An event from when I was in grad school.
Gerald Edelman came to give a talk last Friday morning, “Neurobiology and the coming scientific revolution.” It sounded like it was for a general audience, but he’s a big enough name that I blew off class to go hear. It’s the first time I ever did that for a talk. I overlooked that the occasion was the official inauguration of the new $50,000,000 Beckman Institute.
Anyway, I got a ticket (weird) because I’m in a cognitive science seminar. I showed up at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (weird). They gave me a nice program (weird) and I sat down. I looked at the program. It listed—I still can’t believe this—it listed fully ten speeches before Edelman.
When I had chewed this over and swallowed it, I left. I wonder if it was a good talk.
Original version, April 1989.
Updated and added here January 2012.