I am at The Amazing Meeting, and I learned today that the name is accurate. I have no words to describe the experience outside of amazing. The workshops were well constructed and informative, as well as entertaining. Even more surprising, however, were how accessible the people that I consider to be my heroes were.
Going to the first workshop, James Randi (The Amazing Randi) was standing near the registration desk, personally greeting people. He was not only happy to have his picture taken with me, but he sat and talked to me for a while. After I was done there, I saw Steve and Jay Novella and was able to talk with them as well. I spoke with Jay a couple of times throughout the day, and he was extremely friendly, despite everyone wanting to have a piece of his time. Meeting the cast of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe for me was a lot like a teenager meeting the singer of their favorite band.
My first workshop was “1`0 Years of Skeptic Podcasting – A Panel Discussion”. This was more stories of some of the things that can happen while running a popular skeptical podcast. We had the hosts of the SGU, Skepticality, and The Skeptic Zone.
The next workshop was “Asking Good Questions,” where we learned how to phrase questions in a manner that is conductive to getting pertinent information in an argument in a non-threatening manner. After a break for lunch, I went to “Investigating Mysteries: 10 Practical Tactics to Unravel the Uncanny”. This workshop focused on how to research claims that are very unusual, such as the bishop who claimed he had invented a TV that allowed him to watch events that had happened in the past, after the bishop had died and the device had been “lost”.
The final workshop of the day was “SGU Presents: How to Argue”. This was a wonderful discussion about how to form arguments depending on your target audience. One of the main points was that you need to have a goal, and convincing the other person that they are wrong is not a good one. The first thing you should do is find common ground and agree upon premises. Asking short, directed questions that encourage the other party to come to a logical conclusion on their own is one way to proceed. However, sometimes it is appropriate to tear someone apart. Other times it might be appropriate to coax their true beliefs out, not in order to change them, but to let others who were listening to the person know just how crazy they are.
After the workshops, we went to the Welcome Reception, where I sat down with a bunch of people I had never met before, and had wonderful conversations. I even had a person with a PhD in astrophysics explain time dilation for me. He said that there is only one speed, and that is the speed of light. We are all moving at the speed of light, but through time. When we start to move through space, you are taking length from the time axis and adding it to the distance axis. A calculation of the hypotenuse gives a correct value for time dilation.
I’m off now to find the best Mai Tai in Las Vegas. I’m hoping that I’ll make it to bed by midnight tonight.
UPDATE:
Fremont Street was absolutely amazing. It was a several block wild party with four or five live bands, light shows, zip lining, and people everywhere. One band, while introducing their next song, welcomed us to the drunkest street in the United States. I must admit that I was among the people giving it that name. I had eventually found Frank’s Tiki Lounge, and they did indeed have good Mai Tais. However, there were Cocktail type bars there, throwing bottles and pouring drinks, and I had to have a couple of those as well. It was overwhelming and a blast.
On the way back, I couldn’t find the bus stop, possibly because I had a bit too much to drink, and I walked past the Stratosphere before I finally caught a bus. Then I got off at Caesar’s Palace, wanting to see the shops, which were closed. I wound up walking back from there, but not in nearly enough time to get a full night’s sleep.
