Tag Archives: skepticism

Conspiracy Of One – Nate Eggins – will entertain Skepticon diners

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Entertainment for Skepticon’s Saturday night dinner, will be courtesy of Brisbane-based songwriter, musician and science communicator, Nate Eggins. In addition, Nate will also be one of the Skepticon MCs. With thought-provoking lyrics, Nate aims:

To encourage interest in science, promote critical thinking and with his quirky sense of humour, playfully nudge us to second-guess pseudoscience, modern advertising and conspiracy theories through fun catchy clever music.

Nate, a multi-instrumentalist, has used his talent and interest to create the solo project, Conspiracy of One. Described as A bit sciency, A bit funny,Conspiracy of One sold out two live performances at the Brisbane Planetarium, for the release of Nate’s debut album, Road To Reason.

Skeptics and fans of the Australian Skeptics podcast The Skeptic Zone are likely familiar with Nate’s 2021 hit, The Sound a Duck Makes. Indeed your “Quack!” vocal may well be on it. Road To Reason reflects Nate’s journey, “from the darkness of ignorance toward the light of scientific and critical thinking”.

Hit songs from the album include Can You Guess My Star Sign? which features Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, The Song THEY Don’t Want You To Hear and It’s Not You, It’s Corona. Great music and good humour with dinner, in the company of skeptics? Sounds like a great night.

You can learn more about Nate Eggins on his Facebook page, Instagram or check out some of his music on YouTube.

The Saturday night dinner is at the St. Andrews Conservatory in Nicholson St. Fitzroy. If you’d like a ticket, please visit Try Booking.

Futurist at Skepticon in the near future

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Adam Ford is a futurologist and an IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) Affiliate Scholar. He works as a data/information architect, a data analyst and data engineer.

Adam Ford

Adam has co-organised a variety of conferences in Australia, USA and China. He convenes the global effort of ‘Future Day’ seeking to encourage a specific day to ritualize focus on the future.

As a grass roots journalist, Adam has interviewed many experts on the future – and is currently working on a documentary project focussing on preparing for the future of artificial intelligence – the Singularity.

We have all been made acutely aware of the importance of AI in the last 12 months. Chat GPT has become a household phrase, along with warnings of the rise of AI impacting. From the 15 biggest risks it poses including fake news, loss of employment and human connection to serious existential quandaries such as the need to mitigate potential risks of human extinction.

Wow! And I thought my CARROT Weather app swearing at me every day was as bad as things would get. Anyway, speaking of weather, it won’t be a factor for those of you attending Skepticon 2023 or watching online. Not will it impact on the awesome Skepticon dinner and entertainment.

So, check out ticket options here and I look forward to seeing you there.

Annie McCubbin coming to Skepticon 2023

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Would you like to know why smart women make bad decisions? If so, buying Annie McCubbin’s book, Why Smart Women make Bad Decisions would be a great start.

Annie published it in 2020, then in May this year she published Why Smart Women Buy the Lies. Annie is more than a little annoyed that critical thinking is so often side-lined, whilst pseudoscience and New-Age waffle is instead shaping decision-making. Consequently, Annie focuses on helping women avoid being conned by the feel-good vibes of self-help promises.

Annie McCubbin

Annie trained and worked as a professional actor appearing in major theatre productions and Australian TV dramas.  In 2001, Annie founded COUP – a corporate development and communication consultancy – with her husband, David.  They have pioneered skills-based training drawn from theatre practice, critical thinking, and business principles, delivered to companies across Australasia in finance, professional services, pharma, resources, telecoms, FMCG, government and the profit-for-purpose sector.

Having trained and coached thousands of women leaders, it became blindingly apparent to Annie that understanding cognitive flaws and unconscious biases is the best protection from the deceptions and distortions that cause unwelcome drama in business. 

You can hear Annie speak at Skepticon 2023. Tickets for the convention and/or online viewing are available here.

Dr. John Cook will be at Skepticon 2023

Posted in climate change, General, Skeptic by

John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.

Dr John Cook

In 2013, John published Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature, an award-winning paper quantifying the 97% scientific consensus on climate change. The paper has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. 

In 2007, John founded Skeptical Science, a website that won the 2011 Australia Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge. He has an interest in using critical thinking to counter the effects of misinformation.

Tickets for Skepticon 2023 live and online, available here.

Zafir Ivanov and Reason’s Fulcrum coming to Skepticon 2023

Posted in General, Science, Skeptic by

The fact that two individuals can form opposite conclusions when faced with the same evidence, is something that Zafir Ivanov has pondered most of his life.

Zafir has devoted a great deal of time to understanding how we form beliefs. Why are some people immune to counter-evidence? Why are some easily swayed by weak arguments, and others unmoved by strong evidence? In fact, people respond to evidence quite differently.

Zafir’s interest led him to study research literature, experiment with difficult conversations and to become an amateur ethnographer. He writes, gives presentations, and talks about why we believe and why he thinks it best we believe as little as possible. Zafir has collaborated with the Cognitive Immunology Research Initiative and The Evolutionary Philosophy Circle.

At Skepticon 2023 he will introduce a modified version of a concept called Reason’s Fulcrum. Zafir will use this to demonstrate Bayesian Reasoning, and thinking in ratios in addition to how this can help one appropriately adjust when faced with new evidence. He will argue in support of rejecting absolute certainty and Truth (with a capital T).

Zafir Ivanov

In November last year Zafir presented the below TEDx talk, Our worldview alters our view of the world.

  • Skepticon 2023 runs over 2nd and 3rd of December. Live and online convention tickets, as well as tickets to the Saturday night dinner, are available here.