January 28, 2009

Kenneth Arrow, Stanford University

Abstract
Many allocation decisions require costs today (or, at least, beginning today ) with benefits extending into the distant future, affecting lives not yet in existence. The leading example today is policy to meet anthropogenic climate change, but that problem is by no means unique. How do we think about the balancing of values? To some extent, the questions have to do with empirical regularities, but to a major extent, they depend on value judgments about our obligations to future generations. The decisions are further complicated by uncertainties about the future.

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March 25, 2009

Sandy Pentland, Massachussetts Institute of Technology

Abstract
How can you know when someone is bluffing? Paying attention? Genuinely interested? The answer is that subtle patterns in how we interact with other people reveal our attitudes toward them. These predictive patterns seem to be biologically based "honest signals," evolved from ancient primate signaling mechanisms, and we find that they are major factors in human decision making in situations ranging from job interviews to first dates. By analyzing these signals using data from mobile phones, electronic ID badges, or digital media, we can create a "gods eye" view of how the people in organizations interact, and even `see' the rhythms of interaction for everyone in a city.

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May 27, 2009 - "Event Name"

Ion Stoica, University of California, Berkeley

July 29, 2009

Jeannette Wing, National Science Foundation

October 29, 2009

Ronald Graham, University of California, San Diego

December 2, 2009

Leroy Hood, Institute of Systems Biology

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