URI Diversity Week 2011

Monday, October 3rd - Friday, October 7th, 2011

Events are free and open to all campus and community members unless specified. For more information, please contact Mailee Kue at 874-2851 or via maileekue@ds.uri.edu.

Diversity Week is a week-long span of events that traditionally takes place in the fall of each academic year. It features workshops, lectures, and speakers that aim to celebrate the importance of diversity and identity in higher education, in the workplace, in the community, and in the global arena. Over 65 workshops to stimulate your mind, rethink your perspectives, and challenge your reality!

For the complete Diversity Week schedule of events: BOOKLET OF EVENTS

For a pdf version of the Press Release: PRESS RELEASE

The Role of Multiculturalism in the Future

Applying the insights of their discipline to guide thinking about the future, physicists have contributed breadth and depth to discourse about the Earth as a civilization, about the possible existence of other civilization-bearing "parallel universes" in the cosmos, and about the significance of these potential civilizations and universes to the Earth. As mathematical models begin to suggest that the Earth may exist among numerous other planets; the surrounding solar system among other solar systems; and the Milky Way galaxy among other galaxies, the prevailing view of the universe has expanded into a "multiverse" with the probability of numbers of other civilizations, many of them more advanced than our own.

One scale for classifying civilizations in the multiverse is on the basis of their efficiency in managing and sharing access to the three primary sources of energy: their planet, the solar system, and their galaxy. Despite the enormous advances of the biomolecular, digital, and genomic revolutions, the Earth still relies upon energy sources that are perishable (animal and human manual labor); polluting (fossil fuels); or contaminating (nuclear). On a cosmic continuum, the social, cultural, scientific, economic, and political effects of our patterns of energy consumption place the Earth in the lowest quadrant of its potential. Civilizations, like the Earth, commonly and predictably engage in conflicts over energy resources, resulting in nuclear catastrophes, war, sectarianism, racial strife, ethnocentrism, fundamentalism, and terrorism. Dr. Kaku asserts that an understanding of physics is crucial in helping the Earth to attain the next stage of development as a civilization which has learned to harness and conserve the energy resources of the planet. Gene Roddenberry in the Star Trek series has portrayed a vision of the Federation of Planets, an even more advanced civilization which has learned to control the energy of its solar system. The choices facing the Earth are, on the one hand, a monocultural, contentious path to the future, and, on the other hand, a multicultural, scientific, tolerant path.

Kaku achieved prominence within his discipline as a consequence of his contributions to string field theory, a branch of string theory. String theory posits that the particles considered fundamental to the theory of quantum physics are better described as "strings" of energy that vibrate at different frequencies in a hyperspace comprised of 11 dimensions, most of them inaccessible to the senses without technology. The vibrations have the capacity to generate energy fields, which can be scientifically observed and harnessed. String theorists and string field theorists assert that neither the macro-theory of Einstein's relativity nor the micro-theory of quantum mechanics have the capacity to distinguish the most fundamental units of matter, and to explain their interaction with each other. However, their research holds the promise of fulfilling Einstein's quest for such a unified theory. In his most recent book, Physics of the Future, recently on The New York Times best-seller list, Dr. Kaku gathers ideas from more than 300 of the world's leading scientists about quantum leaps during the 21st century taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, energy production, nanotechnology, and space travel. These advances will enable people to utilize tiny brain sensors to control computers, creating instant person-to-person communication and the ability and to move objects and manipulate the environment with the power of the mind. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment. Contact lenses connected to the Internet will allow access to the world’s information database. Cars will drive themselves directed by GPS and coasting on powerful magnetic fields. The machines produced by humans will eventually become more knowledgeable than their creators. In space, laser propulsion will replace the chemical-powered rockets of today as astronauts prepare to visit elsewhere in the solar system. Kaku has written several popular books about physics including Parallel Worlds (2006), Einstein's Cosmos (2005), Hyperspace (1995), and the Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel (2008). He also has appeared on television (Discovery, BBC, ABC, Science Channel, and CNN), written for popular science publications like Discover, Wired, and New Scientist, and has been featured in documentaries, such as Me & Isaac Newton.

Born in San Jose, CA, to Japanese immigrant parents, Kaku earned a B.S. (summa cum laude) from Harvard University in 1968 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. He currently holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York, where he has taught for over twenty-five years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and at New York University.

The URI Diversity Week Keynote Address is sponsored by the URI Multicultural Center, Lifespan, Inc., MetLife Auto and Home, the URI Student Entertainment Committee, and the URI Office of Community, Equity and Diversity. For more information, contact Mailee Kue at 874-5829 or maileekue@uri.edu.