The Saybrook Forum

Learn about the global peace movement

Saybrook University is pleased to co-sponsor “Taking Stock of Peace:  Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide,” featuring presentations from some of the leading academics studying peace in our time.

Peace Movements Worldwide is the largest scholarly examination of the global peace movement in history.  This three volume anthology, co-edited by Saybrook faculty member Marc Pilisuk, is a comprehensive exploration of peace movements across cultures and times, focusing on successful strategies for implementing local and global change.

“Taking Stock of Peace” will feature presentations from the following contributors to Peace Movements Worldwide:  Daniel Ellsberg, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Stephen Zunes, Kavita Ramdas, Mitch Hall, Cynthia Boaz, Peter Phillips, Mickey Huff, Cris Toffolo, Donald Rothberg, Angel Ryono, and Melissa Anderson-Hinn.

"Taking Stock of Peace" will be held Sunday, October 30th at Berkeley Society of Friends (2151 Vine St. in Berkeley, CA) from 2:30-6:30pm.

You are not a job

Futurists like Jaron Lanier have been warning us that the same thing that happened to assembly line workers in the 20th century is going to happen to knowledge workers in the 21st:  machines will come in to do the jobs faster and cheaper. 

Of course, in the 20th century it was robots – while in the 21st century it will be software, but the impact will still be the same.  This week in Slate, Farhad Manjoo is reporting from the front lines of software automation … and he says he’s terrified by what these programs can do.

Most people are focused on the economic questions this raises:  how will millions of people earn a living? 

Over at The New Existentialists, however, they're asking a different question:  what will a culture where self-esteem and social standing comes from work do if work becomes the province of machines?

Read more

(Photo by Mixabest under a Creative Commons license)

Catch "Connected's" premiere - and discuss what it means to be human in a digital age

During Saybrook’s Fall 2011 Residential Conference, we were thrilled to be able to offer interested students a sneak peak at Tiffany Shlain’s upcoming documentary “Connected” – an examination of human life in a digital age.

Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive – and now “Connected” is making its public debut for Bay Area audiences this Friday.

“Connected” is a film that speaks to one of the central questions that Saybrook addresses every day:  what does it mean to be human in the 21st century?  Shlain – who is a founder of both the Webby awards and The National Day of Unplugging – asks how we have changed the way we relate to the technology we use every day, and how that technology has changed us. 

Shlain’s love/hate relationship with technology serves as the springboard for a thrilling exploration of modern life…and our interconnected future. Equal parts documentary and memoir, the film unfolds during a year in which technology and science literally become a matter of life and death for the director. As Shlain’s father battles brain cancer and she confronts a high-risk pregnancy, her very understanding of connection is challenged at every turn. Using a brilliant mix of animation, archival footage, and home movies, Shlain reveals the surprising ties that link us not only to the people we love but also to the world at large. A personal film with universal relevance, Connected explores how, after centuries of declaring our independence, it may be time for us to declare our interdependence instead.

Connected will be premiering at San Francisco’s Landmark Embarcadero Theater on Friday, Sept. 16, at 7:20 – and Tiffany Shlain will be available to answer questions after the show.

Shlain will also be attending screenings in Mill Valley at the Sequoia Theater (Saturday, 9/17, 7 p.m. show), and The Berkeley Shattuck 10 Theater (Sunday, 9/18, afternoon show)

For more information visit http://connectedthefilm.com