As a new year begins, thoughts turn to the future. But how do we see the year - or the decade - ahead? Do we think that things will get better, that our lives will improve, or will we be stuck in a gloomy mind-set that suggests that the world is going to hell in a handcart? Can we imagine a truly prosperous world where everyone lives in peace - a true utopia?
Does the concept of utopia represent an unattainable ideal – or the kind of idealistic ambition that can promote change in the real world? Debates about technological progress seem to vacillate wildly between utopianism and dystopianism. At a time when innovation is universally celebrated and culturally validated, it also appears to be in a constant state of crisis. Utopian optimism seems destined to remain divorced from practical applications, useful only in terms of blue-sky thinking. But are the constraints on innovation a matter largely of investment and official focus, or are there cultural and intellectual issues too?
This Battle of Ideas debate offered a chance to explore our attitudes to the future.
SPEAKERS
Dr Yaron Brook
executive director, Ayn Rand Institute; co-author, Equal is Unfair: America’s misguided fight against income inequality
Dr Eliane Glaser
writer, lecturer and radio producer
Dr Norman Lewis
director (innovation), PwC; co-author, Big Potatoes: the London manifesto for innovation
Karl Sharro
architect; writer; Middle East commentator; co-author, Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture
Kirsty Styles
talent and skills programme lead, Tech North
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#LockdownDebates: The divided state of America?
#LockdownDebates: Can we cancel ’cancel culture’?
#Arts&SocietyForum: Gabriella Swallow on JS Bach and Helmut Lachenmann
#SocialPolicyForum: Behind the NHS frontline
#EconomyForum: The Covid-19 global economy - from Italy to South Africa
Book Launch: Why borders matter, with Professor Frank Furedi
#Arts&SocietyForum: Gericault, Picasso and the art of composition
#Arts&SocietyForum: Morality and hell - the power of Dante’s Inferno
#EducationForum: After toppling statues, is it time to rewrite the curriculum?
#LockdownDebates: From furlough to mask-wearing: can we ever return to normal?
#BookClub: Burning books and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
#LockdownDebates: How innovation works, with Matt Ridley
#SportscastOfIdeas: Sporting life beyond lockdown
#LockdownDebates: Has the NHS had a good crisis?
#Arts&SocietyForum: The shock of the old in Steven Berkoff’s ‘Greek’
#BookClub: Sally Rooney’s Normal People and the triumph of intimacy
#EconomyForum: The oil industry in times of Corona
#EducationForum: Can we go back to school?
#BookClub: When art imitates life - Albert Camus’ The Plague in lockdown
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