Are you ready to get nerdy!?
Think TED talks with beer. Discovery Channel meets Drunk History.

Be there AND be square!

Speakers

"From the Twilight Zone to Lyttelton Harbour: Marine Life on the Frontlines of Climate Change"
by Dr Joyce Yager

Marine animals are not just passive victims of climate change—they also play an active role in cleaning up our mess and sequestering carbon dioxide. Joyce will talk about how fish that live in the ocean twilight zone help remove carbon from the atmosphere and discuss fishing for them could mean for the carbon cycle. She’ll then seamlessly transition to part two: about Whakaraupō Lyttleton harbour’s tiny marine animals and how our actions on land impact them.

Joyce studied marine science, biology, and geology as an undergrad and got majorly bummed out about climate change. She did a PhD on climate change 200 million years ago—back when it wasn’t her fault. A few years and deep breaths later and she is back to working on the modern ocean, looking specifically at how marine life impacts ocean chemistry and vice versa. Joyce thinks there are plenty of people outside of formal science careers who want to do science and runs a project in Whakaraupō aimed at facilitating marine science participation for all.

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"Olympians: Using humanity to solve the AI control problem"
by Dan McKay

Dan explains the dangers of artificial superintelligence, why it might be safer to use a person as the foundation for a superintelligence, and what kind of person we'd want to pick.

Dan is a philosopher working at Canterbury University specializing in ethics, and he's pretty keen for humanity not to be wiped out by an artificial superintelligence.

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"How to Build Dangerous Things"
by Dr Angus McGregor

Earthquakes are, quite fairly, seen as disastrous events — usually because they induce resonant vibrations in buildings, causing them to react violently and become damaged. But without resonance, we wouldn’t have swing bridges, building-shaking bass… or Ig Nobel Prize-worthy ideas like sending spaceships to the moon with nukes. In this talk, McGregor will explain the importance of resonance in some designs, how to optimise designs for maximum shaking, and how to avoid destroying your beautiful, jiggly creations.

Angus McGregor is a mechanical engineer and expert in composite design and vibrations. His career has led him to build large-scale resonating artworks with the Len Lye Foundation, lecturing at Ara and the University of Canterbury, and promoting gender balance in the sciences through initiatives like WiECAN. He now works with Caliber Design in Christchurch, providing additional engineering resourcing on-demand.

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PLUS Special Guest

Jor Dansaren who is a mutli-discipline artist based in Ōtautahi. Her artistic endeavours include spoken word, burlesque, fire performance, and running her own monthly poetry event, 6pm Speakeasy. Heavily influenced by the delights of the natural world, Old Norse skaldic storytelling, and spiritual process, Jor finds wonder in life and the broad spectrum of human experience. She brings a Lord of the Rings themed spoken word set to Nerd Nite, for all those preciouuussss fantasy buffs.

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