I am really pleased as punch I took the time to come home for the Conference on World Affairs. Today was my second full day and I really got a chance to play around with subjects not in my normal purview which is of course the entire reason I came out to play. Though full disclosure I have been getting up early and working late after conference hours to make sure that my actual working life doesn’t fall apart and that Coutorture still runs!
My first panel was Globalization: The Stress of Success which frankly sucked. Everyone spouted on the same issues of globalization we have been hearing for years without touching on the “stress of success” part. I wanted to hear things about say downward mobility in America and the stress on the next generations of middle class children who may be the first generation in America to do worse than their parents for lack of real skills (like ohh say a science education). I left early from boredom and annoyance to pop into Our Melting Pot is Boiling Over. Ehh, not bad.
Engineering Humans: Bionics and Biomedicine was a fantastic panel. It really brought be back to my days at the University of Chicago Hospitals working with Dr. Farr Curlin on medical ethics research. I found myself ping poing in agreement and disagreement between Michael Chorost and Sue Swenson on issues of interference, rights, and improvement.
My final panel of the day was one called If Colbert Interviews Borat, How Many Realities Are in Your Living Room. The desire to give a real number (6) was pretty charming. The panelists were all smart and engaging, even Michael Laine who managed to find a way to relate even this topic to his space elevator.
I was however pretty bummed by the audience and panelists lack of literacy. A feeling I keep encountering through the week as no matter what esoteric topic I find myself attending I seem to have read more books on the subjects than the majority of people I am encountering, including some of the panelists. In a town as educated as Boulder I admit I find this puzzling as I certainly have a quality liberal education but I don’t consider myself tremendously bookish or informed.
On this Colbert panel I asked if, in homage to Jean Baudrillard, that these new meta-commentary shows that showcase crafted “realities” like 30 Rock, Studio 60, and yes Colbert are functioning as the educated’s reality TV. In the sense that it allows us to voyeuristicly experience realities we wouldn’t other wish to deal in or have the opportunity to do so. This observation seemed to confuse just about everyone and we moved on quite quickly.
Then later on Mark Levine launched into a small talk about how these constructed realities weren’t a fundamentally new concept but that had been invented by post modernists ages ago. Sigh………………..Though to his credit he came up to me later and applauded the question, he just didn’t think that the audience wanted to get into anything too academic or intellectual. At a conference whose theme this year is mind’s at play, well, damn, so much for rigor huh guys?
Around 2000, I was part of the group of CWA folks trying to find tech types to come to the conference. A big challenge for me was to locate people from out-of-state (the CWA doesn’t want locals on the panels because the thinking is we can hear them at other events) who were more knowledgeable on technology/internet subjects than the people I knew locally. I didn’t want people on panels talking about trends to an audience who might know more than they did about the subject.
The CWA seeks out people are experts in at least one area, but who can think creatively about other subjects. Sometimes they are put on panels beyond their areas of expertise, so you just hope they can make some interesting contributions as “creative outsiders.” The best ones can and are usually invited back.
I always liked the audience questions/comments because often they were at least as interesting (sometimes more interesting) than what the panelists had to say. And there is an energy level when the entire room is participating.
In fact, having read some comments about the CWA and its hope to get more students/youth attending, my feeling is that more focus will have to be put on audience interactivity and less on lecture formats. Get the audience members to blog on the spot, send questions via their cellphones, etc. Also, perhaps have ways for students to suggest, via the Web, people they know who would be good panelists in the future. Although everyone is invited to make suggestions to the CWA, generally if you aren’t already actively involved with the conference, you don’t know the process. It might be cool to have an on-going website for suggestions and ways to contact those suggested people.
It’s tough bein’ smart, ain’t it?
On this Colbert panel I asked if, in homage to Jean Baudrillard, that these new meta-commentary shows that showcase crafted “realities� like 30 Rock, Studio 60, and yes Colbert are functioning as the educated’s reality TV. In the sense that it allows us to voyeuristicly experience realities we wouldn’t other wish to deal in or have the opportunity to do so
Interesting idea.
But ..
I have been experiencing realities I otherwise would not get to deal with by reading science fiction, and have been since I was 10. And I mean the literate stuff not the endless novelizations in the Start Trek and Star Wars universes … ow is that different from what you’re talking about?
It is interesting to see how many different ways that Michael can work te topic of conversation around to space elevators.
Brian Dunbar
LiftPort
It’s a conversation about Borat and Colbert and you have to drag Baudrillard into it?
Call me Illiterate, but I don’t even understand the Wikipedia entry. For most of us slightly educated people that kind of background reading is not “Mind at Play”.
Sigh…………….. are we masses ruining academics for you?
[...] He’s doing a bang-up job, or so one would infer from Julie Fredrickson’s blog … My final panel of the day was one called If Colbert Interviews Borat, How Many Realities Are in Your Living Room. The desire to give a real number (6) was pretty charming. The panelists were all smart and engaging, even Michael Laine who managed to find a way to relate even this topic to his space elevator. [...]
[...] He’s doing a bang-up job, or so one would infer from Julie Fredrickson’s blog … My final panel of the day was one called If Colbert Interviews Borat, How Many Realities Are in Your Living Room. The desire to give a real number (6) was pretty charming. The panelists were all smart and engaging, even Michael Laine who managed to find a way to relate even this topic to his space elevator. [...]
it’s always such a let down to be the smartest person in the room. you wouldn’t think so, but it is. glad you’re raising the bar.
Just more proof you deserved the Thinking Blogger award!
maybe instead of reading you should be dieting…just a thought
Reading is far more rewarding than dieting.
I was curious of your inclusion of The West Wing as an example of metatelevision at the Borat/Colbert panel: Certainly 30 Rock and Studio 60 fit the bill perfectly. They’re television about the making of television shows. I think your inclusion of The West WIng muddied the waters a bit: voyeuristicly experiencing realities is something (I would argue) that is a component of all fiction.
The panel format isn’t as conducive to actual discussion as I would like, but realize that it’s a consequence of making an event so public. I wouldn’t mind a counter (or concurrent) conference next year made of of selected insightful audience members. A metaconference, I suppose.