Archived Events

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• Archived

Bankers are a Force for Good

DEBATE: Jonathan Parker v Paul Carroll.This is a hot topic and Jonathan Parker will argue that today's large banks are a force for good, without them our quality of life would be dramatically diminished. Excessive bonuses are a bone of public contention but these are not a fault of the individual banker but of the embedded culture inherent to the capitalist system, to which mankind owes a huge debt. The motion will be opposed by Paul Carroll.

London Thinks – Waiting for GLaDOS: What Could Sentient Machines Mean for Humanity?

For decades, we've imagine the rise of computer-based life forms, super-intelligences whose intellects could far surpass our own and trigger a new phase in non-human evolution.Could these visions become real, and why do they have such a grip on our imaginations? How has culture informed AI research? Should we be more worried about sentient machines, or the dumb algorithms and data integration being worked on today? Do we still have privacy under the dead, uncaring gaze of a machine intelligence? What does humanism mean to an artificial intelligence anyway?Science writer, broadcaster and geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford chairs a panel of human intelligences, including leading roboticist Prof Alan Winfield and Dr Kathleen Richardson.

The Art of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

SOLD OUTA self-development workshop about mindfulness with Dr Tamara Russell - in partnership with Psychologies Magazine (www.psychologies.co.uk)

Let’s Make Greater London a National Park City!

For the curious, creative and critical, this event is for anyone interested in the future of London. Over the evening we will talk about health, education, childhood, landscape, biodiversity, air, resilience and much more.

Science in Wonderland – The Scientific Fairy Tales of Victorian Britain

Melanie Keene asks why the fairies and their tales were chosen as an appropriate new form for capturing and presenting scientific and technological knowledge to young audiences.

Migrants or People?

Disturbed by the dehumanisation of those fleeing for their lives as a daily media and political event, Jim Walsh will advocate a new understanding of personal ethics that aims to bring migrants in from the cold of being abstract entities and give them warmth such as every human deserves. By focusing upon some of the ideas contained with Hans-Georg Gadamer’s magnum opus, Truth and Method, Jim will illustrate, with reference to A Scandal in Bohemia and the works of Rene Magritte, how we can start to re-evaluate ourselves when we regard other people.

London Thinks – Facts and Fantasy About Your Diet and Health

Prof Tim Spector, Prof Barbara Prainsack and Sue Nelson explore how recent advances in the science of microbes change our understanding of health and disease, and give a revolutionary approach to losing weight and staying slim.

The Inequality Debate

Will Hutton, Owen Jones, and former Conservative MP David Willetts will debate the causes and consequences of rising inequality, and the way ahead for government.

General Elections: Manufacturing Consent in a Democratic Society?

In this talk, Graham Bell will look at the schema that Walter Lippmann developed in the 1920s for conducting national elections and his justification of it. To what extent do his prescriptions reflect current General Elections in the UK?

The Terror of London: Spring-heeled Jack and the Victorian Metropolitan Press

One of London's greatest monsters, Spring-heeled Jack has held the city's imagination in his claws since he first appeared as "a ghost, a bear, and a devil" right up to contemporary comics and internet radio dramas featuring the leaping horror of legend. This talk explores Spring-heeled Jack’s appearances in and relationship to Victorian London. It considers his origins in the capital, and the way the metropolitan press gave life to a strange urban legend that went on to terrorise the rest of the country.

Divided Britain – The Impact of Rising Inequality

Poverty in Britain is at post-war highs and – even with economic growth – is set to increase yet further. Food bank queues are growing, levels of severe deprivation have been rising, and increasing numbers of children are left with their most basic needs unmet.In this talk, journalist Stewart Lansley will take us through the critical factors that have lead us to this parlous state, with following discussions on possible resolutions.

Disenfranchising Mourning of Eelam Tamils

To mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the "Eelam Research Organisation" (1975-2015), a special lecture will be delivered by Prof. Peter Schalk, Sweden titled "Disenfranchising Mourning of Eelam Tamils".

The Robots are Coming

Recent advances in automation are stripping out all manner of jobs: not just those of clerks, typists and warehouse workers. Almost any job involving a programmable process is vulnerable. Should we rejoice, and anticipate their emancipation from labour; or should we be very afraid for the basis of our society? Chris Bratcher thinks the latter. He believes the fall-out from the Industrial Revolution will seem trivial by comparison, and that the imbalance of power between capital (which reaps the benefits of automation) and labour is leading to permanent, but insupportable, levels of unemployment.

London Assembly – Nail Spite Houses

World Wide Weave – Extraordinary Lives

An awe-inspiring series of 75 pieces of multi-media textile art by adults, children and young people with learning disabilities from 19 countries worldwide to mark the Camphill Movement's 75th anniversary.

London Thinks – In Conversation: Prof Brian Cox and Dr Adam Rutherford

Brian Cox talks with Adam Rutherford about particle physics, the importance of getting people engaged with science and why the UK needs to be the best place for science in the world.

The Hertha Orgler Memorial Lecture: “I Had a Dream Last Night”

It is common knowledge that we process our day to day experiences at night. We reframe and process them there according to our lifestyle, our personality. Sigmund Freud already mentioned that dreams are directed towards the next day and tone our emotions and expectations towards the future.

Finding You in a Very Big Universe

You probably aren’t the centre of the Universe, but you might just have a piece of the centre of the Universe in you. With Tony Kearney

Compassion: the Key to Happiness

Join Action for Happiness for an inspiring evening with Thupten Jinpa as he reveals how compassion can lead to more happiness, less stress, a sense of purpose, better health and a longer life.

Art versus Genocide – Armenian Survival

Nouritza Matossian, a writer of seminal biographies and daughter of genocide survivors, asks the question: why did it take a hundred years for the world to recognise the Armenian Genocide of 1915 by the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire? A million and a half citizens were uprooted, tortured, killed, robbed of goods and lands. Most countries condemn 'the first genocide of the 20th century', yet England and the USA support Turkey in its denial.

Sex Talk

Matthew Hodson, Chief Executive of GMFA (The Gay Men’s Health Charity), hosts a special evening that will see him speaking on the current state of gay men’s sexual health, and on the work carried out by GMFA.

Women’s Equality Party

Vanessa King – Making the Most of Your Strengths

Vanessa King teaches on... Making the Most of Your Strengths. A self-development workshop in partnership with Psychologies Magazine (www.psychologies.co.uk)

How to be an Effective Altruist

Peter Singer talks about how effective altruism is built upon the simple but profound idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do."

Cults and Brainwashing: The hidden – and not so hidden – epidemic

Alexandra Stein will discuss cults and brainwashing, focusing on the leadership, structure, ideologies and processes involved. These attributes are common to a variety of dangerous relationships, from one-on-one cults to extremist political groups. There is an urgent need to teach young people about these phenomena at all levels of education. This talk will include suggestions about creating a culture of awareness in order to prevent recruitment to these systems and to increase accountability of the abuses that occur within them.

CFI UK Conference: Searching for Satan: Miscarriages of memory, fractured families and Satanic panics

Discover how the unreliability of memory has led to grave miscarriages of justice, including panics about Satanic abuse. Can memories really be ‘recovered’ by therapists? To what extent can we rely on the memories of witnesses in historic abuse cases? Some deeply disturbing cases will be investigated.

The Decline of the Honey Bee and the End of Human Kind?

Man and bee have lived together in harmony and symbiotic support for millenia. But recent years have seen dramatic declines in honey bee populations around the world. Luke Dixon will discuss man's responsibilities in the husbandry of bees and the harvesting of honey.

Itay Talgam on Inspiring Brilliance

Itay Talgam, in a rare visit to the UK, tells us what the great conductors can teach us about inspiring unpredictable brilliance in ourselves and others.

The Stage

5×15, 5 speakers, 15 minutes each

Join 5x15 with Irvine Welsh, David Spiegelhalter, Leslee Udwin, Viv Albertine and Itay Talgam.

Values and Humanist Values

Anthony Grayling talks about issues in his new book, "The Challenge of Things" which was published in March 2015.

Buying Happiness

The Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman (This Column Will Save Your Life), psychologist Philippa Perry (How to stay Sane), political economist William Davies (The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold us Well-Being) and leading economist and behavioural scientist Andrew Oswald ask who is responsible for our happiness and have our emotions become a new resource to be bought and sold?

Utrecht Quartet

Pre-concert talk by Roderick Swanston at 5.30pm: Planning the Future of the String Quartet. Schumann warned his Dutch protégé to admire but not copy late Beethoven. What ways out did Schumann and Verhulst manage in their search for new paths?Eeva Koskinen - violin Katherine Routley - violin Mikhail Zemtsov - viola Sebastian Koloski - celloVerhulst: Quartet No.1 Beethoven: Quartet in F Op.135 Schumann: Quartet in F Op.41/2

SoapBox @ Thinkers Corner – Election Analysis

The election will have passed and a government may be in place. In any event, on this day it is a chance for you to have your say.

Eminé Ali Rushton – The Balance Plan: Boost your Body and Mind with Ayurveda

Psychologies’ beauty & wellbeing director Eminé Ali Rushton introduces the principles of Ayurveda – an ancient, sensitive and kind health system that is the ideal antidote to frenzied, modern life. During interactive exercises, learn what your unique constitution says about you (your dosha) and how you can make practical, supportive life-changes. This session will begin and end with meditation led by renowned yoga teacher, Selda Enver Goodwin.

London Thinks – Buying and Selling Sex: the Big Debate

'Sex work' is work. Prostitution is violence against women. These two sentences encapsulate the polarised and often bitter feminist debate over the buying and selling of sex. So what can the two sides agree on?

Parade

What are Professional Ethics?

At a time when British senior politicians have recently had to step down after being exposed by undercover journalists, and a group of former teachers and school administrators in Atlanta, Georgia have been jailed for up to seven years for their involvement in a test cheating scandal, is this not a timely moment to ask the question “What are Professional Ethics”?

A Boring Conference

The Boring Conference is a one-day celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked – subjects often considered trivial and pointless, but when examined more closely reveal themselves to be deeply fascinating. It was created in response to the cancellation of the 2010 Interesting Conference. It seemed like the obvious thing to do. Ticket details will be announced in due course.

CounterPointe Shorts

Can the Welfare State Survive?

Andrew Gamble, Professor of Politics at Cambridge University, discusses the future of the welfare state and its sustainability. This event will provide you with the opportunity to listen, discuss and debate issues of social justice with one of the most prominent thinkers in the field.