Recent events in the Java community and specification process over the past year or so have led some to pessimistic views regarding the survivability chances of Java as a language. The initial catalyst may have been, ironically enough, Java 7's specification discussions, which stirred up some raw sediments and may have legitimized other languages. This trend has furtherU escalateddue to the welcoming bedding of JVM multilinguality, Java 7's JVM invoke-dynamic feature and growing programming languages trends which did not find their way to Java, such as DSL, meta-programming and typeless variables. In this short introduction session we will discuss these factors as well as their role in the language shift we're about to explore in future sessions. Presentation & Video included