Sunday Lecture: The Rise of the Machines

Conway Hall Ethical Society presents; Bryan Appleyard talks about our relationship with machines – specifically the move from machines that aim to improve the human condition to machines that aspire to change human nature. Bryan Appleyard will talk about our relationship with gadgets today and how that might develop in the future. He will also look at the quasi-religious machine faith of many in Silicon Valley – the belief that we should pursue machines that are better than we are.; Bryan Appleyard is a special features writer at The Sunday Times. He has also written for the New Statesman and The Economist’s Intelligent Live magazine. He has been a contributor to the New York Times Vanity Fair Daily Telegraph Prospect Times Literary Supplement Literary Review and The Sun. He appears frequently on numerous radio and TV programmes – notably in recent years Today Night Waves Woman’s Hour and Newsnight.; He is also author or many books including; The Culture Club Richard Rogers The Pleasures of Peace Understanding the Present: Science and the Soul of Modern Man The First Church of the New Millennium Brave New Worlds: Genetics and the Human Experience Aliens: Why They Are Here How to Live Forever or Die Trying: On the New Immortality and his most recent book is The Brain is Wider than the Sky: Why Simple Solutions Don’t Work in a Complex World.; 11.00 £5 in advance/free to members; Tea & Coffee will be available.