| Newsletter Archive Online |
The San Francisco Tesla Society
presents a free presentation featuring
"At
the Intersection of Economic Upheaval and Global Change Dynamics
A Solution Set That May Fit into this Paradigm
- Applied Hydroponics"
Sunday, February 12, 2012 1 - 5 p.m. at the
TechShop - San FranciscoAbstract
Going back to the times of ancient Mesopotamia, variations of hydroponic farming have been practiced with prolific results. Ironically, the revival of this ancient agricultural art form, enhanced to prolific production potential with modern technology, may in fact become a crucial component in a mosaic of interrelated and synergistically interdependent solutions which will be essential for sustainable survival in a rapidly changing world.
Economies of scale are collapsing inward, resource management and sustainability are becoming crucial factors, and regardless of the actual causes for such, the world is being subject to a range of climactic changes which cannot be ignored.
Among the resources that will be most relevant in this rapidly changing world will be access to fresh water, efficiency of energy usage and the localized production of nutritious food and medicinal plants.
Applied hydroponics addresses all three of these crucial resource domains. This presentation will provide an overview of current and experimental hydroponic agriculture practices, and how this may fit into an emergent paradigm of global change and required sustainability.
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Charles Ostman currently a consultant to
General Hydroponics, Inc. in
Sebastopol, CA. He is also a senior
fellow at the Institute for Global Futures, a consulting group which provides
strategic research, analysis, technical due diligence, and related technology
centric development services o Fortune 500 companies and institutions
worldwide.
Charles has served with the management team of Fourth
Venture, a business development entity engaged in the enterprise of translating
former soviet / eastern bloc military technologies (and expertise) into
benevolent / clean-tech applications with significant
social implications, such as alternative & sustainable energy platforms,
specialized materials and applied nanotechnology.
He is an active participant with the Millennium Project for Global Futures
Studies and Research, of the American Council for the United Nations University,
a global participatory futures research think tank of futurists, scholars,
business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations,
governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities
Charles has authored numerous technical papers and published articles, lectures
frequently around the country and abroad, and has contributed content featured
in a number of books, including CyberLife, Secrets, the SIRS Applied Sciences
journal, and is involved in various other authoring projects.
He chairs and participates in a wide variety of conferences and seminars in the
US and abroad. He recently spoke about advanced fuel
reformer systems to the Singularity University at NASA's Ames Research Center.
He has been a featured guest and speaker in a diverse variety of nationally
broadcast television and radio programs in venues ranging from PBS Television to
the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM and America at Night radio programs.
Charles Ostman has 25+ years experience in the fields of electronics, materials
science, computing and artificial intelligence, including eight years at
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, and Los
Alamos National Laboratory.
Subsequent professional experience encompasses a diverse range of technical
development projects at facilities including GTE Lenkurt, Litton Industries,
Lucas Films, Phoenix Laser Systems, NanoThinc, Omni Scientific Instruments,
Evolutionary Networks, and a variety of other technology related companies and
institutions.
Charles Ostman can be reached in cyberspace at the following locations:
www.historianofthefuture.com
charles.ostman@historianofthefuture.com