When I did my recap of the Being Human conference held this past weekend in San Francisco, I intentionally did not go into a lot of the content - for two reason. First, I went knowing I would be free to just relax and enjoy the conversations and demonstrations and interaction on stage and in the audience and not find a larger meaning. I was there as a media partner, not a journalist.
And I did enjoy myself. I noted at one point I had never seen so much hugging between presenters - literally hugging - and by the time it was over I was so awash with hope for humanity I gave a complete stranger a ride to Sausalito and the after-party event, even though in hindsight now I am pretty sure she wasn't invited, which should have detracted from my optimism about humanity.
The other reason I did not go into a lot of the content in my recap is I knew there would be a lot of people there who would do just that - and do a lot better job than I could.
To wit, Jason Goldman at Scientific American, who is able to put the overarching issue in context - how much of what we perceive is just to make sense of the world - and then also delve into the specifics of the presenters and how it fit within that framework.
He did just that, so spend no more time reading this and go visit his column:
The Illusion of Being Human By Jason G. Goldman at Scientific American, March 26, 2012
