From Big Data to the driverless car, we seem

to live in an age of dizzying technological progress, which many hail

as a ‘new industrial revolution’. Robotic intelligence is becoming so

advanced that many warn machines could take white-collar jobs within a

generation, while computers are moving ever closer to passing the Turing

Test. Meanwhile, smart technology is increasingly marketed as desirable

for reducing the capacity for human error: Google’s developers note

that most accidents had by their driverless car are caused by other

drivers. Global companies such as IBM are involved in designing

purpose-built smart cities, such as South Korea’s Songdo, which can

manage the climate and water supply or respond to citizens’ movements in

real time.

While much of this seems cause for celebration – liberating us from

banal tasks and informing our ability to make choices – others sound a

note of caution. Wall Street’s ‘flash crash’ in 2010 was allegedly

caused by ‘spoofing’ technology tricking automated trading systems into

believing a share crash was taking place, wiping over £500 billion off

the market in a few minutes: an example of the real-world impact of

entirely virtual activity. It similarly remains unclear how the

driverless car would respond to systems failure or pedestrian behaviour.

Architect Rem Koolhaas raises the concern that cities where citizens

are ‘treated like infants’ with no ‘possibility for transgression’ are

not necessarily desirable places to live.

Is it troubling that innovation seems so concerned with eliminating

human failure or has that always been the aim of technological

development? Is humanity facing its ‘greatest existential threat’ from

today’s robots, as Tesla’s Elon Musk warns? Does the ‘new industrial

revolution’ mean a welcome transformation in how we interact with the

world or a limitation of our capacity in act waywardly and

unpredictably?

Speakers

Dr Tom Chatfield

writer and broadcaster; author, Live This Book! and How to Thrive in the Digital Age

Dr Norman Lewis

director (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation

Juliette Morgan

C&W Tech Global Lead – London

Head of Property – Tech City UK

Andrew Orlowski

executive editor, Register; assistant producer, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

Dr Paul Zanelli

chief technical officer, Transport Systems Catapult

Chair

Claire Fox

director, Institute of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze