In 2010 I coordinated an SDG on the Ray Kurtzweil book, the Singularity is Near, published in 2005.

 in the in the 19 years since then much has changed in our world. In the Singularity is Nearer, published on July 1st of 2024 Ray Kurtzweil assesses the changes in our digital world and the effects on our lives

I sense that we are living in a ‘Gutenberg moment’, that is of accelerating returns of a greater magnitude then the availability of books brought. the book is fairly thick and yet in only 292 pages of text a great deal is communicated and followed by 107 pages of notes and an index.

 I hope you will join me in this exploration and celebration of what we are to be in the near future and the not so near future.

 There is no going back .

thank you

In 2010 I coordinated an SDG on the Ray Kurtzweil book, the Singularity is Near, published in 2005.

 in the in the 19 years since then much has changed in our world. In the Singularity is Nearer, published on July 1st of 2024 Ray Kurtzweil assesses the changes in our digital world and the effects on our lives

I sense that we are living in a ‘Gutenberg moment’, that is of accelerating returns of a greater magnitude then the availability of books brought. the book is fairly thick and yet in only 292 pages of text a great deal is communicated and followed by 107 pages of notes and an index.

 I hope you will join me in this exploration and celebration of what we are to be in the near future and the not so near future.

 there is no going back .

thank you

Looking at art can be inspirational, meditative,

restorative and fun.

Let’s take a look at artwork in an interactive and

fun format. This is not your art history class, but a

concise exercise in discovering different artists,

media, art collections. A potpourri if discussion

starters.

Each week we will explore a new subject. Core

resources will be all internet based and easy to

access.

As this is a visually active SDG, we will provide an

easy-to-use template for participants to prepare

their presentation and talking points.

We recognize this is a bit of a departure from

typical SDG formats, but we think it will provide

food for thought and discussion in a lively

manner.

Mo Yan, whose pen name means “Don’t Speak”, was born in 1955 into a rural family in northern China. He credits William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez as early writing influences.

His breakthrough came with the novel Red Sorghum, published in 1987. Set in a small village like much of his fiction, Red Sorghum is a tale of love and struggles among three generations of a rural Chinese family set against the backdrop of war.

In our second novel, Frog, published in 2008, Mo Yan traces the turbulent history of China in the twentieth century through the life of one indomitable woman, the narrator’s aunt Gugu, from her birth in 1937 to her retirement in the early 21st century. Gugu’s story follows her career as a star obstetrician in her home village to her troubled role during China’s controversial One Child Policy.

In 2012, Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy, praised Mo's writing style as "hallucinatory realism," saying it "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." The subversive humor in his work has also been compared to Kafka’s.

In his Nobel lecture, Mo Yan stated, “I know that nebulous terrain exists in the hearts and minds of every person, terrain that cannot be adequately characterized in simple terms of right and wrong or good and bad, and this vast territory is where a writer gives free rein to his talent. So long as the work correctly and vividly describes this nebulous, massively contradictory terrain, it will inevitably transcend politics and be endowed with literary excellence.

Mo Yan’s work has been hailed by John Updike in The New Yorker for his unique mix of “brutal incident, magic realism, natural description, and far-flung metaphor.”

Amy Tan has said that “Mo Yan’s voice will find its way into the heart of the American reader, just as Kundera and García Márquez have.”

There will be much food for thought as we explore new terrain in these two staggering novels.

Our SDG is framed not only by two battles as suggested in the SDG title, but also by two key unions: with Scotland (1707) and with Ireland (1802). Eighteenth century Britain can be described as the century of loose sexual morality, frivolity and conspicuous consumption; yet it is also a period when Parliament exerted its dominance amid the rise of two political parties that continue to color our world today. The British/Scottish Enlightenment, along with the Scientific Revolution ushered in a new age of culture which by 1815 produced the first of the British Romantics and the first steam engines. The eighteenth century found Britain almost continuously at war. At the same time, revolutions in finance, commerce and agriculture paved the way for the emergence of industrialization. Societal changes, including rapid population growth and urbanization transformed the nation. It is not too far of a stretch to say that eighteenth century Britain gave birth to the modern world.

Join us as we analyze and assess this amazing, and often ignored, century in British history.

Diane Brookes and Alice Lewis will coordinate this together.

Historical accounts of real spies in real wars beside fictional tales and made-up characters and even a little humor. A curated mix of fictional and documentary tales of spy-craft, daring do that both educates, entertains and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Historical accounts of real spies in real wars beside fictional tales and made-up characters and even a little humor.  A curated mix of fictional and documentary tales of  spy-craft, daring do that both educates, entertains and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Based on Paul Cooper's excellent new book of the same name, we shall explore the rise and ultimate demise of fourteen world wide civilizations.  A civilization is a large and organized society, many of which lasted hundreds, even thousands of years.  But each of the fourteen we consider met their demise over a relatively brief time.  and in most cases, they totally disappeared, leaving it to archaeologists and historians to rediscover and explain.  Fortunately, we can expand on Cooper's eloquent descriptions with further research on our own.  Meanwhile, we will learn a lot, and consider the ultimate fate of our own civilization

Complexity theory is a set of theoretical frameworks used for modeling and analyzing complex systems across various domains. The basic premise is that there is a hidden order to the behavior and evolution of complex systems, whether that system is a national economy, an ecosystem, the cosmos, an organization, or a production line. It can be used as a framework to study virtually any discipline including biology, physics, chemistry, economics, sociology and psychology.

It asserts that some systems display emergent behaviors that are completely inexplicable by any conventional analysis of the system's constituent parts. Examples of complex systems with emergent phenomena include stock market crashes, forest ecosystems, and even human consciousness. 

The core book for this SDG is Notes on Complexity by Neil Theise, a 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner and one of The Marginalian Favorite Books of 2023.

It is described on Amazon as “an electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things and that Deepak Chopra says, “will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.””

This is a very short book - about 160 useful pages - so we will supplement it with other materials including articles, podcasts and YouTube videos.  

This SDG will be based on the book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard, published in 2021. The book is based on 30 years of research by the author and others. Reading this book will profoundly change the way one thinks about trees and forests. 

The author contends that trees are part of a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground fungal networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities and have communal lives not that different from our own.

She shows how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, how they perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past; how they have agency about the future; elicit warnings and mount defenses, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, characteristics ascribed to human intelligence, traits that are the essence of civil societies – and at the center of it all, the Mother Trees: the mysterious trees with powerful forces that connect and sustain the others that surround them.

Ms. Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence. Her credentials are superb. She has been hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound.    

The book, however, does have its critics   Some reviewers found it too much about her life and not enough about her topic.  This is, I believe, a fair criticism.  There is general agreement the book is well researched.  That said, her critics think her personal biases are overly reflected in her conclusions, that her beliefs in the intelligence of plants are not proven, and that she overemphasizes cooperation vs competition.  These latter critiques will be worthy of discussion.  

NOTE to Reviewers:  I have become fascinated by how things in our world and universe are interconnected. I also proposed an SDG on an Introduction to Complexity Theory.  This is a deep dive into a specific complex system.  These two 7-week SDGs may be chosen on a standalone basis but they are very connected in my mind.

TOC

This SDG will examine issues in United States  foreign policy by using the primary source of Foreign Affairs magazine. Foreign Affairs is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs and is considered one of the United States' most influential foreign-policy magazines. Participants in the SDG must subscribe to the  magazine ($29 for 1 year of unlimited digital access) and  choose a week with a preselected topic including articles and may then substitute other readings on topic from the periodical or offer material from other sources. The issues are many.  Is  America to become isolationist or expansionist?  How will peace in Ukraine be achieved?  What will the new policy be towards Russia and  Europe?  What now for  Gaza, Syria and Iran?  What do we make of the talk of buying  Greenland, taking back the Panama Canal and making Canada the fifty-first state?  What is the way forward on China and Taiwan? We will address these questions and many others. JOIN US! 

Frances Perkins, FDR’s only Secretary of Labor and the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary, was the driving force behind the New Deal, and was credited with formulating policies to shore up the national economy and helping to create the modern middle class.  Perkins’s ideas became the cornerstones of the most important social welfare and legislation in the nation’s history, including unemployment compensation, child labor laws, and the forty-hour work week.  She breathed life back into the nation’s labor movement.  As head of the Immigration Service, she fought to bring European refugees to safety in the United States.  Her greatest triumph was creating Social Security.

She was in every respect a self-made woman who rose from humble New England origins to become America’s leading advocate for industrial safety and workers’ rights.  “I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen.”

Our core book is well-written and organized, with extensive notes and a bibliography which should encourage additional research into each week's topics.

     Movies have been a central part of American life. The movies here represent the best in American movie comedies. They include characters, themes, scenes and lines that we remember.   Each makes a point while amusing us and sometimes causing us to laugh out loud. 

     Our discussions will combine citing the humor in each movie, how it was achieved and how it reflects the culture and issues in American life when the movie was made.  For example: What does the movie satirize? How does it do that? Is it successful?  Do we identify with any of the characters?   Why have the funny scenes become part of our culture, when we have forgotten earnest speeches and essays on the same subject? There will also be readings and discussion of the history and techniques of comedy.

     The list of movies shows two for each week (except for Some Like It Hot). The presenters and the group will decide whether to concentrate on one or both of them.  Our discussions will also include a comparison of the humor, themes and effectiveness of the two movies.  The themes shown in the list are to stimulate discussion.

  

Complexity theory is a set of theoretical frameworks used for modeling and analyzing complex systems across various domains.  The basic premise is that there is a hidden order to the behavior and evolution of complex systems, whether that system is a national economy, an ecosystem, the cosmos, an organization, or a production line.  It can be used as a framework to study virtually any discipline  including biology, physics, chemistry, economics, sociology and psychology.

It asserts that some systems display emergent behaviors that are completely inexplicable by any conventional analysis of the system's constituent parts. Examples of complex systems with emergent phenomena include stock market crashes, forest ecosystems, and even human consciousness. 

The core book for this SDG is Notes on Complexity by Neil Theise, a 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner and one of The Marginalian Favorite Books of 2023.

It is described on Amazon as “an electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things and that Deepak Chopra says, “will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.””

This is a very short book - about 160  useful pages - so we will supplement it with other materials including articles, podcasts and YouTube videos.  

Complexity theory is a set of theoretical frameworks used for modeling and analyzing complex systems across various domains. The basic premise is that there is a hidden order to the behavior and evolution of complex systems, whether that system is a national economy, an ecosystem, the cosmos, an organization, or a production line. It can be used as a framework to study virtually any discipline including biology, physics, chemistry, economics, sociology and psychology.

It asserts that some systems display emergent behaviors that are completely inexplicable by any conventional analysis of the system's constituent parts. Examples of complex systems with emergent phenomena include stock market crashes, forest ecosystems, and even human consciousness. 

The core book for this SDG is Notes on Complexity by Neil Theise, a 2024 Nautilus Book Award Winner and one of The Marginalian Favorite Books of 2023.

It is described on Amazon as “an electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things and that Deepak Chopra says, “will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.””

This is a very short book - about 160 useful pages - so we will supplement it with other materials including articles, podcasts and YouTube videos.  

The September 1, 2024, issue of the New York Times Book Review highlighted the "100 Best Books of the 21st Century".  Over eight weeks, we will delve into seven selections from this list. These works are concise, similar to novellas, yet each offers profound and thought-provoking themes that linger long after completion.

Our exploration will focus on the intricacies of identity, systemic oppression, and the human quest for autonomy and connection. The genres are varied, encompassing fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid forms. We will scrutinize themes such as race, gender, queerness, societal conformity, and the tension between individuality and collective norms. Emphasis will be placed on how authors employ innovative narrative structures to challenge traditional storytelling while exploring personal and cultural transformation amidst historical and social pressures. Additionally, we will discuss how these books compare to each other and assess whether they merit their inclusion in the "NYT 100 Best" list. Each SDG session is sure to result in lively and thoughtful discussion!

The September 1, 2024, issue of the New York Times Book Review highlighted the "100 Best Books of the 21st Century". Over eight weeks, we will delve into seven selections from this list. These works are concise, similar to novellas, yet each offers profound and thought-provoking themes that linger long after completion.

Our exploration will focus on the intricacies of identity, systemic oppression, and the human quest for autonomy and connection. The genres are varied, encompassing fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid forms. We will scrutinize themes such as race, gender, queerness, societal conformity, and the tension between individuality and collective norms. Emphasis will be placed on how authors employ innovative narrative structures to challenge traditional storytelling while exploring personal and cultural transformation amidst historical and social pressures. Additionally, we will discuss how these books compare to each other and assess whether they merit their inclusion in the "NYT 100 Best" list. Each SDG session is sure to result in lively and thoughtful discussion!

The twists and turns of American politics are unpredictable, but the tone is a troubling given. It’s one of grievance. More and more Americans are convinced that they’re losing because somebody else is winning. More and more tally their slights, measure their misfortune, and assign particular people responsibility for it. The blame game has become the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.

Grievance needn’t be bad. The United States is a nation born of grievance, and across the nearly two hundred and fifty years of our existence as a country, grievance has been the engine of morally urgent change. But what happens when all sorts of grievances—the greater ones, the lesser ones, the authentic, the invented—are jumbled together? When people take their grievances to lengths that they didn’t before? A violent mob storms the US Capitol, rejecting the results of a presidential election. Conspiracy theories flourish. College students chase away speakers, and college administrators dismiss instructors for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy. And there’s a potentially devastating erosion of the civility, common ground, and compromise necessary for our democracy to survive.

“Brilliant...Bruni writes with humor, insight, and precision.” —Wall Street Journal

Gideon Rachman’s accessible new book, The Age of the Strongman, examines autocratic rulers in a series of essays about the global rise of authoritarian, nationalist-populist leaders and the corrosive impact on liberal democratic tradition. Rachman’s idea is that this is a modern phenomenon, roughly beginning with Putin’s rise to national power in 1999-2000.

Rachman notes that authoritarian rulers have helped to undermine democratic ideals and practices around the world since 2000, with growing success following the financial crash of 2008. “The last 15 years have seen the most sustained decline in political freedom around the world since the 1930s,” Rachman writes.  Shockingly, to him, democracy’s great bastion, America, came close to falling, too.

Reading and studying Gideon Rachman's book provides a valuable opportunity to go beyond our usual European focus and explore a variety of political landscapes around the globe. By examining leaders from various countries, we can  better understand the local and international forces, historical contexts, economic conditions, and cultural factors that contribute to the rise of authoritarianism and undermine liberal democratic developments

 Our SDG offers a stimulating  opportunity to examine Cuba"s  dramatic 500 year history and the country's deep and  troubling relationship with the United States.  It will explore themes of conquest, colonization, slavery, independence and revolutions leading to many thought-provoking and lively discussions. Based on 30 years of research, the core book is the 2022 Pulitzer prize winning — Cuba: An American History, by noted historian Ada Ferrer.  A sweeping chronicle of the island nation and it's people., Ferrer analyzes  pivotal moments such as the U.S. intervention in Cuba's War for Independence, the 1959 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel and Raul Castro and the failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ferrer's narrative contains previously hidden insights that resonate today and need to be considered.

Seeing Cuba's history through the eyes of the Cuban people, it is possible to understand the Cuban connection differently. Ferrer writes of the possibility for Cuba and the United States "to move beyond the enmity of the last 60 years and the long impositions before that to a better future relationship.“ We hope you will join us. There will be lots to discuss!!

Our core book is “The Genetic Book of the Dead”, by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins proposes that genes, bodies, and the behaviors of living organisms serve as archives of their ancestral environments. Dawkins explains that by examining an organism’s genetic make up and physical characteristics, that scientists can reconstruct the historical habitat and evolutionary pressures that shaped it. Throughout the book Dawkins provides vivid examples of this thesis. He describes how certain lizards display camouflaged skin patterns that mirror the desert landscapes of ancestral deserts. He discusses the adaptive behavior of cuckoo’s, whose egg laying strategies have evolved to deceive host species, and he also describes the counter measures of those host species.

Throughout the book, Dawkins defends his gene-centric view of evolution, which emphasizes the gene’s paramount role in natural selection.

The book contains 198 color illustrations and 22 black-and-white illustrations. Visual elements play an important role in conveying the book's concepts.

Our core book is  “The Genetic Book of the Dead”, by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins proposes that genes, bodies, and the behaviors of living organisms serve as archives of their ancestral environments. Dawkins explains that by examining an organism’s genetic make up and physical characteristics, that scientists can reconstruct the historical habitat and evolutionary pressures that shaped it. Throughout the book Dawkins provides vivid examples of this thesis. He describes how certain lizards display camouflaged skin patterns that mirror the desert landscapes of ancestral deserts. He discusses the adaptive behavior of cuckoo’s, whose egg laying strategies have evolved to deceive host species, and he also describes the counter measures of those host species.

Throughout the book, Dawkins defends his gene-centric view of evolution, which emphasizes the gene’s paramount role in natural selection.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer just the realm of science fiction—it is rapidly transforming our world. From healthcare and finance to creative arts and military strategy, AI is shaping industries and daily life. “Narrow AI” already powers virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, fuels recommendation algorithms, and enables self-driving vehicles. As AI grows more advanced, experts speculate about the arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—machines that could think, learn, and reason like humans. Would AGI be a partner in solving humanity’s greatest challenges, or might it evolve beyond our control, reshaping society in unpredictable ways?

For decades, filmmakers have grappled with these questions, depicting AI as both a technological marvel and a potential existential threat. This 14-week discussion group will explore the promises and perils of AI through the lens of cinema. Each session will analyze a film that raises profound ethical, philosophical, and logistical questions about artificial intelligence—its impact on society, autonomy, consciousness, and human identity.

Through these films, we will discuss AI’s real-world implications, including its role in the workforce, interpersonal relationships, privacy, mental health, predictive policing, military applications, and the possibility of surpassing human intelligence. By engaging with these cinematic narratives, participants will gain a deeper understanding of AI’s potential, its limitations, and the challenges it presents.

As with any film-based SDG, there will be lots to talk about aside from the subject matter of the films. Discussions will touch on writing, directing, musical score, cinematography and special effects, as well as box office and profitability. Additional materials may be provided to enhance discussions, such as articles about the ethics of taking humans out of decisions to kill on the battlefield, or the implications of relationships between humans and chatbots.

Taiwan is often in the headlines as a possible trigger for a catastrophic war between China and the U.S., but behind the noise is a complex history. Ambiguity has been the defining aspect of Taiwan’s place in the world, since Nixon's rapprochement with China, with the island locked in a non-country limbo while growing into a dynamic economy and thriving democracy. The U.S. stance has varied with the prevailing winds in Washington, D.C., although the past few years have seen a more pro-Taiwan attitude. The Taiwanese population seems to be leaning toward independence while aware of the difficulties such a move would entail. Beijing regularly makes threats and provocations, seemingly unaware that its belligerence usually backfires.

Taiwan’s story is recounted in both books in a way that shows the importance of understanding the context of the conflict and is a starting point for us to delve into Taiwan’s past, finding critical clues to the turbulent present and future.

In 1850, a German family of “itinerate peddlers” emigrated to New York’s Lower East Side. The young wife Fredericka, aka “Mother” Mandelbaum, became an upstanding member of the community, and a generous donor to her synagogue.

She funded her lifestyle dealing in stolen goods, and organizing blackmailers, pickpockets, and sophisticated bank heists.

Her worlds met at her glamorous dinner parties, hosting many a corrupt police officer and Tammany Hall official . 

Join us to learn of the blossoming of this immigrant Jewish woman in the world of “greenbacks” and organized crime, during the “Gilded Age” of municipal corruption and stark inequality. 

In this SDG, we will read two of Thomas Hardy’s finest novels:  RETURN OF THE NATIVE and JUDE THE OBSCURE.  In both Hardy portrays the human tragedy of his characters’  lives as they contend with their passions, fate and position in society.  In RETURN OF THE Native, for example.  Eustacia Vye struggles to escape “the barren waste” of Egdon Heath in order to experience the more adventurous life of Paris, France.  And In JUDE THE OSBCURE, Jude Fawley, a stone mason, dreams of becoming a scholar.  In addition, we will watch FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, a film adapted from perhaps Hardy’s most light-hearted novel.  The film is directed by Thomas Vinterberg, and stars Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts and Michael Sheen.

Probably not since the Warren Court (or perhaps you have to go back to FDR's court packing plan of 1937) has the Supreme Court occupied so much space in the political landscape. This SDG will try to figure out how this happened  by examining the decisions  handed down by the Court and the opinions supporting  their decisions, covering a broad range of issues. Those issues will include reproductive rights, voting rights, presidential immunity, affirmative action, the attack on the administrative state and the increasing deference the Court gives to the free exercise of religion over the anti-establishment of religion clauses of the 1st Amendment.

Hilary Mantel’s historical novel Wolf Hall, about the brilliant and wily Thomas Cromwell, won the prestigious Man Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Award and currently holds the number 3 position on the New York Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. When adapted as a BBC miniseries and shown over PBS it won the Peabody Award and the Golden Globe for Best Television Limited Series. When adapted by the Royal Shakespeare Company for the stage it was nominated for 5 Olivier Awards including Best Play and upon transferring to Broadway it garnered 11 Tony Nominations including Best Play. This clearly shows that this is a highly compelling tale both savored, respected and enjoyed by all.

Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell from a teenager fleeing an abusive father to the accomplished fixer / power broker to Cardinal Woolsey and ultimately to King Henry VIII. It is a vivid and masterly told tale of the complex machinations and back room dealings of a complex man, who must serve Church, King and Country while dealing with deadly political intrigue and Henry VIII’s obsession with protecting the Tudor dynasty with a male heir. Add to this a tempestuous relationship with Anne Boleyn and the religious upheavals of the Protestant reformation and you have a thrilling gallop through early 15th Century England that will keep you mesmerized from beginning to end.

We will cap off our SDG with a viewing and discussion of the film A Man for all Seasons. This film was the winner of 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay and presents a somewhat alternative portrait of the Thomas Cromwell of Ms. Mantel's novel.