Next Salon Discussion

First Tuesday current affairs discussion - Tuesday 3 September 7:00pm start
Public discussions and debate in Manchester
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Recent Discussions

Artificial Intelligence, bionics and consciousness

October 2011

Professor Kevin Warwick, Dr Kathleen Richardson and Professor Ray Tallis introduced a discussion on Artificial Intelligence and consciousness, chaired by Dr Stuart Derbyshire.

Kevin WarwickIn 2002 Professor Kevin Warwick embarked on a ground breaking experiment Cyborg Project 2.0, in which a one hundred-electrode array was surgically implanted into his own left wrist, connecting his nervous system and an external ‘gauntlet’ housing supporting electronics. The purpose of this experiment was to send signals back and forth between Professor Warwick’s nervous system and a computer via the internet, and most notably, to communicate with his wife Irena who also had an array implanted in her arm. This was noted as the first direct electronic communication between the nervous systems of two humans.

Kathleen Richardson

 

In May 2011, ‘Milo’, a Serbian living in Austria, volunteered to have his hand amputated so he could be fitted with a bionic limb connecting to and controlled by the nerve signals in his arm, which had been paralysed in a motorcycle accident, and already partly repaired using nerves from his leg. Meanwhile, developments in stem cell science and synthetic biology have brought the prospect of replacing flesh with ‘synthetic’ flesh a whole lot closer, raising further questions about where man ends and machine begins.

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Recent Discussions

Fukushima fallout

October 2011

Dr John Roberts, Dame Sue Ion and Rob Lyons introduced a discussion about where the fallout from Fukushima leaves the future of nuclear energy, chaired by Tony Gilland.

John Roberts

This year's earthquake off the northeastern coast of Japan, and the subsequent tsunami, had a devastating effect on that country, including the highly-publicised damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In the days and weeks following the earthquake, press coverage of the plant was intense, with many predicting a catastrophe - especially as some parts of the plant dated back to 1967.

 

Dame Sue IonFears of a 'new Chernobyl' spread across the globe. The fallout from the disaster has included Germany shutting down some of its plants and declaring all will be shut down by 2022. Meanwhile, some environmentalists who had recently begun to support nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels are having doubts, or simply reverting to the anti-nuclear position.

 

With the prospect of oil and gas production declining, with coal widely seen as unacceptable and alternative forms of 'green' energy production seemingly unable to satisfy increasing demands, the nuclear option had looked set for a renaissance.

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Recent Discussions


I feel your pain: do humans and animals suffer similarly?

September 2011

Dr Stuart Derbyshire and Professor Anthony Jones will try to untangle the uniqueness and commonality of pain and suffering for humans and animals.

Stuart DerbyshireProfessor Anthony JonesThe suggestion of animal pain assumes an important level of equivalence between the psychological experience and biological development of animals and humans. These assumptions require critical assessment. Although there is biological similarity across the animal kingdom including shared nerve fibres that carry sensory information and trigger defensive reactions and comparable brain regions and hormonal stress responses, considerable biological differences between humans and animals remain manifold. To put it bluntly, the brains of all animals are underdeveloped compared to human brains and most neuroscientists believe that brain development has an important and necessary relationship with experience. Clearly for some, and maybe for all animals, pain experience can be rejected because they simply do not have the brains for it. 

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Recent Discussions

Crafts and gardening: the new frontiers of radicalism?

September 2011

Kate Day, Professor George McKay, Barbara Hastings-Asatourian and Rob Lyons discussed the impact crafts and gardening are having in society.

Kate DayThe current wave of interest in craft, and in particular in the process of making things for yourself, surely has its roots in recent social, political, and economic developments. It is often argued that the fashion for creative activity can be regarded as a backlash against an increasingly virtual and corporate world that promotes the passive consumer - albeit a Web 2.0 one. Alongside the grow-your-own allotment movement, the make-your-own approach enables craft participants to experience shaping their material world, creating objects that have an individual stamp and a narrative in their production. Is this just a repeat of the rural craft revival of the 1970s for a new generation, or perhaps a new twist to the fashion for eco doom-mongering?

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Recent Discussions

Creativity and writing: in conversation with Melvin Burgess

September 2011

Melvin Burgess discusses his researching and writing of gritty novels as 'Kill All Enemies' is published, hosted by Dave Bowden.

Melvin Burgess Dave Bowden

Melvin Burgess is a controversial and somewhat pioneering writer of gritty novels for young people like Junk, Smack, Lady: My life as a Bitch, and Doing IT: Do you remember the first time?. Whilst his books have sometimes caused outrage when first published, they've found themselves winning awards, appearing on the reading lists of university creative writing courses and now on the school curriculum! So what are we to make of the various fashions in literature and how do authors cope with these trends when writing. Indeed, to what extent do novels reflect and shape our impressions of society?

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Recent Discussions

Feminists and SlutWalk: can reclaiming words empower women?

July 2011

Nina Powell and Anna Percy will introduce a discussion on whether women are empowered by reclaiming words like slut.

Nina PowellAnna PercyIn January a Canadian police officer, Michael Sanguinetti, unwittingly triggered a series of marches a few months after a routine visit to Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto - to advise a small group of students on their personal safety. And the cause of these marches across the globe? You might think it was the idea the state should lecture us on our personal lives, but no, it was the tone of his advice, saying 'I've been told I'm not supposed to say this - however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised'. The marches have been branded 'SlutWalks' and involve mostly women, some dressed in scantily clad outfits or burlesque style garments, carrying a variety of handmade placards, reclaiming the word 'slut'.

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