Gresham College Lectures

EXPLORE

Society & Culture

Health & Fitness

© 2024 PodJoint

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts211/v4/46/71/f5/4671f5ea-a4fe-3ee8-ade2-24af8e14927e/mza_17546361189511646835.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

Gresham College Lectures

Gresham College

1000 episodes

2 days ago

Wittgenstein wrote: “If a lion could talk, we would not understand it”. That is, as lions and humans are not of the same material, they could not say anything meaningful to each other. AI is not like us; the only way we can have a relationship with it is for us to become like it. We will look at how digital services are already making us machine-like; and, we explore how advanced AI-human fusions may undo our essential “humanness”. This lecture was recorded by Matt Jones on the 25rd of Novem...

Show more...

All content for Gresham College Lectures is the property of Gresham College and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Wittgenstein wrote: “If a lion could talk, we would not understand it”. That is, as lions and humans are not of the same material, they could not say anything meaningful to each other. AI is not like us; the only way we can have a relationship with it is for us to become like it. We will look at how digital services are already making us machine-like; and, we explore how advanced AI-human fusions may undo our essential “humanness”. This lecture was recorded by Matt Jones on the 25rd of Novem...

Show more...

Episodes (20/1000)

Gresham College Lectures

Becoming AI – Your Journey to Assimilation? - Matt Jones

Wittgenstein wrote: “If a lion could talk, we would not understand it”. That is, as lions and humans are not of the same material, they could not say anything meaningful to each other. AI is not like us; the only way we can have a relationship with it is for us to become like it. We will look at how digital services are already making us machine-like; and, we explore how advanced AI-human fusions may undo our essential “humanness”. This lecture was recorded by Matt Jones on the 25rd of Novem...

2 days ago

56 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Limitarianism and Capitalism - Ingrid Robeyns

Limitarianism holds that it is immoral to have personal wealth above a certain level. Is this idea compatible with capitalism? Defenders of capitalism have argued that it is not, whereas those who want to move beyond capitalism have urged defenders of limitarianism to clear up this issue. This lecture argues that limitarianism is compatible with some forms of capitalism, and that it would help the debate about the most desirable socio-economic system if we provide more clarity on how these co...

6 days ago

50 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Do Not Resuscitate Forms - Who’d Have One? - Mark Taubert

In this lecture, Mark Taubert, who chairs the national DNACPR policy for Wales, and is a palliative care clinician, reviews current practices. He will encourage you to consider your own end of life care advance care plan, and attempt to write down your prior wishes. He reviews recent concerns, scandals and media outputs and looks at current resuscitation policies, guidelines and resources. He also discusses, from a clinician’s point of view, how the prospect of a natural, anticipated and acce...

1 week ago

50 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

The Great God Pan: Lord of the Wild - Ronald Hutton

Pan started as a shepherds’ god in a wild and backward area of Greece, but became one of the best-known in the Greek and Roman world. This was partly because the leading city of Athens imported him as a saviour, and partly because he came to represent the freedom, peace and simplicity of the countryside to urban people. He was the most earthy of Greek deities, summing up wild nature in its beauty but also its danger. He was a god of both liberation and menace, and this lecture faces up to him...

1 week ago

44 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother - Lord Daniel Finkelstein

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/oQeUePfTrEQ The Royal Historical Society Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture. In April 1945, British forces liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and arrested its commandant, Josef Kramer. What followed was the first post-war trial for war crimes - a landmark event that captured the world’s attention. Although later eclipsed by the Nuremberg Trials, the Belsen Trial marked a pivotal moment in confronting Nazi atrocities and establishing a...

2 weeks ago

45 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

China’s Economic Prospects on the Cusp - George Magnus

China has important islands of technological excellence, even dominance, but these islands exist in a sea of macroeconomic imbalances and headwinds. Xi Jinping is adamant that by focusing on technology, and other aspects of national security, China can hold sway in the global system and determine global governance. Many western economists and even some in China are not so sure, choosing to wonder if the government has the political capacity to address deep-seated economic problems. This lectu...

2 weeks ago

53 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Ocean: The Liquid Engine That Dominates Our Planet

We often talk about living on a blue planet, but when we think we’re talking about the ocean we’re generally only discussing what’s in it: fish, whales, pollution and ships. But that is to miss the biggest story on Earth, because it’s the water itself that sets the scene for everything else. This lecture will outline how the ocean engine works – its internal anatomy, how the components move, and how this engine has directly influenced our history and culture. This lecture was recorded by Pr...

3 weeks ago

54 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Music of Animals - Milton Mermikides

Do animals make music? Are the languages of whales and birds truly songs? To answer this, we must first understand what we mean by music as human animals—and how it might emerge across the animal kingdom. From Messiaen’s transcriptions of bird calls to the rhythmic gaits of horses echoing in the blues, we’ll hear how animal behaviours form an unwitting orchestra and explore whether music is uniquely human or a shared language with our animal cousins. This lecture was recorded by Milton Merm...

3 weeks ago

51 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

The Economics of Work and Technology - Daniel Susskind

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/v0RoRG2YA-0 Why has automation anxiety – the fear that new technologies cause mass unemployment – proven wrong over the centuries? This lecture explores how technology affects the labour market. While new technologies can substitute for workers, reducing demand for their efforts at certain activities, they can also complement them, increasing demand for them to do activities that haven’t been automated. Historically, people have focused on the...

1 month ago

52 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Whither War; Whither the Law of War - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice KC

How might we change the way we – and all our leaders think – so that we never go to war? The war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the conflict in Gaza, have galvanised thinking about, and action by, the bodies administering, the laws of war. National court processes - applying ‘universal jurisdiction’ for example – may bring international war criminals to justice. Informal processes can provide material capable of developing national laws and of providing evidence to assist ...

1 month ago

1 hour 1 minute

Gresham College Lectures

From Tyranny to Athenian Democracy - Melissa Lane

When – and how – did Athenian democracy begin? There is no unambiguous answer to this question. This lecture explores one plausible origin: the popular uprising in 508 BCE overthrowing foreign invaders (who had previously expelled an Athenian-bred family of tyrants). In the aftermath of that revolution, the Athenians – led by Kleisthenes – reorganised their political system to foster new identities and interactions. As further political and social changes were made, Athenian democracy took sh...

1 month ago

49 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

China and Chineseness: Lessons from the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan - Steve Tsang

This lecture is about the meaning of China and being Chinese. It examines critically how the Chinese state, under the control of the Communist Party defines them. It highlights the historical reality that the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan adopted different political systems. The Communist Party installed a powerful Leninist party-state on the Mainland. Laisses-faire British colonial rule gloomed Hong Kong people to desire democratization. Taiwan has become a vibrant democracy. This l...

1 month ago

45 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

War's Toxic Legacy - Ian Mudway

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/3LrIEG26m78 War's environmental legacies disproportionately burden the civilian populations left behind. While research focuses on combatant exposures, civilians face chronic contamination from heavy metals, chemical residues, unexploded ordnance, and asbestos, often exacerbated by disrupted infrastructure and psychological trauma. Framed through the exposome, this lecture highlights the need for greater research and policy focus on these long...

1 month ago

59 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

How Does Mathematics Last? Heritage and Heritage-making in Mathematics - Caroline Ehrhardt

How is mathematical knowledge recorded and preserved across generations? Contrary to the idea that mathematics itself is somehow ‘permanent’, in this talk we will explore heritage-making in mathematics, that is the people, institutions, and material objects that can give mathematical ideas longevity. We will explore the heritage-making found in two very different types of French nineteenth-century libraries: those of famous mathematicians and those of secondary schools. We will especially foc...

1 month ago

46 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Evoking Empathy through Animal Portraiture

The natural world faces unprecedented threats, challenging historical perceptions of nature as inexhaustible. Photographer Tim Flach draws on his acclaimed works, including Endangered, More Than Human, and Birds, to reveal how photography transcends traditional wildlife representation. By employing critical anthropomorphism and human portraiture techniques, Flach’s images foster empathy and kinship with animals. Collaborating with social scientists, he illustrates how visual storytelling evok...

1 month ago

47 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Why Do We Fear? - Robin May

Fear is one of the earliest emotions to have evolved. Most vertebrates – and possibly some invertebrates – show fear when they are threatened. At its most core, fear keeps us alive, helping us flee from predators or avoid dangerous environments. But why does this process sometimes backfire, leaving us paralysed by otherwise harmless phobias? And why do so many people deliberately seek out fearful situations, from horror movies to parachute jumps, when instinct tells us to do the opposite? Can...

1 month ago

45 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Hitler, Jesus & How to Win a Culture War - Alec Ryrie

Since 1945 Hitler and the Nazis have been the Western world’s one fixed moral reference point: the way we know what evil is. But that consensus has always been more fragile than it felt, and now it is unravelling. This lecture will trace how we came to build our values around the memory of the Second World War, why that consensus isn’t enough to deal with our current predicaments – and why the resolution to all this might be more hopeful than you think. This lecture was recorded by Ale...

1 month ago

45 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

How It Ends: What We Know about the Fate of the Universe - Chris Lintott

How will it all end? Predicting the far future of our Universe depends on understanding its present. This lecture starts with what seems to be a paradox in modern cosmology: that we have a model that does a fantastic job of explaining what we see, but which says 95% of the Universe is in forms (dark matter and dark energy) that we don’t understand. From there, we get a quick tour of the next 100 billion years – and speculate how the Universe’s end may hold the secrets of its beginnings. This ...

2 months ago

49 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

AI Will Be Your Overlord: Faster, Brighter, Better Than You?

“Scary”, “Worried”, “Dangerous” were some of the most frequent words to describe AI in a recent UK Government public survey. Do you fear, as many do, that AI will lead to us becoming second-class entities? In this first lecture, we will explore this ascendency, considering how notions of intelligence, sentience, perception, consciousness and reasoning are being framed and challenged in an AI-centred world; and surface the social, economic and ethical implications of these developments. This l...

2 months ago

49 minutes

Gresham College Lectures

Shakespeare’s Musical Fairies - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh

Written in the era of the founding of Gresham College, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays the hypnotic dreaminess of a fairy world in which the real and the fantastic are blurred. This lecture explores how the innate musicality of Shakespeare’s original has provoked adaptations across the centuries, including Ashton and Balanchine’s ballets based on Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the play, Britten’s opera, Purcell’s masque The Fairy Queen, Henze’s Eighth Symphony and Elvis C...

2 months ago

1 hour 6 minutes