Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2017: Silicon Valley - from heroes to zeroes?

Silicon Valley used to be regarded as the global hub of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. It was the home of the world’s best technologies, new products and services. Yet today, Silicon Valley’s tech companies seem to have become the twenty-first-century equivalent of mediaeval robber barons. They are condemned for fleecing customers, evading taxes, and pocketing monopoly profits. Once associated with freedom, Silicon Valley is now condemned as the agency of global surveillance. Has it gone from overhype to over-reach? Or given emerging new technologies – such as express transit systems, autonomous vehicles and biotech – is the criticism mostly unfair?
SPEAKERS
JAMIE BARTLETTdirector, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos; author, Radicals; presenter, BBC’s The Secrets of Silicon Valley
DANIEL BEN-AMIjournalist; author, Ferraris for All: in defence of economic progress
ANDREW BERNSTEINauthor, The Capitalist Manifesto: the historic, economic, and philosophic case for laissez-faire; affiliate, Ayn Rand Institute
LAUREN RAZAVImanaging director, Flibl; award-winning writer and consultant

#BattleFest2017: Was it Big Data wot won it? Political campaigning today

How could so many people be convinced to vote for Donald Trump? Why did so many Brits vote to leave the EU, despite almost unanimous advice from experts, political leaders and celebrities that we should remain? Some attribute these results to the power of Big Data, specifically to the high-tech psychological marketing techniques of a company called Cambridge Analytica. Can the manipulation of data really swing important votes? What are the implications of this approach for privacy and democracy? What does the assumption that a few targeted messages can influence voters’ decisions tell us about elite attitudes towards the electorate?
SPEAKERS
JAMIE BARTLETT director, Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, Demos; author, The Dark Net and Radicals; presenter, BBC’s The Secrets of Silicon Valley
CAROLE CADWALLADR feature writer, Observer
SIMON COOKE member, Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing; leader of the Conservative group, Bradford City Council
TIMANDRA HARKNESS journalist, writer and broadcaster; presenter, FutureProofing; author, Big Data: does size matter?

#BattleFest2017: Safety first - do we live in a ’cotton-wool society’?

Recording of the debate at Battle of Ideas 2017 (https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/safety-first/)
The ‘safety first’ outlook, intending to keep us safe by imagining the worst, risks increasing our sense of existential insecurity. Always anticipating catastrophe may mean over-reacting, especially in the fields of science, health and technology. We have become the victims of scaremongering over theoretical risks – from mobile phone radiation or the latest strain of flu, even from familiar foods such as sugar and salt.
Has safety become an aim in itself, divorced from a common-sense assessment of risk? Does the desire to eliminate all danger undermine individual freedom? Is it time to confront the dangers of our ‘safety first’ society?
SPEAKERS
Richard Angelldirector, Progress
Terry Barnesprincipal, Cormorant Policy Advice; fellow, Institute of Economic Affairs; former special adviser to two Australian health ministers
Professor Bill Durodiéchair of international relations, former head of department, University of Bath
Dr Clare Geradamedical director, NHS Practitioner Health Programme; former chair, Royal College of General Practitioners
Lenore Skenazy'America’s Worst Mom'; president, Let Grow; founder, Free-Range Kids book, blog and movement

#BattleFest2017: Putin’s Russia - a new Cold War?

The Russian government is now routinely portrayed as a threat to the West, both on the international stage, in Ukraine and Syria, and in domestic politics, accused of interfering in elections.
Russia is certainly back on the world stage and no longer prepared to accept Western-backed regime change, but to what extent does Russia represent a threat? Does Russia have legitimate interests that it is entitled to defend as much as Britain is? Is Putin simply playing a weak hand well? Does Russia loom large, not because it is relatively strong, but because Western governments themselves lack direction?
SPEAKERS
Mary Dejevskyformer foreign correspondent in Moscow, Paris and Washington; special correspondent in China; writer and broadcaster
Dr Tara McCormacklecturer, international politics, University of Leicester
Dr Lukasz Pawlowskimanaging editor & columnist, Kultura Liberalna
Sir Adam Thomson KCMGdirector, European Leadership Network

#BattleFest2017: From Sandy Hook to Boston: guns, bombs and a changing America

After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on 14 February 2018, the issue of gun control and the meaning of mass shootings in America has come to the fore once more. This session from Battle of Ideas 2013, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting and Boston Marathon bombing, took a step back to examine these issues in a wider context.
SPEAKERS
Nancy McDermott writer; advisor to Park Slope Parents, NYC's most notorious parents' organization
Christine Rosen fellow, New America Foundation; senior editor, New Atlantis
Dr Tim Stanley leader writer and columnist, Daily Telegraph
Dr Kevin Yuill senior lecturer, history, University of Sunderland; author, Assisted Suicide: the liberal, humanist case against legalization
Chair:Jean Smith specialist development consultant; co-founder and director, NY Salon

#BattleFest2017: The corruption of political language

Recording of a debate at the Battle of Ideas festival at The Barbican on Sunday 29 October 2017.
George Orwell claimed that ‘political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable’. Today, many claim that the increasing corruption of language has become detrimental to our democracy. Political labels, such as fascism and populism, right-wing and left-wing, are used promiscuously, often as insults against opponents. The rise of identity politics has given us new words, such as ‘ze’ and ‘cis’. Do such novel terms encourage discussion or help to shut it down? Should we go back to basics, and pin down what we mean by such contested terms as liberalism and nationalism, even democracy?
SPEAKERS
BRENDAN O’NEILLeditor, spiked
RACHEL HALLIBURTONjournalist and novelist
NICK HILTONbroadcast editor, Spectator
DR PAUL A TAYLORsenior lecturer in communications andcultural theory, University of Leeds

#BattleFest2017: Diversity - does it matter?

Diversity is widely celebrated in contemporary society. Big employers have adopted elaborate strategies to recruit more diverse workforces. On the world stage, diversity is posited as a progressive antidote to ‘backward forces’ clinging to outdated national cultures. But has diversity become an illiberal orthodoxy? When Google engineer James Damore notoriously inquired whether diversity was an incontestable virtue, he lost his job. Do diversity policies invite a permanent war of cultures, resulting in a society increasingly segmented along the lines of identity? Can we achieve fair treatment and equal access to jobs without creating discriminatory and divisive hiring practices?
SPEAKERS
JOSIE APPLETONdirector, civil liberties group, Manifesto Club; author, Officious: rise of the busybody state; blogs at notesonfreedom.com
AMALI DE ALWISCEO, Code First: Girls; chair, BIMA Diversity panel; fellow, RSA
DREDA SAY MITCHELLauthor, journalist, broadcaster and campaigner; winner, CWA’s John Creasey Dagger for debut novel, Running Hot; latestnovel, Blood Daughter
CATHY YOUNGUS journalist and commentator; weekly columnist, Newsday; author, Ceasefire!

#PodcastOfIdeas: Presidents’ Club dinner, Brexit and the ’war on plastic’

Alastair Donald, Claire Fox and Rob Lyons discuss the fallout from the Presidents' Club dinner, the stasis within the Conservative government and the prospects for Brexit, and the misguided 'war on plastic'.
(Apologies for some noise in parts of this recording.)