Brains and Coffee

So, I keep thinking it would be neat to have a regular brains and coffee night.

The idea is that a bunch of relatively learned, not too egotistic, but still opinionated people get together and discuss some topic to a depth a little beyond that reached in normal social discourse. I've read, mostly in blogs, about this sort of thing in all sorts of forms, but outside of technical interest groups and other more specialized forms, I haven't come across anything much like this in Christchurch.

Here's my motivation: I frequently encounter ideas, articles or books that I'd love to talk over and think about in a bit more detail, but very rarely do I get that opportunity, except, perhaps, when they're coincidentally relevant to something else I end up talking about. It's not to say that I don't get this sort of opportunity sometimes, so much as that I have little control over when it happens, and I'd like more of it in my life. I can read and think alone to my heart's content, but one's thoughts are not truly tempered until they are tested in argument.

I have ulterior motives, of course - one thing I'd love to experiment with is brainstorming ideas about the future; for example, ethics, current affairs, social evolution, and, yes, even technology.

Who'd be interested in this sort of thing? There's not a lot in the way of pre-requisites other than a desire for coffee and good conversation. Topics are hardly difficult to come by - at minimum I end each week with a long list of things I want to have a yarn about.

Assuming I get at least a couple of interested folk, I'll arrange something for next week, probably on Tuesday or Thursday night. If you're keen, let me know which is preferable. Finally, if you've got any suggestions of a good cafe in Riccarton, let me know that, too - the key criteria is that they not have loud background music.