Nerd Nite SF #163

Tuesday, August 18

Nerd Nite SF #163: Caving 101, Gin & Tonic Around the World, and How to Photograph the Whole Internet

7pm doors

$10 adv / $15 doors

All Ages

Presentations:

“Why Haven’t We Seen a Photograph of the Whole Web Yet?“: Toward a Portrait of Our Collective Internet

By: Sophia Liu

In 1966, Stewart Brand, looking out at the skyline from his SF apartment rooftop, wondered why no one had ever taken a photograph of the Earth to prove its curvature: if we could see a photograph of the whole Earth, we, a people then threatened by nuclear eradication, would understand our collective responsibility toward the promise of a shared and bright future. Sixty years later, with the internet, Facebook, and ChatGPT, his vision rings truer than ever, but now concerning a new world: our digital and virtual sphere is threatened by visions of AGI superweapons that make critical thought, creativity, and pro-social online interaction seem unnecessary. In this talk, I make a call to action from the same city about a new planet, introduce some of our ambitious research visions from the field of Human-Computer Interaction, and (hopefully) bring a functioning demo.

Born in SF and raised in the South Bay, Sophia Liu is a new grad from UC Berkeley who had the wise premonition four years ago to major in computer science. She is simultaneously shackled to and freed from the traditional Silicon Valley corporate ladder now that her original dreams of becoming a product manager at Google have been crushed by Anthropic’s newest frontier model release. She also moonlights as a Human-Computer Interaction researcher and incoming master’s student at UC Berkeley, and works toward new ways to be built different and to build differently in the shadow of the AI mushroom cloud.

Caving 101:  An Insider's Guide to Exploring the Underground

By: Vivek Zilpelwar

While most of the Earth’s surface has been mapped and explored, a vast frontier still exists completely out of sight right beneath us.  This talk provides an exclusive insider’s look into caving - a niche technical sport which requires constant problem-solving, physical/mental endurance, and serious teamwork. Discover what it truly feels like to step into the unknown, navigate challenging environments, and stand in places where very few people have been before.

Vivek Zilpelwar is a hardware reliability engineer in San Francisco with a background in transportation-based product development. For the last eight years, he has been a technical caver, exploring primarily in the Southwest US as well as internationally. When above ground, he enjoys self-improvement, all things adventure related, and meeting interesting new people.

Around the World with the Gin & Tonic

By: Camper English

The history of the G&T includes the history of malaria (prevented and cured by quinine in tonic), the Black Death (repelled by juniper), Jesuit missionaries in Peru, the swamps of Rome, horse races in India, Greek medicinal wines, the World Health Organization, the Dutch in Indonesia, Australians in Bolivia, French scientists in the lab, and if there’s time we’ll include cats dropped out of airplanes, the invention of the color mauve, Little House on the Prairie, the birth of chemotherapy, the Official Preppy Handbook, and how the wrong ice machine inspired the creation of the Spanish-style Gin and Tonic. 

Camper English is a cocktails and spirits journalist who has been covering drinks in SF for decades. He is the author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails, and also a book about ice cubes. Check out his writing, classes, and bar history tours on Alcademics.com. 

Featuring Friends of the Show:

The SF Public Library

The SF Wikipedians

DJ & Jelly