Program Archive - Capital District Humanist Society

Dr. Tyina Steptoe is an Associate History Professor at the University of Arizona. Her presentation was titled “Big Mama Thornton, Little Richard, and the Queer Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” (Note: sometimes written as “Rock and Roll,” but mine is the correct orthography.)

Steptoe started with a nod to the Great Migration of southern Blacks moving north, invoking a “Second Great Migration” toward the west. Her story really begins in Houston, whose Bronze Peacock night club spawned the Peacock Records company around 1950, technological advances making it easier and cheaper to produce mass-market records.

Willie Mae Thornton (1926-84), later known as “Big Mama,” started singing in bars in her native Alabama at a very tender age, then joined a traveling “theater group” with motley performers and thereby wound up in Houston and connected with Peacock. Her metier was “Rhythm & Blues,” a largely Black thing, later bleached as “Rock ‘n’ Roll” for wider audiences. Thus her first hit song in 1953, “Hound Dog,” became a much bigger hit in 1956 when Elvis Presley (1935-1977) did it.

Steptoe’s interest was kindled by finding a family photo of her grandfather with Big Mama. A rare one showing her in male garb, which she actually favored; most of her pics have her in dresses, which she normally performed in. She never married; lesbianism is inferred. Steptoe played a recording of her singing, described as “low register,” in other words, sounding very male.

A counterpoint to Mama’s bigness was the littleness of Richard Penniman (1932-2020). Little Richard’s gayness was more flamboyant, though not publicly acknowledged for decades. His early drag-like persona onstage was called “female impersonation” and was a fairly common shtick, with homosexuality anathematized in those 1950s. Even associated with hated Communism. Thus the Civil Rights movement tried to steer clear of anything smacking of queerness.

Steptoe noted that some Little Richard hit songs were redone by Pat Boone (1934 – ), made even bigger hits, though Boone’s renditions were pretty weak tea compared with Richard’s electric performances. But Boone was white and straight. A signature Little Richard song was “Tutti-Frutti;” Steptoe played an excerpt, noting that the hit version’s lyrics were sanitized of the original’s overtly sexual content (“good booty” etc).

Prepared by Frank Robinson (1947 – )

Michael Miller is an author that was born in a New Jersey village similar to Fayetteville, NY, where both Matilda Joslyn Gage and Grover Cleveland lived for portions of their lives.

Fayetteville is east of Syracuse, NY near the route of the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to New York City. After its construction in the early 19^th Century, the Erie Canal quickly began an economic hub of the country by facilitating the movement of goods, people, and ideas, which contributed to the growth of cities like Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The areas surrounding the Erie Canal came to be known as the Burned Over District due to the birth and spread of various religions, free thinking, and humanist groups as well as abolitionists that operated the Underground Railroad to help slaves escape to freedom in the north and Canada.

Matilda Joslyn Gage spent much of her life in Fayetteville. As a child she was influenced by her father Hezekiah, who was a physician and political activist. Joslyn was expected to become the first female physician in the country but was rejected from medical school due to her gender. However she went on to become a prominent figure in the fight for women’s rights and education. Joslyn attended the first women’s suffrage convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 where her speech and involvement was well-received. Some of the other things that Joslyn is noted for include: support for universal rights, including those for blacks, indigenous people, and women; her representation of Susan B. Anthony in court after Anthony was arrested for voting; and Gage’s strong opposition to the patriarchal structure of the Church and her belief in the importance of women uniting against it.

Michael also noted that Joslyn’s son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, wrote the Wizard of Oz, which includes a strong female character that was inspired by Matilda.

Grover Cleveland, who spent part of his childhood in Fayetteville, went on to become the 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States. Grover was influenced by his father’s Presbyterian philosophy. Cleveland moved to Buffalo, became an apprentice lawyer, and eventually became the sheriff, then Mayor before becoming Governor of New York and eventually the President. He was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency between Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. Cleveland was known for his honesty, work ethic, and belief in the people. He vetoed many bills, established the Department of Labor, supported pension rights for veterans of the Civil War, and fought against the robber barons. He also navigated diplomatic lines to keep Hawaii independent. Cleveland’s humility was evident in his simple tombstone, which only listed his name, birth and death dates.

Matilda Joslyn Gage and Grover Cleveland were both were influential figures in their respective fields. Gage was a free thinker, advocated universal rights, and was a leader in the women’s movement. Cleveland was a devout Presbyterian and later became a president. Their only known meeting occurred at the Executive Mansion, when Cleveland hosted leaders of the Women’s Suffrage movement, including Gage.

Recap prepared by Don Porterfield with assistance of Zoom’s AI Companion

Penny Higgins is a consulting geochemist. That’s a mash-up of chemistry and geology; using chemistry to tease out the processes that shape the planet, by studying rocks. Hence her talk’s title: Reading the Rock Record — Understanding Our future.

Higgins also runs a retirement home for cats, but that didn’t enter much, except parenthetically, into her talk.

Which was related to climate change. She explained the difference between weather and climate — weather determines what you wear on a given day, while climate dictates what you have in your closet.

The biggest climate factor is temperature of course. But to get a handle on it, how does one measure and compare global temperatures over time? One thing she spoke about in this context was heavier versus lighter Oxygen molecules, the former having more neutrons. Water contains some of both. But the heavier version has a greater tendency to fall as rain. And the difference then shows up in the teeth and bones of animals that drink the water; so studying them provides clues about the climate when they lived.

Her main focus was on the MECO — The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, a temperature spike about 40 million years ago. To understand what was going on there, and how it affected mammals, she’s been part of a project studying rocks from that time found mostly in a Utah geologic feature, the Uinta basin. Saying she’s “so excited to see the data that she’s losing her mind.” She also called this rock stratum the “Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi layer.” However, it’s still not clear what caused the MECO.

What is clear, however, is that climate is now changing in ways that will pose massive problems for future humans. And cats.

Frank S. Robinson is a long-time member of CDHS, a professional coin dealer, and author. His topic, “AI and Our Future,” provided a summary of Yuval Noah Harari’s 2024 book, “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI” along with Frank’s own comments about this subject.

Frank noted that Harari’s book focuses on how artificial intelligence will shape the future. Harari’s book also explores the implications of AI for the future of democratic societies, contrasting it with more authoritarian modes of social organization.

The book uses the metaphor of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a cautionary tale about AI’s power. The book posited that our first information technology was the story, which can manipulate us regardless of truth or falsity. The danger of false information can be associated with the rise of populist political movements. Because humans have a tendency to summon powerful forces with unintended consequences, a potential concern is that the use of AI-based systems might lead to the rise of new totalitarian regimes.

Frank noted that Harari does have issues with AI systems, particularly their non-correction and lack of self-correcting capabilities. In addition, AI may be harder for humans to control and may lead to pervasive control. There is also a concern about political radicalization and the potential for spreading misinformation due to the influence of AI and algorithms.

Frank also noted Harari’s concerns about AI’s impact on social trust and society. Harari fears that AI-generated disinformation could erode people’s ability to trust anyone or anything, potentially leading to intrusive totalitarian regimes. Harari also noted the “alignment problem,” where AI’s decision-making may not align with human intentions due to its different way of thinking and an AI system not knowing what it doesn’t know. However, one of the potential benefits of AI is the convergence of biological and mechanistic components, leading to the evolution of future beings beyond their biological limitations, while still retaining human-like minds. Frank recognized that Harari’s pessimistic views on the future of AI are based on potential misuse and weaponization of AI technologies.

Frank stated that he believes that AI does offer potential benefits, especially in assisting differently-abled individuals. In order to conduct a personal assessment of the capabilities of AI systems that are currently available, Frank related that he had used Chat GPT to generate a Valentine’s Day poem for his wife, who is poet. Frank shared the poem during his presentation and his wife indicated that she enjoyed the poem.

Recap prepared by Don Porterfield with the assistance of Zoom’s AI Companion.

Dr. Mark Reimers is a quantitative neuroscientist at Michigan State University. His topic was “The Social Psychology of Group Delusions.”

He defined a “delusion” as a belief or impression firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument. This has usually been associated with disordered thinking — psychosis or mental illness.

Yet most people are deluded about some things, at some times. A good example is when one is “madly in love,” a fairly common phenomenon. Reimers noted that the brain activity there has been found to resemble that in the brains of addicts.

But he also discussed what he called “everyday delusions.” A basic one is self-importance. Most people believe they are above average (mathematically impossible). Such beliefs help us navigate through life. False memories are a part of it — we love to tell stories, and to embellish them, making ourselves more central, and our memories are actually continually rejiggered to comport with that.

Another topic was “dogmatic thinking,” with the key factor being not the content of a belief, but how one believes it. Dr. Reimers referenced an impatient cognitive style — jumping to conclusions, unwilling to consider nuance. And such cognitive and personality traits govern the likelihood of adopting an ideology, like QAnon.

Key indicators there include bold, sweeping language; considering other people not just wrong, but bad; insulting them. There’s a heavy use of abstract moral nouns like “necessity” and “freedom.”

Important in all this is not so much the validity of the beliefs, but rather keeping in good stead with your group. This is especially true with religion — also helping us deal with what some might see as the meaninglessness of existence. Countered by imagining there’s a God who loves us.

The social element is particularly important given how many people feel anxiety about their social connections. Feeling isolation, resentment, humiliation, and economic stress. All amplified socially. And Dr. Reimers noted that such stress itself alters our cognition style.

He opined that this is increasingly salient in America, with hollowed out opportunity for working class people. Who can’t think clearly about their life situation. There’s a breakdown in shared societal consensus. And while modern society disperses us, social media creates the equivalent of the mob.

So — how can we combat all this? Dr. Reimers pointed to two persuasion techniques that have been developed, which seem to have some success in changing at least some minds. “Street epistemology” employs the Socratic method, starting by asking people, for example, how confident they are in their beliefs. “Deep canvassing” begins by trying to connect with people as individuals, following up on concerns they express.

Recap prepared by Frank S. Robinson

Dr. Yotam Ophir is an Associate Professor of Communications at the State University, Buffalo. His talk was titled, “Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Extremism in an Age of Political Mega-Identities.” Based on his studying thousands of years of misinformation, and his forthcoming book, Misinformation and Society. It’s a pretty bleak assessment.

He started off discussing the epidemic, noting inequality of impacts, surprise, horror, anxiety, distrust of experts and officials, widespread conspiracy theories, quack solutions, scapegoating, and violence. Of course he was not talking about Covid, but the 1854 cholera outbreak. With Covid, in contrast to earlier times when diseases’ causes were not understood, information was widely available and spread fast. Yet in America, it was politicized like no disease before.

Giving Ophir his Lesson #1 — Nothing is new, but nothing is the same.

We’re living in what’s been called the “Post-Truth” era, blamed on Trump and social media. Yet before that we did have JFK assassination conspiracy theories, the 1980s-’90s “Satanic Panic” (resembling QAnon), and even further back, literal witch hunts. Today’s “Great Replacement Theory” also had antecedents. But what differs now is ubiquity of tools to create visual misinformation, and our intimate relationship with our devices.

His Lesson #2 was that we did not evolve to be seekers of accurate information. Yet we’ve had a longtime preoccupation with assessing reality, going back at least to Plato’s cave allegory. What evolution did endow us with is pattern recognition. Seeing what might be a tiger in the bushes, running away fast preserved your genes to reproduce, while if you deliberated, you’d be eaten. But such quick judgments often disserve us.

Ophir discussed some examples, displaying a chart showing a seemingly strong correlation between Maine’s divorce rate and margarine consumption. But a key point is that correlation does not mean causation, a principle most people don’t instinctively apply. And feelings tend to trump facts; if people feel crime is rising [they always do — FSR] facts won’t sway them. Meantime, another thing evolution gave us was prioritizing tribal solidarity over facts. We feel it’s more important to be in good with our social groups, which was vital for group survival.

His Lesson #3 was that misinformation is growing more political. The group thing operates especially strongly here, with many people’s principal sense of identity being their politics. And, further, the misinformation problem is asymmetrical — much bigger on the right. Ophir cited Chris Mooney’s book, The Republican War on Science. Battling the scientific consensus about climate change; even about evolution. We saw this too regarding Covid, with Trump voting areas having higher infection rates (due to science rejectionism). And it’s not just science, but misinformation and fake news more generally, which the right is more prone to seek, see, and spread.

The other side is not somehow magically protected. However, on the right, leadership and elites actively working to push falsehoods is a much bigger phenomenon. And they do so with increasing impunity.

So Lesson #4: The price for spreading misinformation is in sharp decline. In fact, it’s rewarded, not punished. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s political clout keeps growing. And of course Trump goes from triumph to triumph the more he lies. Indeed, Ophir asserted his voters trust him more than their own families! [Says something about the character of those families — FSR.]

Lying, Ophir suggested, is actually a conscious strategy, quoting Trump’s sometime consigliere Steve Bannon’s “Flood the zone with excrement” (using a more graphic word which wouldn’t make it into a CDHS newsletter). And the media can’t turn away, because the public eats it up.

In the Q&A there was reference to “the marketplace of ideas.” A free marketplace, Ophir amended. Not what we have, when Facebook for example decides what you’ll see — based on trying to maximize “engagement” (and thus ad revenue).

Finally, Lesson #5: There’s no silver bullet solution. Ophir rounded up the usual obvious remedies, but said they really don’t seem to work; can even backfire, making people even more wedded to false beliefs. Instead we need big systemic changes — bolster democratic institutions; curb money in politics; restore the authority of party leaderships; rebuild journalism with perhaps public media; advance media literacy education. [And make pigs fly — FSR.]

But he ended by quoting Leonard Cohen: “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Dr. Mindy Townsend is the Dudley Astronomer with Sienna College. She discussed the ways in which nighttime light pollution is impacting astronomy, nature, and humans.

Various types of light pollution, which include sky glow, glare, light trespass, and light clutter, are reducing the darkness of the night sky around the world. In the US, observations by citizen scientists have documented a 10.4% increase in light pollution per year on the Bortle scale, a ranking system for the darkness of a sky. This increase occurs primarily in urban areas, but has also been noted in rural areas.

Research has shown that sea turtles, particularly green sea turtles and flatback sea turtles, are attracted to artificial light. Artifical lights cause hatchlings to be vulnerable to predators and exhaustion because the young turtles don’t head for the ocean quickly. Artificial light also can affect the behavior of bats with different species responding differently to different wavelengths of light. Some species exhibit decreased activity under all lights, while others avoid orange, white, and green light, and yet other species showed more activity under artificial lights.

Artificial light can also alter the behavior of plants and trees. A 2016 study in the UK found the onset of budburst in various deciduous trees was affected by artificial light with early budding trees being less affected. The timing of budburst can have potential consequences on ecosystems. One example is the winter moth caterpillar’s relationship with the Penuncula oak. However, the effects of artificial light on plants and animals are not yet fully understood and requires further research.

Preserving dark skies is important for both environmental and cultural reasons. Light pollution has negative impacts on wildlife, particularly nocturnal animals. There are many challenges facing efforts to reduce light pollution and it’s not always easy or practical to make significant changes. Some simple actions that can reduce light pollution include turning off lights when not needed, directing lights to where they’re needed, and using warmer colored lighting. Some cities, such as Tuscon, and national parks are leading the way in reducing light pollution in order preserve dark skies for future generations.

Light pollution is a significant issue that needs advocacy and understanding from the community. Ways in which light pollution could be reduced or controlled include changing zoning codes and highlighting economic arguments for reducing light pollution that show it could save money for businesses.

Nikhil Goyal is a sociologist, who’s worked for Senator Bernie Sanders at the Senate Budget Committee.

He spoke about his book, Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty.

Starting in 2015, he followed a number of youngsters growing up in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, of aging row houses, populated mostly by Latinos and African-Americans. Working class — or perhaps more accurately underclass, with poverty endemic. The housing crappy, the schools overcrowded, underfunded, and crumbling. Epitomizing the “school-to-prison” pipeline.

Ryan Rivera was not even 13 when a stupid prank, setting a fire in a trash can, resulted not merely in school disciplinary action, but bringing in the police. He would up detained, in court, then expelled from his school and sent to a “reform school” more like a prison. Run by a private for-profit company that also specializes in private prisons. Young Ryan was humiliated and profoundly frightened.

He scarcely even hoped to ever see adulthood, expecting to wind up either dead or incarcerated. Neighborhoods like his do suffer a crisis of gun violence and premature deaths. Their average lifespans are around 71 — on par with less developed countries like Egypt. Goyal suggested that all this dysfunctionality is not due to character deficiencies in people like Ryan and their families; it’s a consequence of the difficult environment they’re forced to navigate.

Ryan was actually fortunate enough to land up in a school that was good for him, and he clawed his way out of his daunting circumstances into a decent responsible adulthood. But hardly can we expect every such kid to achieve that.

So what is to be done? Important though schools are, Goyal posited that fixing schools is not enough, without fixing the urban environments in which they’re embedded. He pointed to the 1996 federal welfare reform as being a setback in that regard. He also discussed President Biden’s 2021 “Build Back Better” plan, an ambitious program for the kind of renewal he envisions; it did not pass, though some elements of it did find their way into the subsequent (mis-named) “Inflation Reduction Act.” Goyal spoke of measures like a living minimum wage, universal pre-K education, revitalizing trade unions, etc. While he considers the federal government politically paralyzed now in regard to such things, he does see some progress being made at the state level.

Dr. Lee Dugatkin’s presentation, Well-Connected Animals: Social Networks & the Complexity of Animal Societies, was based on research about the influence of social networks and information sharing on animal behavior. He believes this research can provide insights into the evolution of human social behavior. Dr. Dugatkin used the concept of social networks to emphasize their role in shaping animal behavior and the importance of understanding their structure. He discussed studies of three different species: Macaques monkeys on an isolated island near Puerto Rico; bottle-nose dolphins along the Brazilian coast; and chimpanzees in Uganda.

A troupe of Macaques monkeys were introduced to the deserted Cayo Santiago Island in the mid-20th century and have been the focus of on-going studies since then. Lee indicated that grooming behavior was a good indicator of the degree and strength of social connections within various subgroups of the monkeys. In general, these subgroups did not intermingle. He noted that Hurricane Maria in 2017 led to significant changes in the social grooming networks, with individuals forming more friendships post-hurricane. The study also found that the number of babies produced increased significantly after the hurricane. Lee emphasized the importance of understanding these dynamics, as they have implications for how both animals and humans deal with natural catastrophes.

Studies of dolphins near the Brazil coast found a unique system involving social networks within the dolphin population and how one of the dolphin networks interacts with local fishermen to the benefit of both. One of the dolphin networks would signal fishermen when their mutual prey (mullets) were in the area. The fisherman were able catch more fish because they had learned where the mullet were at and the dolphins were able to catch and eat more mullet as the fish fled the fisherman’s nets.

A researcher studying chimpanzees in the Boudango forest in Uganda witnessed the creation of a new tool, a moss sponge, by a dominant chimpanzee called Nick. The researcher noticed that after Nick created the sponge to collect water from shallow depressions, other chimps in his immediate social network began making their own moss sponges, presumably after they observed Nick’s behavior. Chimpanzees in other social networks, which did not observe Nick’s behavior, did not create or use moss sponges. However, a single chimpanzee outside of Nick’s social network, found a discarded moss sponge and learned how to make and use the tool after examining it.

Dr. Dugatkin noted that these three cases and the complexity of social networks in other animal species, including honeybees, crickets, kangaroos, and whales show how information is passed from one individual to others. Lee also suggested that someone’s propensity to join a particular political group can be illustrated, in part, by the behavior of house finches, where males with more red feathers tend to stay in their group, while those with less red plumage leave to find other groups where they can do better.