The image [downloaded from https://bc-ai.ca/future-proof-festival on September 28, 2026] is quite fascinating but you don’t buy tickets based on an image and this festival is not cheap. $950 CAD is the cost for a three-day pass although there are discounts for members, “Active BC + AI members receive 25% off all public ticket types” and students have a special price of $250 CAD.
Futureproof Festival 2026: Oct 28–30 at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
Futureproof Festival brings the most honest AI conversation happening this year to H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, October 28–30, 2026.
Futureproof Festival 2026 has a sharper promise: the most honest AI conversation happening this year.
The festival runs Wednesday October 28 through Friday October 30, 2026 at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver.
Presented by the BC + AI Ecosystem Association, Futureproof Festival is an international AI culture and ideas festival for anyone trying to understand what AI is doing to work, creativity, institutions, communities, and everyday life.
Opening night plus two program days create space for critique, curiosity, practical questions, and real conversation.
No detailed speaker, session, or timing information is available yet. Start with the Festival overview for the dates, location, six public signals, and community behind the invitation.
Futureproof Festival is not trying to be the biggest AI event in the region. It is trying to be the gathering people remember because they met difficult ideas from different angles, argued with the same questions, and carried the conversation home.
You do not need to work in AI to belong here. Builders, artists, educators, researchers, founders, policy people, students, and the AI-curious public are all part of the conversation.
This is still Futureproof Festival. It is just distilled.
Here’s a sampling of the programme, from the Futureproof Festival website programme page,
The program
What actually happens.
It opens Wednesday night at the Space Centre. Amber Case gives the first talk of the festival, Brewster Kahle follows her, and then the opening-night creative AI live set hands the room to the party. Two program days come after that. Most talks run twenty minutes with a shared Q&A after every two, and all of it comes with the pass. A few of the rooms you will be in:
Wednesday · October 28 [2026]
Amber Case, Brewster Kahle, a live set, and a party
I haven’t been able to determine if any meals are included with the ticket but perhaps food is still being organized. After all, the festival doesn’t take place until the end of the month.
There is another BIODIFUL citizen science project (the last one, also concerning forests, was mentioned in my May 1, 2026 posting) and its open until November 30, 2026. This latest project was announced in a September 16, 2026 email from Nicolas Mouquet, Researcher at the Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station (SETE; Station d’Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale, part of the National Center for Scientific Research [CNRS]),
Hello, You’re receiving this message because you previously took part in a BIODIFUL survey, or because you’re a colleague of mine.
We’ve just launched a new survey on the soundscapes of tropical forests in Costa Rica, in collaboration with colleagues from ETH Zurich, and we’d love your help.
The idea is simple: you’ll listen to short sound clips recorded in different forests and simply click on the ones you prefer. It takes just a few minutes:
It would also mean a lot if you could forward this message to colleagues, friends, or family, we’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
And if you have any tips on how to best reach people (mailing lists, networks, etc.), we’d be very happy to hear them too!
Thank you very much for your time and support.
Best wishes,
Nicolas Mouquet
I have more from each of the survey webpages (English/Français /Español),
Voices of the Tropical Forest
Welcome, and thank you for taking part in our survey! This survey aims to evaluate people’s preference for tropical forests natural acoustic environments (soundscapes). We will present you with a series of short (5 seconds) recordings from forests across Costa Rica. For each pair, simply choose the one you prefer the most. The questionnaire will take about 5 minutes to complete. At the end, you will be asked to answer a few additional questions.
– The recordings were made in tropical forests in Costa Rica (hundreds of locations!). They consist of background sounds (sometimes quite loud) and foreground sounds, including birds, insects, other animals, and occasionally human activities.- Please fill out this survey on a device with good audio quality and/or ideally wearing headphones.- The recordings may be of variable loudness, we recommend starting on a lower volume and turning up the level as appropriate.- Only adults can be included in this study (18+ years old)- The survey is open till November 30, 2026 and is also available in French and Spanish.
By clicking “Answer the survey,” you consent to the use of the collected data for the purposes of our scientific project; this survey is anonymous, and you may withdraw at any time. This survey was reviewed and approved by the relevant ethics bodies at ETH Zurich: Data Protection Officer ETH Zurich see the approval letter here.
Bienvenue, et merci de participer à notre enquête ! Cette enquête à pour but d’évaluer vos préférences pour les paysages sonores (environnements acoustiques) des forêts du Costa Rica. Nous vous présenterons une série de courts enregistrements (5 secondes): pour chaque paire, il vous suffira de choisir celui que vous préférez. L’enquête prend environ 5 minutes à compléter. À la fin, quelques questions supplémentaires vous seront posées.
Les enregistrements ont été réalisés dans des forêts tropicales du Costa Rica (des centaines de sites !). Ils sont composés de fonds sonores (parfois assez forts) et de sons de premier plan, notamment des oiseaux, des insectes, d’autres animaux et, occasionnellement, des activités humaines.- Merci de répondre à cette enquête sur un appareil offrant une bonne qualité audio et/ou, idéalement, en portant un casque.- Le volume des enregistrements peut varier ; nous vous recommandons de commencer à un volume faible et de l’augmenter ensuite.- Seules les personnes majeures (18 ans et plus) peuvent participer à cette étude.- L’enquête est ouverte jusqu’au 30 novembre 2026 et est également disponible en anglais et en espagnol.
En cliquant sur « Répondre à l’enquête », vous consentez à l’utilisation des données collectées dans le cadre de notre projet scientifique ; cette enquête est anonyme et vous pouvez vous retirer à tout moment. Cette enquête a été approuvée par les instances éthiques compétentes de l’ETH Zurich : consultez la lettre d’approbation ici.
¡Bienvenido y gracias por participar en nuestra encuesta! Esta encuesta tiene como objetivo evaluar las preferencias de las personas respecto a los entornos acústicos naturales (paisajes sonoros) de los bosques tropicales. Te presentaremos una serie de grabaciones breves (de 5 segundos) de bosques en toda Costa Rica. Para cada par, simplemente elige la que más te gusta. Llenar esta encuesta tomará unos 5 minutos. Al final, te vamos a pedir que respondes a algunas preguntas adicionales.Tus respuestas solo se incluirán en el estudio si completas la encuesta en su totalidad; ¡asegúrate de responder a todas las preguntas!
– Las grabaciones se realizaron en bosques tropicales de Costa Rica (¡en más de cientos de sitios!). Consisten en sonidos de fondo (a veces bastante fuertes) y sonidos de primer plano, entre los que se incluyen aves, insectos, otros animales y, ocasionalmente, actividades humanas.- Por favor, completa esta encuesta en un dispositivo con buena calidad de audio y/o, idealmente, con audífonos.
– El volumen de las grabaciones puede variar; te recomendamos comenzar con un volumen bajo y subirlo según sea necesario.-Solo pueden participar adultos (más de 18 años)- La encuesta estará disponible hasta al 30 de noviembre de 2026 y también está disponible en francés y inglés.
Al hacer clic en «Responder la encuesta», das tu consentimiento para que los datos recopilados se utilicen para los fines de nuestro proyecto científico; esta encuesta es anónima y puedes retirarte en cualquier momento. Esta encuesta fue revisada y aprobada por los organismos de ética pertinentes de la ETH de Zúrich y por el Delegado de Protección de Datos de la ETH de Zúrich. Puede consultar la carta de aprobación aquí.
BIODIFUL’s About webpage lists previous projects and the research papers (either published or in process) that are an outcome of the work. Scroll down for the research papers.
A September 24, 2026 Simon Fraser University (SFU) Café Scientifique email (visible here) announces its Fall 2026 online event lineup,
September 2026
Hello friends!
Welcome to the SFU Café Scientifique Fall 2026 series! We recognize our season is starting later than usual, and we are glad to be on track for our first event in October. Join us for guided explorations of the vast expanse of the Yukon and the nano-scale workings of microscopic machines.
Reserve your spot by registering now for each talk. Zoom links will be sent to registered attendees shortly before each event. You can stop by our website and catch up on past lectures – where you like, when you like.
Yukon Ho! Permafrost, Glacial Lake Yukon, Landscape Evolution and the Yukon Gold Rush
October 27, 2026 5:00 – 6:30 pm Zoom
Yukon ho! Mineral deposits in Canada’s north sparked the Yukon Gold Rush in 1898 and they continue to be important today. Take a journey with SFU Earth Sciences professor Brent Ward to explore how glaciers have shaped the Yukon’s stunning landscape and ecology.
Evolution is an Engineer: Life’s Molecular Machines
November 24, 2026 5:00 – 6:30 pm Zoom
How do living organisms convert energy into motion and work? Evolution has been quietly solving this engineering problem for billions of years with molecular machines. Inside every cell these machines perform tasks with remarkable efficiency, speed, and accuracy. Explore the fascinating world of molecular machines with SFU Physics professor David Sivak.
Here are a few highlights from the Canadian Science Policy Centre’s (CSPC) September 24, 2026 announcement (received via email),
European Union: Inaugural International Partner
CSPC is thrilled to announce the European Union as the inaugural Featured International Partner of the Canadian Science Policy Conference!
This exciting milestone comes at a pivotal moment for the Canada-EU partnership, as both partners deepen their strategic cooperation across science, research, and innovation, emerging technologies, economic security, climate, and security and defence.
As our inaugural Featured International Partner, the EU will bring an exciting new international dimension to the CSPC Conference, connecting Canadian and European policymakers, researchers, innovators, and leaders at a time when international collaboration is increasingly important to addressing shared challenges and advancing innovation.
We look forward to welcoming the European Union and celebrating this historic first with the CSPC community!
Stay tuned for more announcements about the EU delegation, speakers, and Featured Country programming: www.CSPC2026.ca [Note: The theme for the 2026 CSPC is “Sovereignty by Design: Mobilizing Action to Reshape Canada’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Capacity,” the curious can check out my June 30, 2026 posting]
…
Science Meets Parliament 2027: Applications Now
Open for BC, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories
[Note: Science Meets Parliament is modeled on a UK programme where scientists/researchers meet Members of Parliament to discuss their work]
Following successful programs in 2026, Science Meets Parliament (SMP) returns to British Columbia and Ontario in the spring of 2027. CSPC is also pleased to launch the inaugural SMP Northwest Territories program in partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Tentatively scheduled for March 2027 at the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife, the program will bring together approximately 20 researchers with Members of the Legislative Assembly, Indigenous leaders, and government officials. Preference will be given to researchers working on northern priorities identified in the NWT Knowledge Agenda.
For more information and eligibility criteria, please visit Science Meets Parliament on the CSPC website.
The deadline for applications for all three programs is December 20, 2026.
… [Note: You can find out more about the upcoming September 28, 2026 virtual panel on “AI, Quantum, Cybersecurity and Space: Leveraging Dual-use Tech for Defence & Sovereignty” in my September 16, 2026 posting]
Oct 13 [2026]: The Arctic & NorthernSovereignty: Infrastructure as a Catalyst
Join us for a panel on for a timely webinar exploring how Canada’s Arctic defence investments can strengthen continental security while supporting long-term economic self-reliance in Northern and Indigenous communities.Panelists will examine practical solutions—including remote telecommunications, resilient green-energy microgrids, and multi-purpose transportation corridors—and discuss how Canada can overcome jurisdictional and permitting challenges to build a secure, connected, and self-sustaining North.
Join us for a panel on October 15 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. ET. This panel will bring together leaders from academia, policy, research funding, and administration to examine how research excellence and impact are defined, measured, and rewarded. Panelists will explore how current assessment systems influence funding, careers, equity, researcher well-being, collaboration, and public value—and discuss practical alternatives that recognize diverse forms of research contribution while maintaining rigour, accountability, and public trust.
h/t to the Science Media Centre of Canada’s September 22, 2026 announcements for this news, from the y2y.net Earthshot webpage,
The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) is thrilled to announce it has been named a finalist for the 2026 Earthshot Prize, one of the most prestigious environmental honors on the planet.
Y2Y is being recognized in the Protect and Restore Nature category for leading one of the largest conservation collaborations in history: reconnecting a 3,400-kilometer (2,100-mile) mountain landscape stretching up the spine of the Rockies from Yellowstone in the United States to Canada’s Yukon.
The Earthshot Prize is dedicated to identifying, celebrating and backing solutions to repair the planet. We are honored to be recognized among 15 groundbreaking solutions identified, and one of three finalists in the Protect and Restore Nature category.
Five winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Mumbai, India on Nov. 17, [2026] each receiving a £1 million grant (CA$1.8 million / US$1.3 million) to continue their work.
A landscape built for wildlife on the moveThe Yellowstone to Yukon region
This nomination comes at a key point in Y2Y’s history. For more than 30 years, Y2Y and its partners have worked to connect and protect the largest remaining intact mountain system on Earth.
The Yellowstone to Yukon region is home to species that have persisted since the last Ice Age — grizzly bears, wolves, wolverines, lynx and caribou among them — and the goal is simple but ambitious: give these animals the room they need to roam, feed, find mates and raise their young.
Wildlife, of course, doesn’t recognize international (or other) borders.
“That is why, for more than 30 years, Indigenous Nations, communities, governments, scientists and landowners have shown what is possible when people work together at the scale at which wildlife truly lives,” says Dr. Jodi Hilty, Y2Y president and chief scientist.
Thirty years of measurable impact
Since Y2Y’s founding in 1993, the results have been striking:
80%+ increase in protected areas across the region
25 million hectares protected with the help of more than 800 partners
200+ wildlife crossings built ensure animals move safely across roads and development
Achieving this at landscape scale is not any single organization’s success. This work requires broad coalitions coming together to support the vision and make it a reality.
This includes partners, funders, donors and supporters including Indigenous Nations, governments, scientists, landowners, communities, conservation organizations and industry all working together to protect core habitats, reconnect fragmented areas, and help people and wildlife live safely alongside one another.
Why this nomination matters
Being named an Earthshot finalist puts the Yellowstone to Yukon region on the same global stage as regions such as the Amazon or the Serengeti. As wildlife corridors around the world face increasing fragmentation and climate change reshapes habitats, Y2Y’s work offers an inspirational model for keeping nature connected and resilient.
The Earthshot Prize is about more than recognition, it’s the world’s most ambitious network connecting innovators, funders, businesses, and communities to back climate leaders and restore confidence in our ability to save the planet.
As a 2026 finalist, Y2Y will now work directly with The Earthshot Prize to raise global recognition for the region, build broader public support for large-landscape conservation, and connect with storytellers, funders and decision-makers who can help accelerate protection across the Rockies — and share the model with conservationists worldwide.
This year’s cohort marks the first time the science of positive tipping points has been applied to Earthshot finalist selection criteria to identify solutions capable of unlocking wider environmental transformation.
A positive tipping point is reached when beneficial change becomes self-reinforcing, allowing progress to accelerate with less external support. Costs fall, adoption grows, policies spread or ecosystems recover enough to support further recovery.
For Hilty, the recognition is also a rare chance to pause and celebrate.
“Being selected as an Earthshot Prize Finalist gives this extraordinary region a chance to be recognised around the world. Yellowstone to Yukon is not only a story about wilderness; it is a story about the people who live here and the choices they are making to protect a shared home. This region offers real hope that nature loss can be reversed when we act early and at scale,” she says.
About The Earthshot Prize
Founded by Prince William in 2020, The Earthshot Prize was created to find and celebrate the world’s most impactful solutions to environmental challenges across different sectors and regions. Now past the halfway point of its first “Earthshot decade,” the 2026 prize is spotlighting environmental leadership from around the globe.
“Every year, our finalists give me renewed optimism. They show us that, even as the environmental challenges remain urgent, extraordinary people around the world are already proving that progress is possible. Seeing solutions work gives us all confidence to act,” says Prince William, president and founder of the Prize.
What’s next
Winners will be revealed at the Earthshot Prize awards night in Mumbai on Nov. 17. Win or not, Y2Y’s finalist status is already a milestone 30 years in the making — a chance, as Hilty puts it, to invite the world to join a journey that has always required all of us.
A September 21, 2026 email (visible here) announces two ArtSci Salon events coming up in October 2026,
Fall is here and ArtSci salon is back with 2 Back-to-Back events
Algae Soiree artists working with algae at the intersection of art, science and ecology
October 6, [2026] 5:00-7:00 pm @ The Fields Institute 222 College Street Toronto [Ontario, Canada]
Algae: a diverse, promiscuous, widely diffused group of photosynthetic organisms. Algae are used as food, as fiber, or as artistic medium; for medicine, remediation, or industrial usage; they can simultaneously be beneficial and very damaging. Algae are versatile and complex.
Join us for an evening of artist talks and discussion with three artists who have thought about (and with) these organisms deeply and with care.
Dr. Jennifer Willet is the Director of INCUBATOR Art Lab and a Canada Research Chair in Art, Science and Ecology at the University of Windsor. She is a world known bioartist, merging artistic and biotech skills towards research/creation that uses living media (cells, plants, microbes) in the production of creative works.
Vladimir Kanic is a transmedia artist whose living algae installations transform spectators’ breath into oxygen, creating participatory ecosystems that embody the possibilities of interspecies collaboration.
Deepikah is an Indian interdisciplinary artist based in T’karonto (Toronto), Canada. She graduated from OCAD University with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. Her work at the intersections of nature, motherhood, and hope explores themes of care, sustainability, and speculative futures, inviting viewers to contemplate our interconnectedness with the environment.
For anyone unfamiliar with PechaKucha (I’ve seen it spelled both as one word and two words), here’s a description from its Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
PechaKucha (Japanese: ぺちゃくちゃ, IPA: [petɕa kɯ̥tɕa],[1]chit-chat) is a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide. At a PechaKucha Night, individuals gather at a venue to share personal presentations about their work. The PechaKucha format can be used, for example, in business presentations to clients or staff, as well as in education settings.
…
As for the Pecha Kucha artists, I would describe their work as being art/tech rather than art/sci as you can see for yourself on the ArtSci Salon’s page (scroll down) holding more information about the artists and scholars here.
A September 22, 2026 email from the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics (PI) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada announced this upcoming event, Note: As usual tickets for the free in-person (there’s also a livestream) event are being made available early,
CBC IDEAS at Perimeter – Curiosity and the Cosmos
Wednesday, October 7, [2026] at 6 PM ET
Join us for a special recording of CBC Radio’s IDEAS, featuring groundbreaking Perimeter Institute researcher Asimina Arvanitaki.
Math may be the language of the universe, and brilliant minds and technology may have unlocked many of the secrets of the cosmos. But the pursuit of knowledge and insight always begins with the same thing: Curiosity.
In an adaptation of a talk Asimina Arvanitaki recently delivered in her native Greece, she will highlight the role curiosity has played in her own passion for science and in the history of scientific discovery. And in a wide-ranging chat with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, they’ll cover such subjects as the importance of fundamental research, the responsibility of scientists to the public, and the role of AI in scientific research.
If you’re unable to attend in person, a recording will be available on our YouTube channel.
Don’t miss out! Free tickets to attend this event in person will become available on Wednesday, September 23, [2026] at 9 am ET.
Math may be the language of the universe, but every discovery begins with something simpler: curiosity.
Important
This public talk will begin at 6:00 PM.Your ticket will be valid until 5:45 PM. This ensures all guests have enough time to enter the Theatre and be seated by our ushers.
The talk will be livestreamed via our YouTube channel with a recording of the talk available following the event.
Our ushers seat guests beginning from the front rows of the Theatre toward the back.
Title
CBC IDEAS at Perimeter: Curiosity and the Cosmos
Description
Math may be the language of the universe, and brilliant minds and technology may have unlocked many of the secrets of the cosmos. But the pursuit of knowledge and insight always begins with the same thing: Curiosity.
Join us for a special recording of CBC Radio’s IDEAS, featuring groundbreaking Perimeter Institute researcher Asimina Arvanitaki. In an adaptation of a talk she recently delivered in her native Greece, Asimina will highlight the role curiosity has played in her own passion for science and in the history of scientific discovery. And in a wide-ranging chat with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, they’ll cover such subjects as the importance of fundamental research, the responsibility of scientists to the public, and the role of AI in scientific research.
About CBC IDEAS
IDEAS is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. Anchored in a powerful legacy and expansive archive spanning over five decades, its topics are boundless. The nature of consciousness. The history of toilets. The roots and rise of authoritarianism. Near death experiences. No idea is off-limits.
Each episode cracks open a concept to see how it’s played out over place and time—and uncovers why it still matters today.
About the Speakers
Host
Nahlah Ayed has been the host of CBC IDEAS since 2019. Since then, she has conducted dozens of interviews on-stage and off with some of Canada’s—and the world’s – most prominent thinkers.
A bestselling author and award-winning veteran of foreign reporting, Nahlah was previously based in the Middle East where she spent nearly a decade covering the region’s many conflicts. And later, while based in London, she covered some of the biggest stories of our time: the rise of authoritarianism, the return of war to Europe, and the worldwide refugee crisis.
A former parliamentary reporter for The Canadian Press, Nahlah is a graduate of Carleton University’s Master of Journalism program. She also holds a Master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies (Philosophy, English and Science) and a Bachelor of Science in genetics from the University of Manitoba.
Guest
Asimina Arvanitaki (PhD Stanford University, 2008) is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Aristarchus Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute, where she has been a faculty member since 2014.
Asimina is a particle physicist whose work has focused on designing novel experiments that search for new phenomena and new forces of nature. She has shown, for example, how atomic clocks—the most precise time-keeping devices to date that are used to define the second and are responsible for the GPS that we all use—can be used to detect dark matter, the unknown mass component of our Cosmos that is responsible for the existence of galaxies.
She has also shown how black holes, such as those recently detected at the LIGO experiment, can be used to diagnose the presence of new particles. For her work, she was co-awarded the 2017 New Horizons in Physics Prize by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. Recently, Asimina has received notable accolades, including the 2023 Loeb Lectures in Physics at Harvard University and the 2022 CAP-TRIUMF Vogt Medal from the Canadian Association of Physicists.
Tickets
Tickets are free and must be reserved through Eventbrite, as there is no on-site box office.
TICKETS ARE VALID UNTIL5:45 PM THE DAY OF THE EVENT.
Tickets for the in person event are still available as of September 23, 2024 at 11:45 hrs PT.
Before getting to the event details, it might be useful to give an overview of the situation regarding AI safety and transparency and the response from this British Columbia AI community to a federal government consultation that closes tomorrow, September 23, 2026, from the event page,
What BC told Ottawa. The AI transparency takeover.
If an AI system makes a decision about your life, you should be able to question it, reach someone responsible, and get a bad decision fixed. Pretty reasonable things to ask. Much harder to deliver than a little label saying AI was involved.
We’re bringing a piece of work this community made together: our response to Canada’s consultation on AI transparency. We’ll look at what people asked for, how those ideas became a submission, and what we should expect from the people receiving it.
Bring your questions. Bring your disagreements. Bring the example from your own life that keeps getting left out of these conversations.
Together we worked through Canada’s five AI transparency questions as part of the Canadian federal consultation that closes September 23.
A September 21, 2026 notice (received via email) for Vancouver’s next AI community meetup promotes the upcoming September 2026 meeting listed on this event page, Note: There is likely some redundancy in the information included below,
You’re invited to
Vancouver AI Community Meetup: AI Safety & Transparency
Date: Wednesday, September 30 [2026] Time: 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM Place: H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Vancouver, BC
[Earlyworm tickets $50 CAD available until 11:30 PM PT September 21, 2026 $60 CAD standard tickets available until 12 am PT October 1, 2926]
September [2026] Program
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Jonny Williams opens for us. He’s been part of this since the very first gatherings, his family too, and he starts us off in a good way every time. We’re glad the night falls when it does and that he’s the one who begins it. Wear orange.
This summer, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada [ISED] asked Canadians what greater AI transparency should look like. Its consultation covers five areas: identifying AI-generated content, knowing when you’re interacting with AI, understanding AI systems, tracking serious incidents, and keeping a record of what AI agents do on our behalf. The deadline is September 23 [2026], one week before we gather at the Space Centre. Read the federal consultation →
On August 4 [2026], about twenty of us sat down at Parker Street Studios to work through those questions together. Tanya Slingsby opened the studio. Peter Van Garderen facilitated. People brought experiences from their work and their lives, and the conversation kept getting into the difficult stuff underneath the survey: consent, responsibility, and who has the power to say no.
Sara Taherzadeh turned that material into the collective report. The Lab reviewed it in September, and BC + AI emailed the submission to ISED on September 11. We also documented where AI tools helped and where people made the decisions. A submission asking for transparency ought to show its own work. Read how it was made →
The demand running through it is practical. Tell people what a system is doing and what information it used. Give them someone to contact. Keep a record they can challenge. Make correction and repair possible. Disclosure should leave a person able to do something with what they’ve learned.
People also questioned whether taking part would change anything. BC + AI is asking ISED to publish which recommendations it accepts, defers, or rejects, with reasons. Giving your time to a public process should come with a way to see what happened next. Read the findings →
At Meetup #33, Peter Van Garderen will talk through how the August session worked. Sara Taherzadeh, a registered nurse turned governance architect, will walk us through the submission and what accountability could mean in practice. Then we’ll open the floor.
You don’t need a policy background or a stack of finished opinions. Come curious and willing to hear somebody else’s experience. The useful part of Vancouver AI has always been what happens when people who would otherwise never meet start thinking together.
The Lineup
Jonny Williams
Jonny opens Vancouver AI the way this room has learned to start: locate the night in place before anybody demos a model. Squamish Nation. Cultural consultation that turns fat impact assessments into something a Nation can actually use.
He’s put AI to work on that paper mountain, and he keeps asking the ugly ownership questions out loud: who holds a model trained on Squamish language, and what happens when fluent speakers are still a small circle.
Sep 30 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Sara is a registered nurse turned governance architect who has spent more than 25 years making healthcare technology work better for the people it’s meant to serve. She helped establish what became HealthLink BC 811 and has worked across British Columbia’s digital health systems — from frontline care to provincial technology infrastructure governance and change management.
Sara knows how institutions work, where they fall short of the people they serve, and why the hardest questions are usually the ones most worth asking together. She brings that human-centered, lived experience to AI governance, championing accountability, inclusive decision-making, and real authority for the people affected by the systems being built around and for them.
Peter spent decades on digital archives (Archivematica, AtoM), the unglamorous stack that keeps records findable and contestable. Then he pointed that same provenance brain at AI.
He ran the Ethical Futures Lab room that answered Ottawa’s transparency questions as one group, posted the recording and notes the next day, and will not treat “AI-assisted” as a free pass on receipts.
Straight back from Montréal. ALL IN week. Centres of excellence by day. Ministers and the techno-power-broker set by night. And the citizen resistance that shows up when “innovation” forgets who pays the bill. Kris isn’t here to recite talking points.
He’s here to report what those rooms actually sound like when you hold critique in one hand and curiosity in the other. What that means for Vancouver on a night about transparency, trust, and receipts.
Michael Berger gives a good description of neuromorphic (brainlike) computing and memristors before (pun alert!) explaining how Euclidean distance factors into the equation in his January 21, 2026 Nanowerk Spotlight article, Note: Links have been removed,
Neuromorphic computing seeks to replicate one of the brain’s most remarkable features: its ability to store information and process it within the same physical structure. Conventional computers, built on the von Neumann architecture that has dominated since the 1940s, continuously shuttle data between separate memory and processing units. This arrangement creates bottlenecks that waste both time and energy, a problem that grows increasingly severe as artificial intelligence demands more computational power.
Memristors, devices whose electrical resistance can be programmed to hold different values, emerged as a promising solution. When arranged in crossbar arrays, memristors can perform vector-matrix multiplication in parallel, with data stored directly in the resistance states of the devices themselves. This capability has enabled impressive demonstrations of supervised neural networks running directly on memristive hardware.
Unsupervised learning algorithms, however, present a different challenge. Unlike supervised learning, where networks train on labeled examples with known correct answers, unsupervised learning discovers hidden patterns and groupings in data without any guidance. This makes it invaluable for exploring datasets where labeling would be prohibitively expensive or simply impossible, such as astronomical surveys containing billions of objects, genomic sequences from unstudied organisms, or sensor streams from industrial equipment.
Self-organizing maps, introduced by Finnish researcher Teuvo Kohonen in the 1980s, represent one of the most elegant approaches to unsupervised learning. These networks transform complex, high-dimensional data into intuitive two-dimensional maps that preserve relationships between similar items.
Imagine trying to understand a dataset where each sample has dozens or hundreds of measurements. A self-organizing map learns to arrange neurons on a grid such that similar inputs activate nearby neurons while dissimilar inputs activate distant ones. The result resembles a topographic map where proximity reflects similarity.
Researchers have applied self-organizing maps to cluster gene expression profiles, detect fraud in financial transactions, segment customers by purchasing behavior, and solve optimization puzzles like finding efficient delivery routes.
The algorithm works through competitive learning. When presented with an input, the network identifies which neuron’s stored weights most closely resemble that input. This winning neuron, called the best matching unit, then adjusts along with its neighbors to better represent the input. The network gradually organizes itself through repeated exposure to data.
Finding the best matching unit requires computing Euclidean distance, the straight-line separation between points in multidimensional space. This calculation demands subtraction followed by squaring and accumulation. Memristor crossbars excel at multiplication and addition but cannot natively perform subtraction. Previous hardware implementations have relied on peripheral digital processors or approximate similarity measures, adding complexity and eroding efficiency gains. A study published in Advanced Functional Materials (“In‐Memory Euclidean Distance Computation in a Stacked Memristor Crossbar for Hardware Self‐Organizing Maps”) by researchers at Hanyang University in Seoul demonstrates a fundamentally different approach. The team developed a three-dimensional stacked memristor crossbar array that computes squared Euclidean distance directly within the memory structure, requiring no external arithmetic circuits.
The innovation exploits a shared middle electrode connecting two vertically stacked memristor layers. The lower layer stores weight values while the upper layer stores their squares. When input voltages are applied, currents flow through both layers simultaneously but with opposite polarity. The middle electrode naturally sums these opposing currents, yielding a net value proportional to squared Euclidean distance. The neuron producing the smallest current corresponds to the best matching unit.
Where world-class science meets independent journalism: Apply to ISTA’s 2027 Journalist in Residence Program
Application deadline: November 1, 2026
Start: Spring 2027
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is now accepting applications for its 2027 Journalist in Residence program.
ISTA invites experienced science and technology journalists to spend three to six months on its international campus near Vienna. Meet leading scientists, experience curiosity-driven basic research up close, and discover new ideas across disciplines.
About ISTA
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is a rapidly growing, PhD-granting institution dedicated to curiosity-driven basic research across disciplines. Since its state-of-the-art campus first opened in 2009, ISTA has grown to host more than 90 research groups and a community representing over 80 nationalities. Research spans the mathematical and physical sciences, life sciences, and information and system sciences—from AI and astrophysics to climate science and quantum mechanics. Building on the momentum of recent years, ISTA is on track to reach 150 research groups and more than 2,000 employees by 2036.
ISTA is a hub where science drives innovation, engagement, and real-world impact. It trains future scientific leaders while connecting science with society through the VISTA Science Experience Center and the XISTA ecosystem that supports start-ups and spin-offs.
The Residency at a Glance:
Duration: 3-6 months starting in spring 2027.
Compensation: 15,000 euros plus travel expenses.
Location: ISTA’s campus in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria.
Eligibility: Experienced science or technology journalists working in any format.
Language: English is ISTA’s working language, but journalists who work in other languages are also encouraged to apply.
Commitments: Journalists are expected to share their expertise with the ISTA community through interactive media training sessions, workshops, and panel discussions.
Housing: Residents cover their own accommodation and living costs. Subject to availability, on-campus housing within walking distance of the Vienna Woods may be available. More urban options can be found in downtown Klosterneuburg or nearby Vienna.
Campus Life: Residents have access to ISTA’s library and gym, as well as a lively campus community – from salsa and yoga classes to quiz nights and gatherings at the Error Bar campus pub or VISTA Science Experience Center café.
Why Apply?
Access – Meet leading and rising scientists across diverse disciplines, deepening your reporting.
Inspiration – Attend seminars, lectures, and campus events and experience cutting-edge research up close.
Network – Build lasting connections with ISTA researchers and science communication peers.
Focus – Dedicate uninterrupted time to your craft in a vibrant yet tranquil setting, with all that Vienna has to offer close by.
The Artist in Residence program fosters vibrant interdisciplinary dialogue and sparks unexpected encounters between artistic and scientific practices. The next call for the ISTA Artist Residency 2027 will be published in fall 2026. ISTA will invite established as well as emerging Austrian and international artists to apply. For more information, please reach out to artistresidency@ista.ac.at.
The Yellowstone to Yukon region
