The conference fee is $1,375 and includes all seventeen (17) 90-minute seminars below.
ARTHUR BENJAMIN, PH.D.
DIANA McDONALD, PH.D.
STEPHEN RESSLER, PH.D.
MICHAEL WYSESSION, PH.D.
Dr. Benjamin will demonstrate and explain how to perform amazing feats of mental calculation. You’ll improve your ability to manipulate and memorize numbers, learn how to figure out the day of the week of any date in history, and other astounding feats of mind.
What are the best and worst games to play at the casino? When should you hit, split, or double down in blackjack? How much should you bet? Learn the answer to these questions, along with some games you can't lose, once you know the secret.
Here are the slides (3mb file).
What makes the number 9 so magical? Explore the beauty of the Fibonacci Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ... and the golden ratio 1.618 ... Is it irrational to be in love with Pi?
Here are the slides (4mb file).
Learn to solve the world’s most famous puzzle in eight easy steps. We’ll provide everyone with a free Rubik’s cube.
Here are the slides (1mb file).
Learn the mathematics that underlie computer science and cryptography. Topics include combinatorics (the art of counting), number theory, and graph theory. But don’t let the names of these topics scare you. You don’t need much more than arithmetic and a logical mind to enjoy this lecture.
Here are the slides (1mb file).
This lecture will cover the background of the development of the visual arts and temple architecture, from the earliest Andean centers to the final flowering of the Inca Empire just before the Conquistadors. It will highlight the ways in which Andean civilization developed differently from the other pristine civilizations of the world, including Mesopotamia and Egypt. Learn how Pre-Columbian South America developed from small coastal clusters of fishermen and herders of llamas and alpacas in mountain villages to the splendors of the vast Inca Empire.
Here are the slides (54mb file).
This lecture will deal with the varied ways in which Andean artists and craftsmen used their different media — earth, stone, pottery, textiles, relief murals, and precious metals — to deliver a message of communal identity, power, hierarchy, and shamanistic practices. Altered states, induced by hallucinogens and other substances, underlay much of the social and religious practices of the communities, and these aspects appear in the artworks. The difficulty of ‘deciphering’ much Andean art is due to its abstract, distorted versions of reality and its reliance on a textile framework. Inca art differs from what came before it in favoring almost completely abstract styles in stone architecture, sculpture and textile arts. Why did this happen? How is it similar, or different, from the movement towards abstraction in Western art?
Here are the slides (71mb file).
Animals are preferred as subjects in the ancient art of South America, and appear far more often than humans. This is true of the most ancient art in other parts of the world, as well. In this lecture, we’ll delve into the kinds of animals that hold the most sway over the imaginations of the cultures here: jaguars, pumas, condors, caiman, deer, sea lions, and even killer whales. We’ll look at domesticated versus wild animals in the art, and see how some animals had specific, and sometimes very unusual and unexpected, associations in the artwork and religion. Human sacrifice, hunting, and transformative states all add meaning to animal representations.
Here are the slides (57mb file).
The themes and concerns of much of ancient art around the world can be surprisingly similar, but style and expression vary tremendously. What role do fertility, death, rulership and state formation play in the art of the earliest societies and empires? How do many of these artworks intertwine to support political and social control? How does ancient art differ from contemporary art, in both subject matter and role in the society? We’ll look at both ancient and modern works and see how the modern works derive a great deal of inspiration from the ancient — whether it is Henry Moore’s blocky sculptures as compared to Pre-Columbian stone figures, or Gauguin’s masterpiece, “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” which drew visual elements from around the non-Western world, including Peruvian mummy bundles.
Here are the slides (14mb file).
Throughout the ages, many of the world’s greatest works of architecture have been profoundly influenced by the principles of engineering that underlie their design. If we understand these principles, then we can appreciate architecture in a new and more profound way.
The colonnaded temple was one of the crowning achievements of Classical Greek civilization. No other building of its day could compare in majesty, beauty, or permanence. During this lecture, we will discuss the historical origins of the Greek temple and see why the hundreds of known examples exhibit such a high degree of architectural consistency. We will examine how these great buildings were designed and constructed — and how they functioned as engineered systems. Along the way, we will discover that the familiar architectural form of the Greek temple was strongly influenced by structural engineering constraints. Later Roman engineers overcame these constraints by developing important new structural technologies; in doing so, they opened up new realms of architectural possibility.
Here are the slides (22mb file).
The arch was devised in antiquity and is still used today in some of the world’s most advanced structures. This lecture will begin with a demonstration of how an arch is constructed and how it carries load. We will then examine how the arch was integrated into various historically important structures, from Roman bridges, aqueducts, and triumphal arches, to the Romanesque cathedrals of the early medieval era, to the Gothic cathedral — one of the most spectacular architectural achievements of western Christendom. In the course of this discussion, we will discover that many characteristic features of these architectural styles — features that are often thought to be purely aesthetic in nature — are directly related to the structural mechanics of the arch. By studying some basic principles about how arches work, we will learn to see these great structures not just as aesthetically beautiful buildings, but also as magnificent works of technology, in which architectural form and structural function are seamlessly integrated in a powerful and elegant way.
Here are the slides (6mb file).
During this lecture, we will examine the development of the dome as a structural and architectural element, from distant antiquity through the Italian Renaissance. This developmental process was marked, not by gradual evolution, but by a few dramatic leaps in technological sophistication. Accordingly, this lecture will focus on four iconic structures that characterize these dramatic advances — the Treasury of Atreus in ancient Mycenae, the Pantheon of Imperial Rome, the Byzantine basilica of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and the great Renaissance-era dome over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy. We will begin by analyzing how the dome works as a structural element; then we will apply these engineering principles to better understand the design and construction of the four great domes. Along the way, we will learn to see some of the world’s most extraordinary enclosed spaces as reflections of their designers’ sophisticated understanding of structural mechanics.
Here are the slides (13mb file).
Throughout recorded history, humans have demonstrated a persistent aspiration to build structures capable of spanning across vast distances. For the past two centuries, that aspiration has been best fulfilled through the design and construction of great suspension bridges. During this lecture, we will explore the historical development of the suspension bridge and examine a series of structures that represent important milestones along this developmental path. We will begin with a demonstration of how the suspension bridge works as a structural system. With this as background, we will then discuss the two persistent challenges that have confronted bridge engineers since the early 19th century — first, constructing the main cables and anchorages, and second, controlling the suspension bridge’s inherent susceptibility to wind-induced vibrations. Some efforts to address these challenges were successful, but many were not. Indeed, the early years of suspension bridge development saw at least as many failures as successes. For this reason, the history of suspension bridge development is a story about much more than just technology; it is also a story about human events — about conflict, competition, tragedy, and triumph. The ultimate product of this human drama is a structural form of incomparable elegance and efficiency.
Here are the slides (23mb file).
Just up the Chilean coast from the location of our cruise was the location of the world’s largest earthquake ever recorded, the devastating 1960 M9.5 quake. The tsunami it generated spread throughout the Pacific Ocean and wiped out villages as far away as Japan. Earthquakes like this one are so large that they have actually been responsible for slowly pushing up the Andes Plateau. Fortunately for us, these events do not happen often, but when they do, the effects can be devastating, as has recently been seen in places like Haiti and Japan (and also Chile, as with the great M8.8 quake of 2010). These earthquakes have a silver lining however — they are our best means of finding out what goes on inside our planet. We now have seismometers all around the globe (like thousands of ears, pressed to the floor), and we use the “sounds” from global earthquakes to determine the structure, composition, and dynamic activities of Earth’s interior. What this recent research shows is that the bottom half of plate tectonics, the flowing motions of Earth’s mantle that push the tectonic plates around, is much more interesting than we ever imagined. These seismometers, however, listen to all kinds of Earth sounds, not just earthquakes, and are now even being used to monitor glacier movements, ocean storms, and nuclear bomb tests. This presentation will talk about the many different aspects of seismology, including earthquake hazards, tectonic plate motions, the mapping of Earth’s mantle convection, and how scientists monitor everything on Earth that makes a big noise.
Here are the slides (29mb file).
The first stop on the cruise will be at the scenic Puerto Montt, which is surrounded by stunning stratovolcanoes, including the Fuji-like Mt. Osorno. The Andes Mountains, top to bottom, contain some of the world’s most active volcanoes (including Osorno). These volcanoes are aesthetically majestic and pose a significant geologic hazard to the region, but research is now finding that these volcanoes can affect more than just the local region — they can change the course of history, sometimes on the other side of the world. Volcanic eruptions can eject many cubic miles of aerosols and ash high into the atmosphere, which can block out sunlight and cause a drop in global temperatures for many years. A Peruvian eruption in 1600 led to an immediate drop in temperature around the world, resulting in crop losses and famines, and even triggering the collapse of the government of Boris Godunov in Russia. It turns out that history is filled with such examples. Extensive volcanism in Iceland in the 1780s caused terrible famines in France that triggered the social and political instabilities that led to the French Revolution. The “year without a summer” in 1816, when starving Americans moved westward across the Mississippi, was caused by the Tambora eruption in Indonesia. The giant eruption of Toba volcano (also in Indonesia) 74,000 years ago may have nearly wiped out humans and many other large mammals. And the site of some of largest eruptions in geologic history, Yellowstone, may be due soon for the next mega-eruption.
Here are the slides (58mb file).
For the second stop of the cruise we will wind our way up a stunning fjord toward Puerto Chacabuco. This and the other fjords we will visit on the cruise were carved during the not-too-distant past by giant glaciers during the last Ice Age, when global temperatures were much colder than today. The ice of glaciers in places like Patagonia and Antarctica is now providing a remarkable record of the huge changes in global climate that have naturally occurred over Earth’s recent past. In fact, the very existence of the fjords that we will be sailing through is due to the coastal flooding that occurred when the Ice Age glaciers melted and global sea levels rose by 400 feet! Around the world, this sea level rise flooded early human shoreline communities and forced them inland, sometimes by many hundreds of miles. Some of humanity’s earliest settlements, the “Edens” of different cultures, now lie underwater. It was only when sea levels stopped rising rapidly, about 6,000 years ago, that the world’s major civilizations could begin. This is only one example from a long sequence of geologic events, particularly those triggered by changing climates, that have shaped the course of human history. The philosopher Will Durant said, “Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice.” In no way is this sentiment better realized than in the area of climate change, which is one of the most fascinating and complex fields of Earth science, combining aspects of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and even astronomy. This presentation will conclude by examining the many different natural factors that control Earth’s climate and how the history of climate change has been a driving factor for the course of human history, causing famines, droughts, floods, wars, plagues, and the rise and fall of human civilizations.
Here are the slides (46mb file).
South America contains several of the “Geologic Wonders of the World,” and this presentation will explore them, their geologic origins, and the conflicts that sometimes occur when the human need for resources impinges upon them. The most spectacular waterfalls in the world are the Iguazu River Falls, along the border between Brazil and Argentina. There are almost 300 separate falls here, spanning more than 2.5 km along a portion of this tributary of the Parana River, and visitors can walk right up to them. Just a short distance away, however, the Parana River is blocked to river travel by the Itaipu Dam, a 14-gigawatt hydroelectric power plant (the second largest in the world). South America has other geologic wonders as well. It contains the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert, where in some places it has not rained even once in centuries. Where the Atacama extends up into the Andes (the world’s longest mountain chain) lies the Uyuni salt flats (Salar de Uyuni), which is the flattest place on Earth, with less than one meter of vertical variation over 4,000 square miles. Occasionally, nearby Lake Titicaca overflows its banks and the water covers the Uyuni salt flats with a thin sheen of water turning the flats into the world’s largest mirror (to the delight of visitors!). However, the salty brine under the surface crust contains one of the world’s largest reserves of lithium (needed for electric car batteries), so there are pressures to mine the whole region for its precious mineral resources. Of course, perhaps the greatest geologic wonder in South America is the incredible Amazon River Basin, the lungs of the world, where jungles are so dense that many parts remain unexplored. The plants here are so varied and unusual that even though far less than 1% of the species have been examined, they already are used to make 25% of western drugs and medicines, including thousands of anti-cancer agents.
Here are the slides (47mb file).
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