It sets our species apart and has enabled us to create great civilisations but if our most defining characteristic is our intelligence and capacity to learn - should we keep it for ourselves or should we develop, program and teach it to  machines and computers?

Guest: Leslie Valiant: Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University.

Author of The Importance of Being Educable

Educable: a new theory of human uniqueness

LNL stories separated out for listening. From razor-sharp analysis of current events to the hottest debates in politics, science, philosophy and culture, Late Night Live puts you firmly in the big picture.

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Clive Hamilton says the privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful in Australia are not only unfair but cause widespread harm, from the everyday slights and humiliations visited on those lower down the scale to distortions in the labour market when elites use their networks to secure plum jobs.

Guest: Clive Hamilton, academic and author of ‘The Privileged Few’ (co-authored with Myra Hamilton), published by Polity Press.

Check your privilege: Clive Hamilton on why Australia accepts the class divide

In the first reconciliation week since the failure of the referendum, the government needs to re-build trust with the Aboriginal community and manage those Australians who didn't vote for recognition. Attorney-General Mary Dreyfus will present a bill on hate speech to try and tackle anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks while the Greens will push Labor to recognise the Palestinian state.

Guest: Bernard Keane, political editor, Crikey

Bernard Keane's Canberra: reconciliation, hate speech and the two state solution

Philosopher A.C. Grayling joined Phillip in the studio to explain why he's turned his gaze to the moon. In his 32nd book - Who Owns the Moon: In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Space - Grayling urges us to think of the new space race not as some pie-in-the-sky futuristic notion but instead a reality that is unfolding now.  

Guest: A.C. Grayling is Principal of Northeastern University London and the author of more than 30 books.

Why mining on the moon could lead to conflict on Earth

Millions of Palestinians live in Jordan, where rage about the suffering in Gaza has reached a boiling point.

Guest: Lebanese/Australian journalist Rania Abouzeid reports on the unrest in the Middle East from Beirut, Lebanon.

Jordan in uproar over treatment of Palestinians

Aaron Bateman traces the development and vulnerabilities of the technologies that connect us, from undersea cables first laid in 1858 to shortwave radio and then to a new generation of satellites in the 21st century.

Educable: a new theory of human uniqueness

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