"Beginning the Exploration of the Universe with Gravitational Waves" Rainer Weiss, MIT on behalf of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration The recent observation of gravitational waves from the merger of binary black holes opens a new way to learn about the universe as well as to test General Relativity in the limit of strong gravitational interactions – the dynamics of massive bodies traveling at relativistic speeds in a highly curved space-time. The lecture will describe some of the difficult history of gravitational waves proposed exactly 100 years ago. The concepts used in the instruments and the methods for data analysis that enable the measurement of gravitational wave strains of 10-21 and smaller will be presented. The results derived from the measured waveforms, their relation to the Einstein field equations and the astrophysical implications are discussed. The talk will end with our vision for the future of gravitational wave astronomy. http://physics.berkeley.edu/news-events/events/20161003/2016-segre-lecture-october-3

Oct. 30th, 2013 Topics: Machines: Illusion of the Solid-State, Exponential Growth Qubits & Quantum Computers * Alan Turing "Computing Machinery & Intelligence" (1950) * Antonella Vannini "Quantum Physics, Advanced Waves and Consciousness" (2011) * Ray Kurzweil The Singularity is Near Ch. 1 The Six Epochs (2005) Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

The Beauty and Joy of Computing

Steve Radelet (Chief Economist, USAID) and Carrie Hessler-Radelet (Deputy Director, Peace Corps) spoke about the challenges facing Liberia in rapidly invigorating the economy and public services after 14 years of civil war. Appropriate policy choices should be based on data, best practices from other countries (especially within the region), as well as local community meetings.