First meeting of the Tony Durston Maverick Fellows’ Network
On May 31st, we held the first Tony Durston Maverick Fellows’ Network meeting. The University of Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) made us very welcome, and our first four fellows finally met! After introductions, we had an animated discussion about quantum physics, the measurement problem, why we would even question determinism and how to argue that it is necessary to question determinism, how to operationalise new metaphysical frameworks, meaning, connectedness, objectivity (does it even exist?), free will, the scientific process (what does this mean for it?) and even truth. Despite these big topics, there was plenty of room for a few laughs and getting to know each other a little better.
A week later, a related workshop was held by IAS in honour of Federico Faggin’s book, Irreducible, that is being published by the Essentia Foundation. One of our fellows returned (from Austria) to participate in that too. And another helped organize it.
The last half hour was spent on how we might best continue the network, so as to be maximally useful to the fellows. We will be holding bi-monthly meetings in hybrid form, to allow fellows at a distance to participate in them. A whatsapp group has been set up to keep lines short, and we are compiling an (online) reading list.
Networks are of course living and breathing things (could they be conscious? Perhaps a topic for the network!) If you are interested in taking part, please contact us here.
