Meet Bruce Kodish in New York City, Oct. 28-30 at this Extra Special IGS Annual Event

The Institute of General Semantics (IGS) will continue a long tradition by hosting the 59th annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture (AKML) and Symposium in New York City at the Princeton Club in Manhattan from October 28 to 30. (That's just a little more than a week from now—oh my.) It starts off Friday Evening, Oct. 28 with a cocktail hour followed by a banquet dinner and then what looks like a very interesting talk by famed anthropologist of digital electronic life and the Internet, Sherry Turkle, author of the new book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Besides the speaker and the other interesting people attending, I will be there getting the 2011 IGS Book Prize for Korzybski: A Biography.

Mr. B. K. Parekh will receive the prestigious J. Talbot Winchell Award for his exceptional service in furthering the field of GS. 

Then on Saturday, Oct. 29 and Sunday, Oct. 30, the Institute and its co-sponsors will host the symposium at the Princeton Club, "Communicating in the 21st Century." Have a good look at the tentative program and you'll see a variety of fascinating titles and presenters.  Kudos to IGS President Martin H. Levinson and the other program planners for putting together such an impressive lineup of speakers. 

In my presentation on Saturday afternoon: "Korzybski's Legacy: What Is It? How Do We Carry It On", I intend to  entertain and enlighten as I present what I consider the core of what Korzybski developed and taught. My presentation will end with a Q&A session. I think this could serve as a good lead-up to the final session on Sunday—scheduled from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm—An Audience Round-Table Discussion on the Direction and Future of GS moderated by Marty Levinson. You'll have a chance 'to put your two-cents in' (or more) on the future of GS. I feel excited—to say the least. I'd love to meet any of my Korzybski Files readers, FaceBook friends, and Twitter followers and anyone else reading this who lives in the New York City Area.

Here's a link to register for all or some of the the AKML weekend events. You'll get a big bang for your buck with the $15 dollar fee for the combined AKML and Symposium (minus the dinner). Come on out if you can, for all or some of the proceedings.

Korzybski Files Meets Gendo

Korzybski Files Meets Gendo? 


No, unlike Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman or King Kong Meets Godzilla, it's not a bad horror movie.


Rather, gendo is the name that its originator, Heron Stone, came up with for the approach he put together for "language rehab" for "brain-damaged language monkeys," i.e., you and me. Now, you see a connection, don't you? 


Heron, who considers himself a "brain-damaged language monkey" too, encourages people to recognize what he calls the "five stupidities of the English language." You can hear his podcasts of internet conversations with fellow earthlings from around the planet at gendo - a way of language. 


He considers Alfred Korzybski, a great influence and also runs a once a week Science and Sanity discussion group, which he  records and also podcasts. I had never heard of him or gendo before, so felt pleasantly surprised when he recently contacted me (he had just bought Korzybski: A Biography). We have had a few discussions on Skype, including the following—which became gendo podcast 662—in preparation for me participating in his Science and Sanity group, later that week. 


In this conversation we talk about gendo, Korzybski: A Biography, and various and sundry GS and non-aristotelian related topics. You can listen to or download the file of our discussion here: #662 - 1-on-1 with Bruce Kodish. #665 features the Science and Sanity group discussion that I participated in that next Sunday.  Enjoy!


Also check out Heron's website gendo.net  and search iTunes for the Science and Sanity podcast.