The Friday Forum is a program for individuals who seek adventures in collaborative learning and informed discussion. Each group member becomes a vital contributor to the learning experience and is expected to lead a session after two semesters of attendance. The objective is to have group members increase their knowledge of significant issues facing us in the 21st century.?
Sept. 11 Population Changes
Michael Thorn?will lead a discussion examining population trends worldwide and in the Wilmington area.?He will analyze the reasons for the changes in populations, the sources for these changes, and their impacts.
Sept. 25 Architecture: The Design Concepts
Bob White will discuss interesting local and worldwide architectural projects, discussing them in the context of his own long experience designing buildings. Among others, he will discuss the new cape fear bridge, a model of an OLLI building addition and the treehenge model. Friday Forum members will be invited to bring pictures of their favorite buildings or items to participate.
Oct. 9 Epistemology - What do you know and how do we know it?
Many of our personal and societal decisions and actions depend heavily on what we know… or think we know. Michael Werner will look at questions like: How do we know what is true? What constitutes knowledge? What are the ways in which we can find knowledge and what are the problems?
Oct. 23 AI in the workplace: how will it impact employment?
For some time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been dominating the news cycles, and for good reason. In varying degrees chatbots and AI applications are being leveraged to make?business?decisions, including reconsidering workforce needs of the organization. Bruce Myers will focus on how and where AI impacts both current and future employment opportunities.?
Nov. 6 Externalities and Freedom
Actions of individuals and firms often affect people they are not intended to. Indirect effects, what economists call externalities, can be negative or positive. Don Anderson will lead a discussion about externalities, and how government actions to address them are sometimes regarded as anti-freedom.
Nov. 20 Volcanoes- Past and Future
Ever wonder what, when and where the loudest sound ever in the world occurred? Herb Strickler, OLLI member and volunteer, will describe such a massive volcanic eruption with the history, weather and world consequences. The talk covers both the past history and the technological progress with new developments of predicting volcanoes.
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