Upcoming Events for Spring 2010

New Year's greetings to our friends and followers, near and far as the future shoots us into another year. If you are in the Valley of the Sun, there is lots on offer for futurist thinkers this spring. Here is a rundown of events for the next four months. You can find dates, times, and topics in the events bar on this blog, as well as maps to locations.

Meet and Greet other Arizona Futurists

In the early winter our friend and fellow futurist, Joan Foltz, organized the first meeting of the Arizona chapter of the World Future Society. The turn-out has been great. Come join us each month to discuss a range of topics with a futurist slant.

Phoenix has an active futurists’ community that plans to provide a forum for insightful discussions and introduce futures thinking concepts for people to use in their professional and personal lives.

Interested in speaking? Any specific topic you want the group to present? Want more information on The World Future Society or futures studies programs? Contact Joan Foltz, 480-756-8449, jfoltz@alsekresearch.com

"Hot, Flat, and Crowded"

Join The Arizona Chapter for our next meeting.

When: Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, 6:30-8:30 PM

Where: University of Advancing Technology, The Auditorium

2625 W. Baseline Rd., Tempe, AZ (Baseline and I-10)
(See map on the events bar.)
(NOTE: Enter through the back entrance after 6 PM.)

Topic: “Hot, Flat and Crowded”

A panel will lead a discussion on the possible future of a "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" world. How does human psychology adjust to changing living conditions? What technologies might change current assumptions? What are possible outcomes of environmental challenges that have not been considered? Discussion will explore possible outcomes.

Panelists:

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. is the Co-Director of the Center for Future Consciousness and Faculty Chair of Psychology and Philosophy at Rio Salado College. An active member of various futurist organizations, he is the author of numerous futurist articles and two books on the future, The Evolution of Future Consciousness and Contemporary Futurist Thought..

Debashis Chowdhury of Intrinz Publishing, author of In Our Own Image: Humanity’s Quest for Divinity via Technology, and board member of the Foresight Network Sustainability forum.

Joe McCormack, graduate student of technology at UAT focusing on solar sheaths, and frequent contributor to the Journal of Advancing Technology.

Tom Teaching Spring Course at Sun City City Grand, Affiliate of ASU's Osher Institute

Along with his popular series at Rio Salado's Lifelong Learning Institute, Tom will now be teaching a short spring series on the future at Sun City Grand Lifelong Learning Academy on the West side. If you have not caught his presentations on science fiction or the colonization of space, now is a good time to take in these two exciting talks. If you are new to futures thinking, his Introduction to the Future is a good place to start. Attend all three on consecutive Mondays in April. Information and maps are on the side bar for events.

Mind Flight: Wisdom, Enlightenment, and the Search for Love

Tom continues his presentations based on his new book, Mind Flight, at Rio Salado Lifelong Learning Center. This has been a very popular series. For those of you who have missed the presentations, you can catch up on the story and themes on Copthorne Macdonald's The Wisdom Page. Mind Flight is a powerful philosophical narrative, a blend of the intellectual and the personal that resonates strongly with audiences. See the events side bar for dates and upcoming chapter topics.