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| What Is Going OnAugustOccasions |
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| Deadline Extended!The deadline for submissions for our upcoming Discourse, Dialogue, and Democracy Symposium held in conjunction with our annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture has been extended from August 18th to August 28th. To view the call for papers and for more information, click here. |
| AKML & Symposium RegistrationFor In-Person AttendanceRegistration is now open for in-person attendance at the 73rd Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and the Discourse, Dialogue, and Democracy Symposium, which is scheduled for October 3rd to 5th of this year. Registration for the lecture and dinner on October 3rd, and the symposium on October 4th-5th, is free for IGS members in good standing. The proceedings will also be live-streamed for IGS members—no registration needed, the link will be sent to all active members.This year’s AKML will be delivered by computer scientist and ethicist Tristan Harris, Executive Director of the Center for Humane Technology. Harris is perhaps best known for the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, also the video, The AI Dilemma. |
| Tristan Harris will deliver his Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture on The Narrow Path to aHumane AI FutureThe AKML evening will also feature a classical piano performance by Graziana Presicce, and a special dinner, and will once again take place at the Players club in New York City.Registration for the event is free for IGS members, and is only for in-person attendance. All IGS members will be provided with exclusive access to a livestream of the event. To register to attend in person, click on the button below. |
| AKML In-Person Registration |
| A Special In-Person ScreeningWednesday, October 29thDigital TsunamiA Film by Fred PeabodyThe screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the director, producer, and other participants. |
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| We are engulfed in a digital tsunami—a toxic mix of artificial intelligence, state and corporate surveillance and social media addiction controlled by powerful algorithms. DIGITAL TSUNAMI shows how these are all part of a digital ecosystem that is changing us as humans—just as the prophetic media guru Marshall McLuhan predicted 60 years ago.The screening will be held at the Players club in New York City. The event will be free and open to the public, but registration is required. For more information, and to register, click below: |
| Digital Tsunami Info/Registration |
| Recently Published! |
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| Sensible Thinking 3: The Adventure Continuesby Martin H. LevinsonSensible Thinking 3: The Adventure Continues is a practical guide rooted in the principles of general semantics that provides tools to help one get effectively through the day. It offers GS techniques for clear thinking, emotional self-management, and analyses of social issues. Its approach is direct and accessible, making complex concepts understandable even to those unfamiliar with general semantics.The book provides cogent examples to explain abstract ideas such as orders of abstraction, mapping territories, and time-binding, and has chapters with reflections on historical events like particular eras of American disunity and the foundations of the Revolutionary War. There is also discussion of how Alfred Korzybski devised general semantics and a look at contemporary concerns such as post-traumatic stress disorder that incorporates no-nonsense strategies for its resolution. A coda presents a brief history of the Institute of General Semantics.Available in paperback and ebook editions from the IGS store now, and other online booksellers in the near future. |
| And don’t forget about our other recent publications also available via the IGS store:Not A, Not Be, &c by Lance StrateScience et Sanité by Alfred Korzybski, French translation by Patrick HugGeneral Semantics Seminar 1937: Olivet College Lectures 4th Edition, by Alfred Korzybski, with a new Foreword and index by Corey Anton |
| ETC UpdateThe first issue of volume 82 has been published and mailed out, and ETC editor Thom Gencarelli reports that the second issue will be distributed in the near future to all of our members in good standing for 2025. For now, here are the main contents of the next issue:Letter from the Editor; Philip Ardery, Korzybski’s Cortical Delay; Mauro Ventola and Lisanna Gessi, The Law of Onto-existential Unity: Ontophenomenology Reworks the Early Korzybski; David Beard, A Polemic about the Place of General Semantics in Communication Studies; Martin H. Levinson, Semantic Antics; Thom Gencarelli, Why AI Can Write Music and Why it Cannot; Milton Dawes, Our Constant Algebraic Problem; Richard W. Leland, Fundamentally Speaking; Fred Cheyunski, From Houellebecq ro Holodeck and Back: Using General Semantics, Literature, Learning Environments, and Artificial Intelligence to Face the Future; Joseph N. Agostino, The Prince and the Ivy Forest–A Whimsical Winter Fantasy; Milton Dawes, Realities: Words, ‘Minds,’ Institutions, Psychoanalysis and Cosmoanalysis: A Calculus-Sturctural-Heuristic Approach; BOOK REVIEWS |
| What’s Been Going OnThe 26th annual Media Ecology Association convention was held on June 5th to 8th in Mexico City, hosted by Universidad Panamericana, and coordinated by MEA Vice-President and IGS Trustee Laura Trujillo-Liñán. Participants in the proceedings also included IGS Trustees Peggy Cassidy, Susan Drucker, Thom Gencarelli, Lance Strate, and Gina Valenti, as well as IGS Fellows Deborah Tannen, Lera Boroditsky, and TC McLuhan. For more on this, including photos from the event, click here.Congratulations to our MEA award winners: Laura Trujillo-Liñán who received the MEA’s 2025 Louis Forsdale Award for Outstanding Educator, Peggy Cassidy who received the MEA’s 2025 Edmund S. Carpenter Award for Career Achievement in Editing, IGS Fellow Lera Boroditsky who received the MEA’s 2025 Walter J. Ong Award for Career Achievement in Scholarship, and IGS Fellow Deborah Tannen who received the MEA’s 2025 Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. To view the MEA’s entire list of award recipients, click here.The IGS held its 3rd summer seminar in recent years immediately following the 2025 Media Ecology Association convention at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. The seminar was taught by IGS Trustees Mary P. Lahman, Lance Strate, Peggy Cassidy, and Thom Gencarelli, with additional support from Laura Trujillo-Liñán, and participation from IGS Trustee Gina Valenti, IGS Fellow TC McLuhan, and New York Society for General Semantics Vice-President Terry Manzella. For more on this, including photos from the event, click here.As an affiliate of the International Communication Association, the IGS sponsored a panel discussion devoted to the continuing relevance of Alfred Korzybski, featuring IGS Trustees Peggy Cassidy, Thom Gencarelli, Lance Strate, and Laura Trujillo-Liñán, at the annual meeting of the ICA held on June 12th to 16th in Denver, Colorado. For more on this, including photos from the event, click here. |
| Podcast UpdateOur June episode features IGS trustee and past president Martin H. Levinson talking about the recent publication of his latest book, Sensible Thinking 3: The Adventure Continues. In conversation with IGS president Lance Strate, Marty talks about general semantics, learning and education, and the process of writing, as well as topics such as PTSD, antisemitism, politics, and satire.Our July episode features writer and journalist Ryan Zickgraf, the author of an op-ed on the continuing relevance of Neil Postman’s best known book, Amusing Ourselves to Death that was recently published by the Washington Post. IGS president Lance Strate conducts the interview, which touches on politics and democracy, gamergate, the effects of screens and social media on public discourse, the additional impact of AI, the decline of rationality and time-binding, as well as the reaction against technology on the part of Gen Z. |
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| You can listen to all of our podcast episodes via our host site, and they are also available through most major podcast platforms, so please subscribe. Additionally, they can be accessed via our YouTube channel. |
| In Local NewsThe New York Society for General Semantics recently posted the video from their February 19th event, Book Launch: Not A, Not Be, &c by Lance Strate, featuring Paul Levinson, Thom Gencarelli, and Lance Strate. NYSGS President (and IGS Trustee) Peggy Cassidy is planning a panel discussion on the state of higher education on September 10th, and a program celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of No Sense of Place by Joshua Meyrowitz on November 12th. Sign up on the nysgs.org home page for updates.The recording of the June 14th meeting of the Australian General Semantics Society session featuring IGS past president Jeff Mordkowitz speaking on «Saving Our Sanity: The SevenSimpleSteps® Way» is now available for viewing on YouTube. Their previous session featuring IGS TrusteeMartin Levinsonspeaking on «GS and Civil Political Discourse» is also available for viewing on YouTube and their recent program featuring Melanie Trecek-King speaking on «Why Facts (Usually) Don’t Change Our Minds» is on YouTube as well.The Balvant Parekh Centre of General Semantics and Other Human Sciences in India held a seminar on Orality, Textuality and Time Binding on March 11th to 13th. IGS Vice-President Corey Anton delivered a keynote address entitled, «Understanding Literacy: Differences Between the Spoken, Written, and Printed Word». For more information, click here. |
| Let Us Hear From You!Do you have news related to local general semantics organizations and programs that you would like to share with us? Are you interested in starting, reviving, or enhancing a local group or society? We would love to hear from you, and to help you in any way that we can. Please feel free to contact us at <president@generalsemantics.org>. |
| And Coming Soon!In addition to the AKML and Symposium and the Digital Tsunami screening, the IGS will hold a new reading group this fall, devoted to the 4th edition of Alfred Korzybski‘s General Semantics Seminar 1937: Olivet College Lectures, to be led by IGS Trustee Corey Anton.The IGS is sponsoring a program at the National Communication Association’s annual meeting, November 20-23, in Denver, Colorado.New book publications including: An anthology on General Semantics and Politics edited by Corey Anton and Thom GencarelliAn anthology on Modeling Our Ways of Knowing: Examining and Evaluating the Structural Differential edited by Lance Strate and Bini BSA new collection of humorous writings by Marleen BarrA new monograph by Chris MayerA French translation of Alfred Korzybski‘s General Semantics Seminar 1937: Olivet College Lectures, courtesy of Patrick HugAnd more! So stay tuned… |
| Show Off Your Non-Aristotelian Style In Style!We are pleased to introduced a brand new lapel pin based on the IGS logo.Now on sale exclusively via the IGS store for only $10! |
| Recent VideosThe videos from our Communication, Consciousness, & Culture 2 Online Symposium, held on April 19, 2025, and featuring over 30 participants from Australia, Asia, Europe, North and South America, are now available for viewing. To view the entire playlist, click here.Also now available are the videos from our in-person Gary Gumpert Memorial and Marshall McLuhan Screening, held on April 29, 2025. The memorial tribute features IGS Trustees Lance Strate, Susan Drucker, and Thom Gencarelli, along with Lewis Freeman, Mary Kahl, Nancy Willets, Erik Garrett, and Joshua Meyrowitz, followed by a screening of a 1960 TV program produced and directed by Gary Gumpert, featuring Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and Robert Shafer. To view the entire playlist, click here.Also, the videos from the 2024 Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, delivered by Maryanne Wolf, and the Symposium on Communication, Consciousness, and Culture, are now available for viewing on the IGS YouTube channel. For the entire playlist, click here. And if you missed all or part of our Science and Sanity Reading Group last year, or want to review any part of it, the video recordings of the 13 sessions are available on a special members-only page on the IGS website (log in required).And while you’re at it, why not subscribe to the IGS YouTube channel so you’ll be notified whenever new videos are added? |
| Other Recent NewsOn May 15th, IGS Vice-President Corey Anton gave a plenary address via Zoom on «Literacy and Meta-Cognition: Exploring Some Connections» for the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Ad Orbem Per Linguas/To The World Tthrough Language” which was held at Kyiv National Linguistic University in Ukraine.IGS President Lance Strate was interviewed for the Gadfly Academy/You Are Not a Machine YouTube channel; a playlist for the 3-part series can be viewed here. He was also a guest, along with Sean Illing, on an episode of the Center for Humane Technology’s podcast, Your Undivided Attention, interviewed by Tristan Harris on Neil Postman and the contemporary media environment. This episode is available via most major podcast distributors (or just click on the link above or right here), and a video of the discussion is available on YouTube. Additionally, he was a guest on Paul Levinson’s podcast to discuss his new book published by the IGS, Not A, Not Be, &c. The full episode of Light On Light Through is also available via most major podcast distributors (or just click on the link above or right here), and a video of the conversation is also available on YouTube. Artist, writer, and scholar John Cussans has published a book chapter, «This is Not A Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy» in a co-authored book entitled, Drawing Analogies: Diagrams in Art, Theory, and Practice, published by Bloomsbury Collections. The book is available to download for free via Open Access agreement. To access the specific chapter, click here. Martin H. Levinson, a trustee and past president of the Institute of General Semantics, and author of several books published by the IGS, has been quoted in Barron’s magazine. To read the article online click here. He also authored a piece entitled «Semantic Antics» that was published in the February 2025 issue of the Mensa Bulletin.We are proud to share that IGS Trustee Chris Meyer, author of two books published by the IGS, How Do You Know: A Guide to Clear Thinking About Wall Street, Investing, and Life, and Dear Fellow Time-Binder: Letters on General Semantics, has been interviewed in Edge magazine. To read the interview online click here. |
| Social Media Reminder: We have an official IGS Group on Facebook. To join, just search for the Institute of General Semantics, and ask to join. And look for InstituteofGS on X(Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube, to find, follow, and subscribe to us!We are now on Bluesky! Look for @generalsemantics.org! |
| And Re-member-ship!Emails have been going out to renew or join anew. We appreciate and value each and every one of you, and we don’t want you to miss out on everything that we have to offer! So please activate your membership for 2025, and encourage others to join! It is easier than ever to join or renew online, or download our membership form if you would prefer to send a check or otherwise join by mail. IGS membership benefits includeSubscription to our journal ETC: A Review of General SemanticsDiscounts on books and other items at the IGS StoreAccess to the members-only pages of the IGS websiteFree admission for members and their guests to the annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and dinner, and accompanying symposium (and exclusive access to the livestream)Discounts on other events, seminars, and coursesIf you are pleased with our efforts and want to show your support, please do so by joining and renewing your membership. And consider going above and beyond by joining on the Contributor, Supporter, Sponsor, or Time-Binder level. And please keep us in mind for charitable donations. The IGS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, so your donations are tax deductible. |
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19,129 Institute of General Semantics, August Occasions
Blog de Octavio Islas 