Profs and Pints Metro Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Our Bodies, Our Minds,” an exploration of the relationship between our biology and our thought processes, with Justin Brooks, M.D., associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and scholar of computational psychophysiology.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-bodies-minds .]

For millennia, humans have wondered how mind and body are connected. Are our thoughts just the electrical murmurs of nerve cells, or is there something more? Are they the result of millions of years of evolution?

Explore the mind-body problem through the lens of measurable physiology with Dr. Justin Brooks, a physician-scientist whose research focuses on using mobile and wearable technologies to understand, predict, and influence human behavior and health.

He’ll describe how millions of years of evolution shaped the way our minds and bodies speak to each other, with our nervous system being the product of countless adaptations that shape how we react, think, and survive. Reflexes hidden in our physiology, attention, and mental effort reveal a “biotype,” a stable but adaptable signature of how we process the world.

The problem is that reflexes honed by a prehistoric world of predators and scarcity now must navigate the strange demands of a modern society. Rather than mirroring who we truly are, our reflexes often are just echoes of ancient survival needs. As a result, many of us live slightly out of sync with our own biology. We think faster than we feel, ignore our body’s quiet warnings, and misread the signals from our bodies that guide balance and well-being. Breakdowns in the conversation between mind and body cause stress to accumulate, performance to falters, and health to erode.

In a talk that blends neuroscience, physiology, and philosophy, Dr. Brooks will discuss how our specific biotypes might hold clues for realigning our ancient wiring with the pace of contemporary life to avoid the pitfalls of burnout, chronic stress, and mental fatigue. He’ll explore how measuring the body can illuminate the mind and how both can be brought back into harmony for the world we live in now. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: Part of an illustration of the brain in Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'homme, a textbook completed by anatomist Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery and artist Nicolas Henri Jacob in 1854.

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Emerging World Order,” on global shifts in power and what they portend, with John Rennie Short, geographer and professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of Geopolitics: Making Sense of a Changing World.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-emerging-world .]

We are witnessing a transformation in the geopolitical world order and, with it, renewed superpower rivalry and heightened security concerns in hotspots such as the Middle East and the South China Sea.

Why is all of this occurring? Who will gain advantage and who will lose out?

Get a big-picture understanding of recent geopolitical upheaval and what may be ahead with John Rennie Short, a scholar of national security issues who has written several acclaimed books on world trends and given several excellent Profs and Pints talks focused on geopolitical affairs.

He’ll walk us through the most important changes in the geopolitical world order since the end of the Cold War, focusing especially on 21st Century trends that appear likely to usher in increased instability. Among the developments he’ll cover: The emergence of China as a competing superpower. A more assertive Russia’s flexing of muscle against former Soviet republics. The slow but strengthening emergence of a shift in Europe’s focus from economic integration to geopolitical security, with Sweden and Finland’s entering NATO in response to rising fears of Russian aggression.

We’ll examine the implications of our own nation’s withdrawal from its commitment as a global leader and adoption of a more insular foreign policy focused on immediate economic interests.

We’ll contemplate potential future scenarios like the rise of a China-Russia alliance to rival the U.S., and we’ll tackle questions such as whether a more security-minded Europe will become an independent source of power. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: A Risk board as photographed by Ben Stephenson (Creative Commons).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Robots as Ocean Explorers,” a look at what new technology is teaching us about the seas, with James Bellingham, professor of exploration robotics at Johns Hopkins University, executive director of its Institute for Assured Autonomy, and co-author of How Are Marine Robots Shaping Our Future?

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-robots-ocean-explorers ]

The ocean is Earth’s last great frontier, still largely unexplored despite being vital to our climate, economy, and security.

Today, however, that’s changing, thanks to fleets of intelligent marine robots that map the seafloor, track shifting currents, monitor ecosystems, and operate where no human can survive.

Such robots are not just tools of discovery. They’re redefining our relationship with the planet.

Join James Bellingham, a pioneer in ocean robotics, for an in-depth look at how marine robots are transforming science, industry, and even the Navy. He’ll describe how ocean robots are expanding our understanding of the climate and planetary systems, illuminating the hidden dynamics that drive weather and sustain life on Earth, and playing an important role in our efforts to derive food and energy from the seas.

You’ll learn how the Navy has long been a quiet engine of ocean innovation, and how its investments in ocean research helped create the platforms and technologies that now underpin everything from climate studies to undersea infrastructure.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Bellingham has been a global leader in the development of small, high-performance autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), resulting in a class of systems that are now widely used within the military, industry, and science communities. He has been instrumental in innovations for ocean observing and has spent considerable time at sea, leading two dozen AUV expeditions in locations across the Antarctic, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, South Pacific, and Arctic.

His talk will tell the story of how, from the depths of our own oceans to the hidden seas of distant worlds, robots are helping us explore, protect, and perhaps even find company in the vast blue that surrounds us. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: The submersible robot ROV Hercules at work on the ocean floor (Mountains in the Sea Research Team; the IFE Crew; and NOAA/OAR/OER).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “A Crash Course on Critical Thinking,” on ways to train your brain to better sort what’s true from what’s false, with Andrew Bridges, adjunct professor of philosophy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and longtime teacher of courses on critical thinking and ethics.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-critical-thinking .]

Why do smart people believe ‘obviously’ wrong things? What makes one belief better than another?

Andy Bridges has spent more than a decade teaching college students the intellectual skills needed to deal with the fundamental tension between their inherent desire to firmly understand their world and the fuzzy, uncomfortably vague nature of the reality around them.

If you sometimes find your head spinning as you try to figure out what’s true in watching the news, scrolling through social media, or simply living your life, you’ll benefit from coming to the Perch in Federal Hill to let Professor Bridges help you hone your critical thinking skills. Even if you already think of yourself as a critical thinker, we all could benefit from a refresher course sometimes.

We’ll start with the idea that beliefs differ in quality and consider what makes some beliefs “better” than others. We’ll talk about beliefs based on evidence versus beliefs based on impulse, beliefs open to revision versus beliefs immune to it, precisely defined beliefs versus beliefs too vague to be tested. You’ll be invited to consider how you acquired the beliefs you hold today and what has made you change your mind about certain things.

From there we’ll venture into the thicket of language and consider how many public debates are actually fights over definitions and, for example, the meaning of terms such as “justice,” “terrorism,” “artificial intelligence,” “fake news,” and even “human.” You’ll learn how words are not magic containers of meaning but carry social, emotional, and ideological baggage, and how disagreements in the absence of shared definitions just turn into noise.

Finally, we’ll spend time discussing the cognitive traps we fall into—not because we’re dumb, but because we’re human. Confirmation bias, the Straw Man Fallacy, the False Dilemma, and the Appeal to Emotion all will make an appearance at the bar.

We may never have perfect beliefs, but there’s value in the pursuit of them by making a daily habit of trying to understand better, speak more clearly, listen more deeply, and remain open to change. The real value to this talk might be in what you’ll learn down the road. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30).

Image: Part of “The Thinker in The Gates of Hell” by François Auguste René Rodin (From a photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra / Wikimedia Commons).