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Our April Program has four parts. The overall moderator is our president, Clif Hotvedt.

1. REVIEW OF PROGRAM GROWTH FOR THE PAST 12 MONTHS, AND PLANNING FOR NEXT SEASON

We will introduce our resourceful Lyceum Planning Team: Chairman, Phil Apruzzese, Bill Rosser (VP), Stuart Kurtz, Uldis Blukis, and Herb Klitzner. Each person on this team has given numerous talks to Lyceum over the years. In addition, together, the team has developed new concepts for talks, such as our successful periodic “Making of a Scientist” series and our annual “Nobel Prize Winners” sensitive profiles.

2. EVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF CREATIVE POTENTIAL

We will discuss and develop our scheduled May 4 Talk on the topic of Evolution of Creativity, Resilience, and “Anti-Fragility,” producing unusual individuals of different kinds to truly rescue society in times of crisis, when conventional tools fail in the face of a new challenge. Bill Rosser will organize and lead the discussion. Bill is our Lyceum VP and was a senior executive at Gartner Group, the leading market research firm in emerging computer technologies.

As part of our discussion, to help us understand this process of rescue, Stuart Kurtz, world-traveled chemical engineer and interpreter of the science endeavor will share with us an important example from the History of Science – the growing  “Nitrogen Fertilization Shortage” from the late 1800s to 1913 just before the opening of WW 1.

In addition, Jean Smith, a planner at the Science Discussion Network of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, Long Island, will describe her unique experience in resourcefully applying scientifically based deeply creative techniques to first understand and then solve a serious infection that had been diagnosed as untreatable. As part of her process of evolving a successful treatment for herself, she created a Facebook group of eventually 8,000 people whose conditions resembled her own, along one dimension or another, helping them to move forward in their own lives.

3. OTHER NEW PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

We will also examine three other pivotal subject area clusters, listed below. To explore possibilities, we will sample one specific topic to focus on next season from each of the three clusters:

• BioMed/Pharma/Physical Therapy (PT).
• AI, Math, Values, Human Development, Psychology, the Science of Aesthetics, and the Designing of Future AI-Customized Tools.
• History of Science, and the Connectedness of Science and Culture.

4. OPEN DISCUSSION

At the last part of our meeting, we will open up the discussion to the audience for further comments and suggestions. Please join us with your ideas in this special future-oriented program discussion.