Nerd Nite Thoughts

Nerd Nite Calgary had their third event tonight. It was pretty good. This was the third one and I was at the first one as well. They seem to have a pattern of three speakers: One speaker was someone who did something that "went viral" (the first one was the guy who wants to go to Mars, tonights was a pair of roommates who decided to have a Buy Nothing Year). Another speaker is someone in a local community that's in the nerd orbit (the first was a member of the local skeptics society, today it was members of the maker community). Finally, there is a local scientist (the first was a palaeontologist working on dinosaur buoyancy, today it was a fellow working on computer visualization of the brain).

First, the talks. Then, impressions, a little therapy, and a request.

Jeff de Boer and Shannon Hoover were the first speakers, talking about wearable technology. Their example was the Tech Tie, which they're developing with some big names in tech (IBM for example). An open source, computer driven tie that would respond to motion, change its own design, and do all the shit that Google Glass does, but better because its size restrictions wouldn't be nearly so tight.

They had me right up to the Google Glass comparison.

Ok, I get it, privacy is simply going the way of the buggy whip. Soon every jackass will be able to film me without my knowledge everywhere I go. There's nothing I can do about it because eventually the tech to do this will be so small and unassuming as to be invisible. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I really don't want to spend every public moment wondering if my fashion choices are going to get me onto a people-of-Walmart style website.

Other than that, it looked cool. As a vehicle for self-expression, I think it's a wonderful idea.

Next up was Julie and Geoffrey, who decided to make wholesale changes in their lives by not buying anything (with some caveats, like staggered beginning times for different values of "buy stuff") for a whole year. They were the most engaging speakers and also the one that was most personally inspirational. I'll never make the stuff Jeff de Boer makes, but I can purge my junk and try to live a less consumer-driven lifestyle. Plus I don't need to be nearly so balls-to-the-walls about it as they were. Stop going out for sushi? Not in the cards.

Anyway, they did it and came out the other side both wiser and more open. Good for them.

Finally, there was Dr. Christian Jacobs, who does the sort of stuff I imagine nosarious would be right into. Visualizing the human brain in such a way as to allow one to take an interior tour of its structures. This also tied in with a project to do the same thing for medical training with the whole body. Either a full on simulation of the body (not just a static image, but one with a beating heart, moving muscles, and other things that make us more than just a lump of hamburger) - which would take an insane amount of computation - but also a "cut down" version that one could simply use on a tablet for reference.

If this guy's grad students wanted a job in something comparatively dull, but that would use their graphical computing knowledge, I could probably set them up.

All in all a good set of talks and well worth my time and ten bucks.

Now for some random thoughts and impressions.

First, this was a smallish venue and they didn't even fill it up. That's probably a good thing since there were two giant pillars in the middle of the room which sharply reduced the number of decent seats. Basically my entire table, except for the one corner I was sitting at, couldn't see the stage at all.

As for not filling it up, that's just pathetic. If Comic Expo can get 10K+ attendees, there is not one good reason these guys can't get 100. They also all seemed to know each other. That might be my mistaken impression as an outsider, but it sure looked like everyone had an easy time chatting with everyone else. I feel like they've saturated one small part of the local nerd community, but haven't "broken out" to other valences.

I was firmly in my usual "alone in a crowd" mode, which was bothersome, but not super-bothersome. I figured I'd just sit in a corner and observe and do my usual quips and bon mots via twitter instead of verbally to whomever I knew nearby.

But I got caught. Namely by Julie (one of the speakers), who quizzed me about whether I was live tweeting the event, and who also immediately followed me. This was quickly followed by Erika doing the same.

Of course, when strangers introduce themselves to me, my ability to act like a perfectly rational human being goes away and I start talking like a Vulcan robot. I am getting better at snapping out of that, though it did take a few sentences this time.

So a small amount of anxiety, but it was good anxiety because I got through it positively. However, I would like to not be the one guy by himself. Again.

So here's the request: Next Nerd Nite is going to be November 20th. This is close to my birthday, but also at a time I'll be in town (I'll likely be away on my actual birthday), so I'd like people to join me, for my birthday, at Nerd Nite #4. Hell, I'll bake a cake if enough people I know confirm and buy tickets.