Live in The Future. It's Starting Now.

I read Chris Phillips’ excellent book, The Socrates Café, several months ago, and was inspired to try to set one up myself in the Santa Cruz area. As described on the website of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry:

Socrates Café are gatherings around the world where people from different backgrounds get together and exchange thoughtful ideas and experiences while embracing the central theme of Socratizing; the idea that we learn more when we question and question with others. It all started a decade ago when Christopher Phillips, then a freelance writer, asked himself what he could do that would in some modest way further the deeds of those noble souls who had come before him and, as William James put it, “suffered and laid down their lives” to better the lot of humankind? The epiphany and also the answer for him was to be a philosopher in the mold of Socrates, and to hold Socratic dialogues with anyone and everyone who’d like to engage in a common quest to gain abetter understanding of human nature – who shared with him the aspiration of becoming more empathetic people and more critical and creative philosophical inquirers.

Today, there are over 600 ongoing gatherings around the globe coordinated by hundreds of dedicated volunteers who are deeply committed to making ours a more participatory and inclusive world.

I’ve arranged to have a first get-together at the Peet’s Coffee on Pacific Avenue, at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, February 1st. If you’re in the Santa Cruz area, I hope you’ll consider attending. You can visit the Meetup group to RSVP, or use the event on Facebook.

I’ve produced (with the kind permission of Todd Marrone, who’s responsible for the artwork) the poster above, which I’ll be putting up around town over the next few weeks. You can download a PDF of the full-sized poster from here, if you like.