Gresham College Lectures

Faced with escalating population pressure and new construction technologies, western architects are designing cities in the skies, and under the sea. If built, these will sit alongside older metropolitan areas such as London, Tokyo and Shanghai, where more and more people are squeezing into built-up areas. The era of 'megacities' is already with us, and the pace of development is escalating. But how can and will people live in these places, and what are the challenges of managing their living environments to ensure that they are fed, have water to drink, clean air to breathe, and can dispose of their waste? Are we facing a utopian or dystopian urban future?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-environmental-challenges-of-mega-cities

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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One interesting area of debate concerns human identity and whether we can give a purely scientific account of human nature in terms of its physical, chemical and biological components. Or do we need additional perspectives to deal with the complexity of human nature? In addressing these issues, the focus will be on how we deal with human nature, particularly our capacity for selfishness and the notion of sin. What scientific approaches might help us explore this, and offer ways of resolving this problem?

Focussing on Richard Dawkins's classic work The Selfish Gene (1976), we will look at some of its core themes, the capacity of humanity to transcend its genetic limitations and predispositions. How does a scientific narrative about selfish genes correlate with a theological narrative about sin?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-humanity-naturally-good

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Long before there were stars, there was the stuff that stars are made of. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/observing-the-dark-ages

This era of the universe is called the dark ages, when the universe was transparent before the galaxies formed. Peering back in time with the largest telescopes reveals younger and younger galaxies ad the time when there were no galaxies and no stars. For the first 380,000 years of cosmic history, the universe was dense and opaque. All was dark - a dense fog, dominated by an impenetrable mixture of radiation and matter. Looking forward from the Big Bang, the fog lifted as the universe cooled, resulting in a race to detect the state of the universe in the dark ages.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/observing-the-dark-ages

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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As the year 2000, 'Y2K' - approached, many feared that computer programs storing year values as two-digit figures (such as 99) would cause problems. There is a widespread belief that the millennium bug was a myth, invented by rapacious consultants as a way to make money. What was the truth? What, if anything, happened? Have we learnt all the right lessons?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-in-y2k

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

One interesting area of debate concerns human identity and whether we can give a purely scientific account of human nature in terms of its physical, chemical and biological components. Or do we need additional perspectives to deal with the complexity of human nature? In addressing these issues, the focus will be on how we deal with human nature, particularly our capacity for selfishness and the notion of sin. What scientific approaches might help us explore this, and offer ways of resolving this problem?

Focussing on Richard Dawkins's classic work The Selfish Gene (1976), we will look at some of its core themes, the capacity of humanity to transcend its genetic limitations and predispositions. How does a scientific narrative about selfish genes correlate with a theological narrative about sin?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-humanity-naturally-good

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

Two futures are outlined for the professions. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions

Both rest on technology. One is reassuringly familiar. It is a more efficient version of what we have today. The second is transformational - a gradual replacement of professionals by ‘increasingly capable systems’. In the long run, in an Internet society, it is claimed, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

A Doll's House is a three-act play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Its first performance was at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, in Denmark, on 21 December 1879. It is often considered to be a feminist play as Nora, the heroine, leaves her husband and children intent on self-discovery. Ibsen, on the other hand, denied any conscious attempt to provide propaganda for the women's rights movement and claimed that his concern was for the description of humanity. If the play is about the need to find the self and to live true to that self, then what is the nature of individualism that the play promotes?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/theatre-and-individualism-henrik-ibsen-a-dolls-house

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Two futures are outlined for the professions. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions

Both rest on technology. One is reassuringly familiar. It is a more efficient version of what we have today. The second is transformational - a gradual replacement of professionals by 'increasingly capable systems'. In the long run, in an Internet society, it is claimed, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-will-happen-when-artificial-intelligence-and-the-internet-meet-the-professions

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

In the UK and USA, counter-terrorism efforts have had disparate impacts on racial, ethnic or religious minorities, with members of these allegedly ‘suspect communities’ subjected to various adverse government actions (eg surveillance and detention). What lessons can be gleaned from British and American experiences? Are the underlying policies and practices consistent with Anglo-American conceptions of the rule of law and individual rights?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/suspect-communities-in-anglo-american-law

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

In the UK and USA, counter-terrorism efforts have had disparate impacts on racial, ethnic or religious minorities, with members of these allegedly 'suspect communities' subjected to various adverse government actions (eg surveillance and detention). What lessons can be gleaned from British and American experiences? Are the underlying policies and practices consistent with Anglo-American conceptions of the rule of law and individual rights?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/suspect-communities-in-anglo-american-law

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show