Dear Nerds and Friends of Nerds,
Nerd Nite NYC returns to Caveat NYC in the Lower East Side on Saturday October 12, 2024 and will feature three fun-yet-informative presentations about why vanilla is so misunderstood, AI ethics, and why Mars’s moon is traveling the wrong way. Ah, Nerd Nite, where the wrong way is definitely the right way! Tickets here.
Nerd Nite NYC
Saturday October 12, 2024 at 9:30pm
Caveat NYC (Lower East Side) 21A Clinton Street, NYC, NY 10002
$16 early bird (until Oct 05, 09:30PM) | $21 standard | $26 at the door
Tickets here: https://www.caveat.nyc/events/nerd-nite-10-12-2024
Back to the Lectures At-Hand
*Presentation #1
Vanilla: Reclaiming the Baseless Insult from a Bland, Boring Fate
by Jess Vander
Description: Everything we think about vanilla is wrong. Prepare to be humbled by the improbable, scandalous truth behind the world’s “lamest” flavor. Chocolate people welcome.
Bio: Jess Vander is a brand strategist (i.e. professional slide maker and hot taker) at SYLVAIN, EP of the Critical Nonsense podcast, and staunch vanilla advocate. As a baker and glutton for competition, she’s made a habit of turning friend groups into bake-off rivals. She is currently working on a recipe for the first ever vanilla cookie—patent not pending, please don’t take this idea.
*Presentation #2
Thinking about AI Thinking: Can Data and Algorithms be Intelligent?
by James Brusseau
Description: Saul-7B is beating human lawyers in the courtroom and ChatGPT is writing better essays than students, but are these machines intelligent like humans? Or, maybe that’s the wrong question. Maybe there is no human supremacy and our intelligence is just a version of mechanical knowledge production. It’s uncertain. Real thinking, though, is always work-in-progress, so we will produce a few possibilities.
Bio: James Brusseau is a philosophy professor during the fall and winter at Pace University in New York City, and he is a computer science professor during the spring and summer at the University of Trento, in Italy.
*Presentation #3
Why is Mars’s Moon Traveling the Wrong Way?
by Azeem Bande-Ali
Description: Not only do Martians get to have two moons, they also get to enjoy the variety of the moons rising in opposite directions. If we want to one-up those Martians, we will need to find an even fancier orbital setup for ourselves. First, we will explore why “opposite orbits” are rare in the solar system and then figure out how the Martian moons are traveling in opposite directions despite this rarity. Then we will use our newfound knowledge to craft an orbital setup awesome enough to make the Martians jealous.
Bio: Azeem is a game developer and a failed physicist. He lives his scientist dreams by summarizing Wikipedia articles for entertainment.
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