nephew. After he lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to different types of cancer, Ingrassia was unsure whether his family’s generational heartbreak was merely misfortune or if there was some other cause.

In his book A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery, Ingrassia weaves his own family history with a history of cancer research. Part memoir, part medical thriller, Ingrassia’s work begins in the 1960s with Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr., groundbreaking researchers and physicians who would later uncover links between genetics and cancer.

A Fatal Inheritance journeys from the early days of discovery to present-day developments decades later, as Ingrassia and others continue to build upon Li and Fraumeni’s initial investigations and discover what this means for themselves and their families. Ingrassia also looks toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies aid in extending lifespans and possibly getting us closer to a cure.

Lawrence Ingrassia is a former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times, having previously spent twenty-five years at the Wall Street Journal, as Boston bureau chief, London bureau chief, money and investing editor, and assistant managing editor. He also served as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. The coverage he directed won five Pulitzer Prizes as well as Gerald Loeb Awards and George Polk Awards. His first book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, chronicles the rise of popular direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands and was shortlisted for several best business book awards for 2020. His latest book, A Fatal Inheritance, narrates the tale of a team of dedicated researchers who solved the medical mystery behind seemingly unrelated cancers devastating his and other families.

Robert W. Merry spent 45 years in Washington, D.C., as Wall Street Journal reporter and executive at Congressional Quarterly, including 12 years as CQ’s president and editor-in-chief. After CQ was sold to the Economist, he also served as editor of the polemical magazines The National Interest and The American Conservative. He is the author of six books on American history and foreign policy, including the forthcoming Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861 (Simon & Schuster).

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Did you know that plants can hear sounds? And have a social life? Science writer Zoë Schlanger shares even more remarkable plant talents in her latest book, The Light Eaters, illustrating the tremendous biological creativity it takes to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. They communicate. They recognize their own kin. Schlanger immerses into the world of being a plant, into its drama and complexity.

Scientists have learned that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life, Schlanger argues, if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing, and make its way toward it?

Our understanding and definition of a plant is rapidly changing. So then what do we owe these life forms once we come to comprehend their rich and varied abilities? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, Schlanger challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world.

Zoë Schlanger is a staff writer at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Time, Newsweek, The Nation, Quartz, and on NPR among other major outlets, and in the 2022 Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. A recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers’ reporting award, she is often a guest speaker in schools and universities.

Brooke Jarvis is an award-winning journalist who writes for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and elsewhere.

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Can you think of occasions where you wanted to say something, but couldn’t? Perhaps you stopped yourself out of fear, or due to outside pressures. Having a seat at the table doesn’t necessarily mean that your voice is welcome. A new book is aiming to examine the influence of silence and offer ways that we can begin to dismantle it to find our voices at home and work to shift the paradigm.

In Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully author Elaine Lin Hering explores the difficulty that can come with speaking up, especially when there may be incentives to stay silent to avoid unwanted consequences. Hering discusses how we as a society have learned to be silent, how we have benefited from silence, and how we have silenced other people. She also offers advice on how we can choose another way,  creating new patterns, becoming more complete versions of ourselves, engaging more fully with our talents, and helping others do the same.

Elaine Lin Hering is a facilitator, speaker, and writer. She works with organizations and individuals to build skills in communication, collaboration, and conflict management. In her career, Elaine has worked on six continents and with a wide range of corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. She has trained mental health professionals, political officials, religious communities, and leaders at companies including American Express, Capital One, Google, Nike, Novartis, Shell, Pixar, and the Red Cross. Elaine is a former Managing Partner of Triad Consulting Group and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, specializing in dispute resolution, mediation, and negotiation.

Ruchika Tulshyan is the best-selling author of Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Ruchika is also the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy practice. A former international business journalist, Ruchika is a regular contributor to The New York Times and Harvard Business Review and a recognized media expert on inclusive leadership and workplace culture. She is working on her next book, Uncompete: Dismantling a Competition Mindset to Unlock Liberation, Opportunity, and Peace.

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Your gut microbiome consists of trillions of microbiota and is a critical health determinant, affecting your immune system, mood, energy level, and much more. As a scientific field, microbiome research is new to the scene, but the intricate relationship between our gut and our overall health is clear – and getting clearer. In April, Netflix started streaming Hack Your Health, an informative documentary about the gut microbiome, gut health, and the science of eating.

In this collaborative event between Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology, Hack Your Health Director Anjali Nayar will sit down with gut microbiome specialist Dr. Sean Gibbons, a scientific advisor on the film, to discuss the project, interesting developments in microbiome research, and much more.

Anjali Nayar is an Indian-Canadian director, former climate scientist, and tech founder. Anjali’s newest film, a Netflix Original called Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut is streaming on Netflix, and her fantasy short Closer has over 5 million views and won the 2022 Prism Prize Audience Award (Canada’s top music video awards). As of 2024, she is developing a slew of scripted projects and a series with the Golden State Warriors. Her prior films have been supported by Cinereach, Sundance, and Tribeca, won countless awards, jury prizes, gone theatrical, and been acquired by Netflix and Amazon.

Sean Gibbons, Ph.D., is associate professor at Institute for Systems Biology. He received his PhD in biophysical sciences from the University of Chicago in 2015, winning a prestigious EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and The Broad Institute in 2018. He joined ISB as Washington Research Foundation Distinguished Investigator and assistant professor in 2018. His research on the human microbiome has been published in top scientific journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology.

The very fact of being human makes us vulnerable to pandemics, but it also gives us the power to save ourselves.

The COVID-19 pandemic most likely won’t be our last—that is the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of Sabrina Sholts’ new book, The Human Disease. Traveling through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making, Sholts draws on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about pandemic risks, to identify the human traits and tendencies that double as pandemic liabilities.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic looms large in Sholts’s account, it is, in fact, just one of the many infectious disease events explored in her book. When the next pandemic happens, and how bad it becomes, is largely within our highly capable human hands—and will be determined by what we do with our extraordinary human brains.

Sabrina Sholts is the curator of biological anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where she developed the major exhibit Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World. She has also served as a scientific commissioner for a related exhibition at the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France. 

Julianne Meisner, PhD, MS, BVM&S, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, focusing on One Health and pandemics. Her research explores the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, with a focus on novel pathogen emergence and the impacts of livestock keeping. She holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh and UW, and her current projects include investigating the effects of land use change on disease emergence and refining models for human-animal contact networks.

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Can you find lifelong love with an AARP card in your wallet?

Dori (72) and Mack (69) did, and they’ve got a lot to say on the subject!

Join them for a candid chat where they dish on discovering love later in life. Balancing time for each other, family, friends, and furry companions? Yep. Talking about merging households? Yep. Starting a family? Probably not going to happen.

People in their third act of life tend to seek more than mere flesh and flash, instead craving depth and maturity. Ignorance of each other’s previous lives provides the bliss of having an abundance of stories, perspectives, and wisdom waiting to be discovered; an endless adventure!

Dori Gillam is a speaker and writer on aging creatively and ageism and is the Board Chair for the Northwest Center for Creative Aging. She is a native Seattle-ite and loves hiking. www.dorigillam.com

Mack McCoy is New York City born and raised and has been a real estate broker in Seattle for 30 years. His hobbies include playing pop music with friends and admiring Seattle theatre.

This event is presented by Town Hall Seattle and Northwest Center for Creative Aging.