Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2015: Is technology limiting our humanity?

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

#PodcastOfIdeas: Charlie Hebdo, Corbyn’s reshuffle and Brexit

Charlie Hebdo one year on, Corbyn's reshuffle, debating Brexit and more
In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David Bowden discuss the state of free speech one year on from the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Labour’s seemingly interminable shadow cabinet reshuffle, David Cameron’s decision to allow his ministers to campaign for Brexit and the way the debate is shaping up, the latest absurd campaign in the war on sugar and Simon Danczuk’s texting shenanigans.

#BattleFest2015: Can the UK economy survive Brexit?

After the Conservative Party’s victory in
the general election, it now looks likely that David Cameron will follow
through on his promise to hold an in/out referendum on the UK’s
membership of the European Union by the end of 2017. Although Cameron
himself would prefer the UK to remain a member, there is now a serious
possibility of ‘Brexit’, particularly given the rise of UKIP and a
general disillusionment with the EU among many voters across the
political spectrum. Euroscepticism has re-emerged on the left, too, with
the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Jones calling for the UK to leave
the EU.
Business leaders have frequently warned of economic catastrophe if
the UK leaves the EU. One much-quoted estimate is that between three and
four million jobs depend on trade with the EU, though the claim that
these jobs would all be in jeopardy if the UK left is controversial. The
UK would likely continue to have free trade with the remaining members
of the EU. But the economic issues run much wider than trade. Brexit
could have significant implications for inward investment, the role of
the City of London as a global financial centre, UK influence on the
rules and regulations of a block that would remain a major trading
partner, as well as agricultural support, free movement of workers, and
so on.
But perhaps it would be wrong to see the question of EU membership in
narrowly economic terms. There is much concern that the EU now
determines large areas of UK law, while lacking the accountability to
voters that national parliaments have. The travails of the Eurozone have
dampened enthusiasm in many quarters for the long-term project of
‘ever-closer union’. Some see the possibility of Brexit not as a
rejection of Europe but as an opportunity to rethink our relationship
with other EU member states.
Is the EU reformable, or are its current ways of working too
entrenched? Would an independent UK be able to survive and thrive
outside the EU? Is Europe as we know it already doomed, or has it proven
itself capable of weathering the crisis?Recorded at the Battle of Ideas 2015







Speakers




Kishwer Falkner
Baroness Falkner of Margravine; chair, House of Lords EU Financial Affairs Sub-Committee; member, EU Select Committee




Thomas Kielinger
UK correspondent, Die Welt




Matthew Kirk
group external affairs director, Vodafone




Philippe Legrain
visiting senior fellow, LSE’s European Institute; author, Immigrants: your country needs them and European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right




Phil Mullan
economist; director, Epping Consulting business advice; author, The Imaginary Time Bomb


Chair



Peter Lloyd
consultant, financial markets research; campaigner, Manifesto Club; writer, Free Society

#PodcastOfIdeas: The tyranny of health

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick discusses public health's war on our bad habits.
In the run up to Christmas, the season of excess and indulgence,
Rob Lyons and David Bowden are joined by writer and retired GP Michael
Fitzpatrick to discuss the ever increasing curbs on our ability to eat,
drink, smoke and be merry.

#PodcastOfIdeas: Paris, bombing Syria and climate-change talks

Listen to the team discuss the Paris attacks, bombing Syria and the climate change talks
In this week’s Podcast of Ideas Rob Lyons, Claire Fox and David
Bowden discuss the aftermath of the Paris attacks, intervention in
Syria, Jeremy Corbyn’s embattled position as Labour leader and this
week’s UN climate change conference .

#BattleFest2015: The Corbyn Effect - are the old parties dead?

When Jeremy Corbyn went from being the token
lefty candidate for Labour leader to the favourite to lead the party
this summer, it became clear that the old assumptions no longer apply.
But while the ‘Corbyn Wave’ appeared to be something new, there was an
unmistakable paradox in the fact that the man of the moment had been
hiding in plain sight at Westminster since 1983. So is he a blast from
the past or a harbinger of things to come? Some suggest his rise
represents a momentous shift to the left. With its new £3 registered
supporter option, Labour’s ‘membership’ swell to 610,753, with many of
the new influx aged under 30. This seemed to echo the rise of the SNP in
Scotland as another example of the left-wing populism flaring up across
Europe in the wake of SYRIZA in Greece and Podemos in Spain. At the
same time, though, more long-established outsider parties like Britain’s
UKIP and France’s Front National have enjoyed considerable electoral
success, topping the European Parliament polls. With the unlikely
emergence of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders as plausible US
presidential candidate, ‘politics as we know it’ seems to be over, but
it does not seem to be as simple as a move to the left.
The dramatic ascent of the Sweden Democrats, a party that describes
itself as socially conservative with a nationalist foundation, means
that when its leader Jimmie Åkesson predicts that his party will one day
be strong enough to run the country, serious commentators acknowledge
this is possible. It is as yet unclear whether these new political
parties command a stable support for specific policies. There seems a
more unstable ebb and flow of new parties in the spotlight and showing
disenchantment with mainstream politics by voting for the outsider can
appear more the sign of anti-politics rather than newly radicalised
times. Is it Corbyn’s old-fashioned state socialism programme attracting
solid support, or is his appeal that he is Not Blair Or The Other Three
candidates? And while UKIP gained four million votes in the general
election, their much vaunted rise is now side-lined as yesterday’s flash
in the pan story, with UKIP voters being amongst those enthusiastically
supporting Corbyn.
Why have populist parties become so popular? Does this mark the
beginning of the end for many established parties, or is it merely a
period of change, more about volatile protest votes than a new historic
era? Should we really take seriously some of these movements when they
may disappear as quickly as they emerged? If the Corbyn Effect is part
of this wider trend, will it last or will it crumble like Clegg-mania
amid broken promises and unrealistic ideas? Or are we in fact watching
the emergence of exciting new political movements, a reason to be
hopeful?







Speakers




David Aaronovitch
columnist, The Times; author, Voodoo Histories; chair, Index on Censorship




Alex Deane
managing director, strategic communications, FTI Consulting; Sky News regular; BBC Dateline London panellist




Andrew Gimson
author and political journalist; contributing editor, ConservativeHome




Miranda Green
journalist; founding editor, The Day; regular contributor to BBC political shows; former Lib Dem spin doctor


Chair



Bruno Waterfield
Brussels correspondent, The Times; co-author, No Means No

#BattleFest2015: The Paris attacks and the threat to an open society

Listen to the special Battle of Ideas satellite put on in Stockholm in the wake of the Paris attacks
At last weekend’s series of Battle of Idea Satellite debates in
Stockholm an impromptu session was held in response to last Fridays
terror attacks in Paris.
Speakers
Isobel Hadley-Kamptz
author and journalist
Kashif Mahmood Virk
imam, Stockholm Ahmmadiyya congregation
Brendan O’Neill
editor, spiked
Chair
Rob Lyons
science and technology director, Institute of Ideas

#BattleFest2015: Shifting sands - understanding the Middle East today

Listen to this session from the International Battles strand of the recent Battle of Ideas festival
In the past few years, the Middle East has undergone serious
convulsions, from the collapse of Iraq to the Arab Spring, the Syrian
war and the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen. The spread of Islamic State
has wiped out one hundred-year-old borders in a matter of months, with
large areas of Iraq and Syria now part of those countries only in name.
America’s interest and power in the region seems to waning while
regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran are becoming more
assertive.
A bewildering number of alliances and counter-alliances seem to be in
play in which religious affiliations, local political grievances and
powerful external players meet in a maelstrom. The Gulf states intervene
against and for Sunni jihadists depending upon which state one looks
at; America supports Iranian-backed militias in Iraq while backing
Saudi-led airstrikes against Shia groups in Yemen; in Syria, America and
its Arab allies are supporting Islamist groups against Assad, who is
still supported by Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. The US and
Iran appear to have reached a historic agreement on Iran’s nuclear
energy programme, just as US-Israel relations turn increasingly
fractious; indeed, Israel is closer to Saudi Arabia when it comes to the
nuclear deal, albeit for very different reasons.
The Arab Spring was supposed to mean the end of tyranny and the rise
of democracies across the region. Instead, states are imploding. Was
this inevitable, or is there still hope for peace and democracy within
the existing borders of countries like Syria and Iraq? Would their
break-up mean anarchy or a new order based on more meaningful religious
and ethnic identities? And while the Western powers were long considered
the puppet masters of the Middle East, are the strings now in the hands
of regional powers? Does the West even have a sense of its strategic
interests in the region, or is it stuck in the past, supporting the
wrong allies and condemning the region to years of chaos? What do the
confusing alliances and counter-alliances tell us? And what future is
there for the people of the Middle East?
Speakers
Gilbert Achcar
professor of development studies and international relations; chair of Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS, University of London
Rosemary Hollis
professor of international politics and director of the Olive Tree Programme, City University London
Dr Tara McCormack
lecturer in international politics, University of Leicester; author,
Critique, Security and Power: the political limits to emancipatory
approaches
Karl Sharro
architect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Chair
Joel Cohen
judges co-ordinator, Debating Matters; freelance writer