Course Description: What might our future hold? How should we think about both the challenges and the opportunities it will present? Join Dr. Richard Scribner for this fascinating and thought-provoking interactive exploration of what the future might have in store for humanity. Course coverage includes, but is not limited to, examining big questions such as who are “we” and what do we bring to our present? What might we accomplish? Does our intelligence enhance or not our chances for long-term survival? Other questions considered include: Can we trust predictions? What will Artificial Intelligence bring? What may be our energy future? Our health and longevity future? Do we really understand our own Solar System? Will we explore space and colonize other planets? What might be the impact on “us” if we do find extraterrestrial intelligent life?
Instructor: Richard A. Scribner, PhD was a professor at Georgetown University. Earlier, as a scientific nonprofit organization program manager he created and ran for a decade the 53-year-old Science Policy Fellows Program, now with 4,500 alumni. As a State Department official, he engaged in global environmental and nuclear nonproliferation negotiations world-wide. He was the director of a counterterrorist research institute and consultant to the Homeland Security Dept. He authored, co-authored, and co-edited books & articles on scientific research, arms control, science and public policy, and climate change.
Schedule: 8 sessions: Fridays, Oct. 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20; 10:00am-Noon.
Location: Room 201 St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 801 Atlantic Ave., Fernandina Beach.
Readings: No book purchase required. There will be weekly readings provided by the instructor.
Cost: $50
