Lets talk about Brown Symposium 2011...

Think—Converse—Act: The Salon and its Histories. When I heard the title of this year’s Brown Symposium I had a mixed reaction. First I got very excited, I enjoy conversations, listening talking, learning sharing ideas, what isn’t there to like about the most common form of human interaction? Second I became slightly confused. What exactly was going to be talked about? Are they going to talk about conversations? Slightly redundant in my book but I guess it could be interesting…I think? Unfortunately my choosing of events to attend was limited by some previous obligations. I wanted to attend a lecture but instead was only able to attend two separate salons. The salons were quite interesting. I had absolutely no idea what to expect when entering. It seemed like we were going to observe a conversation between a panel of experts. But it quickly became apparent that the audience participation was going to weigh heavily on the conversation. The panel slowly dispersed into the audience as the conversation continued. To be completely honest I busted out laughing when the first panel member wondered off the stage in the middle of the conversation (my initial reaction was that he lost interest and decided to just leave). I am still conflicted by salon. First of all the setting just seemed to not work to carry on a productive conversation. With such a large audience people could not share their opinions in a timely manner which resulted in extreme repetition of opinions (which got frustrating about the 20th time you hear the exact same statement worded in a different fashion). Second of all I got slightly confused by the point of the salons. I think the topics were interesting but didn’t see how it related to the symposium, then I figured it was the actual act of the conversation rather than the topic…right? I believe my favorite part of the salon was people watching. Ok, so I am prone to people watch in any public setting, but at this symposium my people watching radar was going bazark. There were a ton of interesting observations to be made with so many people sharing strong beliefs in front of a vast audience of strangers.

The first salon I attended was the Science, Religion and Arts. This topic always interests me as both a student of science and as a Christian. The prompt of the topic was a picture described as Onkle Mouse. A picture of a super genetic mouse inside a cage surrounded by eyes (one can assume they were the eyes of the scientists who created the mouse). During the conversation I came to the conclusion that everyone has their opinion and nobody can necessarily tell someone else their opinion is wrong.

The second salon I attended was the Technology, Education and Arts. This conversation seemed to attract a lot less community members and more students and faculty. What struck me as interesting during this conversation was the seeing the different perspectives of students (who must use this new technology and adapt to a new way of learning) and the professors (who have to adapt to teaching with the new technology). I see the struggle in both sides of the spectrum. Professors must be willing to stay up to date with technology and convey information that is centuries old in a new format. And students must adjust their old habits of learning to the new formats the teachers are using. I think just like anything else there are pros and cons to new technology. Pros being a greater wealth of knowledge can be available at your fingertips, Cons being a society that is crutched by technology, and lets face it no matter how high tech something is, technology is just not reliable. I think the real controversy lies basically in human behavior. We are evolutionarily designed to adapt to our environments. That’s how we got to where we are, well me at least, sitting at my laptop striking keys that form shapes on a screen that link together in a cohesive fashion that others have learned how to decipher. Soon about to hit a submit button that will transfer my thoughts to a cyber world where all can read and reflect on my solitary opinion on some, what someday will be an arbitrary topic. Human behavior will adapt to our new world and crazy phangaled machinery that a self proclaimed genius insists will change the way human beings think, act, and learn. However, humans have also became slightly resistant to change. And yes I agree I am a creature of habit. I like my old beaten up books I have read a thousand times, with my highlighting, underlining and random notes I wrote to friends in the middle of a boring class. That is where the fuss lies. They don’t want to change their brains. They don’t want to change the way they think or act or converse. But the truth of the matter is that everything changes us. Our brain has a high plasticity; it is always changing (again, would you rather be reading this on a cave wall?)But regardless of how resistant people are, they will eventually change. It’s what we do, how we live.

So yes I did get something out of this year’s brown symposium. I got to listen to a bunch of people’s opinions, engage my own thoughts on the issues and thanks to Paideia convey these hopefully cohesive thoughts to my wonderful cohort members.