Talk Blurb:

Norman’s talk will run through the formation of the coalition, and the experiences of being a minister, both in terms of serious policy and the absurd. It will show how the coalition functioned on a day-to-day basis, reflect on the successes and failures of the Lib Dems, then look at the political landscape today following the General Election.

Norman’s Bio:

2010-­2014 Minister in the Coalition Government

From May 2010 to September 2013 minister at the Department for Transport. Covering public transport, including rail and bus, 98% of the road network, and electric vehicles.
Established and provided for a variety of interventions at local level designed to create growth and cut carbon.

By autumn 2013, became the third longest ever serving minister at the department.

In 2013 promoted to Minister of State at the Home Office, responsible for Crime Prevention. His portfolio included tackling child sexual exploitation, violence against women, drugs and alcohol, animal experiments, and firearms.

1997-­2015

Served as MP for Lewes, and shadowed a number of different areas for my party, including broadcasting, consumer affairs, environment and transport.

Awards received

2001: Inquisitor of the Year (Spectator) 2002: Opposition Politician of the Year (Channel 4) 2013: Outstanding Contribution to National Transport (National Transport Awards)2014: Lib Dem Minister of the Year (Political and Public Life Awards)In 2014 I was inducted into the Privy Council.

Outside Interests:
Lead singer in a band, The Reform Club, and have to date released one album and one EP. There is another album ready for release early in 2016. Present two weekly music shows on his local FM station, Seahaven FM.Published author, with a second book out this autumn. President of the Tibet Society, and President of the Tom Paine Society.

Unfortunately this talk is now sold out

Polly Toynbee is a political and social commentator for The Guardian. Previously she was the BBC’s Social Affairs Editor, after starting out in journalism at The Observer. She has won national press awards as Commentator of the Year twice, the George Orwell prize and Magazine Columnist of the Year. She is vice president of the British Humanist Association and Chair of the Brighton Dome and Festival. She is a trustee of the Political Quarterly.

Her books include, A Working Life, Hospital, Lost Children, The Way We Live Now, The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain? (with David Walker), and Hard Work, Life in Low Pay Britain. Unjust Rewards – about inequality. Latest book is Cameron’s Coup – How the Tories Took Britain to the Brink, (with David Walker) published in 2015

Abstract
There has been a great deal of speculation about conscious robots and the possibility that we could upload our consciousness into a computer. Many films and plays have been made about this topic – for example, Ex Machina, Chappie, Transcendence and The Hard Problem. This talk will start with some background information about the attempts that have been made to build conscious machines. I will then argue that machine consciousness is best understood through its relationship to human consciousness. If we can find out what is linked to consciousness in the human brain, we can use this knowledge to make reliable predictions about the consciousness of computers and build machines that are really conscious.

Biography
David Gamez holds PhDs in both philosophy and computer science. His cross-disciplinary research uses philosophy and neural modelling to explore how we can develop scientific theories of consciousness. Between 2009 and 2012 he was at Imperial College London, where he worked on brain-inspired neural networks and robotics and investigated new algorithms for making predictions about consciousness. From 2012-15 he was supported by a Turing Fellowship at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex. His publications include a co-edited book, What Philosophy Is, a sole-author book on the limits of knowledge, What We Can Never Know, and he has just completed a book on human and machine consciousnesses.

Although a fear of artificial minds has a long history as a literary trope, its expression has recently moved from science fiction to science fact. With such scientific and technology luminaries as Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk warning us that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity the world has ever seen, AI-phobia has more credibility than ever before. On the other hand, high-profile researchers such as Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz reassure us that AI does not pose a threat. What should we think? What should we do? Or is the debate about matters so far in the future that it makes little sense to worry about them now? I’ll argue that a healthy dose of fear about the near-future (and present!) is in fact warranted, though perhaps not for the reasons that have attracted the headlines. I’ll also attempt to provide a proper understanding of the issues that can keep our fears in check — so they don’t make matters even worse.

Ron Chrisley received a Bachelors of Science in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University in 1987, with honours and distinction. He was an AI research assistant at Stanford, NASA-Ames, and Xerox PARC, and investigated neural networks for speech recognition as a Fulbright Scholar at the Helsinki University of Technology and at ATR Laboratories in Japan. In 1997 he received a DPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford, and in 1992 he took up a lectureship in Philosophy in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex. From 2001-2003 he was a Leverhulme Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence at the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. Since 2003 he has been the director of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science (COGS) at the University of Sussex, where he is also on the faculty of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science.

Public health – the health of the population, rather than just those having medical treatment – is literally all around us. The questions it throws up are constantly in the news. When should the Government introduce vaccination, or screening? Should it be doing more (or less) on smoking, or on trying to tackle obesity? How worried need we be about flu, or Ebola, or the re-emergence of TB? What should taxpayers’ money be spent on – should the NHS be the automatic priority, or is prevention of ill-health just as important? What does “cost-effectiveness” really mean? Is the NHS sustainable at all, unless we live healthier lives? This talk will outline some of the ways in which analysis is used to inform Government policy on public health. There is a lot that science can tell us. But there is also a lot of uncertainty, both public and politicians may have odd ideas about what the evidence actually means, and people can have very different attitudes to risk. Interest groups of all sorts vie for influence. So the talk is also about the challenges and dilemmas in trying to devise policies that take account both of what we know and of what we don’t.

Peter Bennett

Public and International Health Directorate, Department of Health, London . After gaining a doctorate in Philosophy of Science at Sussex University, Peter had an academic career before joining the Department of Health in 1996, where he now heads the Heath Protection Analytical Team. The team provides policy analysis on a wide range of Public Health issues, including immunisation programmes, healthcare-associated infections and emergency preparedness. He has led the production of various risk assessments, e.g. of variant CJD being spread by surgery or blood transfusion, and analysis of the 2009-10 “Swine Flu” outbreak. He produced the Department’s guidelines on Risk Communication and, with the former Chief Medical Officer Sir Kenneth Calman, edited Risk Communication and Public Health, republished by OUP in 2010.

An American scientist intends to “create” an organism which will absorb carbon dioxide and make fuels. When do you think he will achieve this?

Content: This talk and chaired debate will explore the viability of biofuels as a sustainable solution to the “energy crisis”. The focus will be on the chemistry behind the fuels as well as the social, political and economic factors influencing policymaking and public behaviour. Why this is important: We are constantly bombarded with conflicting messages from governments, energy companies and environmental groups. It is essential that we are all equipped with the knowledge and understanding to look behind the headlines and recognise the role that we can all play in solving the problems that face us and our planet.

David Read is a Principal Teaching Fellow in Chemistry at the University of Southampton.  From 2003-07, David was a schoolteacher at Theale Green Community School, just outside Reading, prior to his appointment as a School Teacher Fellow at Southampton. David is currently the Director of Outreach and Head of the Education Group within Chemistry.  His other role is that of Science Foundation Year Programme Leader, where he teaches the chemistry component of the course. David also designs and delivers CPD courses for chemistry teachers, and has worked a number of awarding bodies as an HE representative.Outside of the University, David visits schools all over the country, giving talks on biofuels and sustainability to students of all ages, and working with teachers to promote the use of learning technology and evidence-based methodology in enhancing teaching.

18th of February

North Korea is a frequent visitor to the news agenda, but yet we know very little about what goes on in the heart of the world’s most secretive state. How do we find out about what Pyongyang is thinking? What are they telling us, and – more importantly – what are they hiding from the outside world? And how can we handle Kim Jong-un from what little information we can freely access?

Journalist and North Korea Watcher Alistair Coleman will be talking about the country with the worst human rights record in the world, and asking how much do we really know about North Korea?

About Alistair:

Alistair has worked at BBC Monitoring for over 25 years, part of the World Service which watches and analyses the world’s open source media. Starting his career as a technician, he specialises in studying media behaviour in North Korea for significant changes in tone that could betray changes in policy.

Alistair is a multiple award-winning blogger who enjoys questioning extremism, idiocy and dubious claims. When not obsessed by North Korea, he’s particularly interested in political blow-hards, religion, stage psychics, homeopaths and quackery.

We live in a world where markets are our Gods and we worship at the altar of

consumerism. Elected governments struggle to stand up to the demands of

powerful Big Business, and any attempt to make decisions based upon the needs

of people of planet is met with the full financial force of trans-national

corporations and they lobby organisations that they founded.

For example, the recent TTIP trade agreement includes a clause (investor-state

dispute resolution) that allows private business to demand compensation and

legislative change from governments who have passed laws that may affect their

profitability – even if these changes to the law are there to protect people’s

rights, or to ensure industry meets certain environmental standards.

In a world where capital is king, is it possible (or even desirable) to make

decisions, pass laws and generally shape our future in ways that are designed

around the best interests of people and planet, rather than corporations and

profits? If not, what systemic changes are needed to bring meaning and purpose

into markets and to empower people to stand up to the relentless demands from

business for growth at all costs?

Dr Mick Taylor

Mick is a former teacher of mathematics who moved to Sussex in 2009 to study a

PhD in complex systems and epidemics at the University of Sussex. During this

time he became an active monetary reformer, and has spoken extensively on the

negative impact the design of our money supply has upon things such as

inequality, social exclusion and environmental degradation.

Upon completion of his PhD, he decided to stop complaining about what was

wrong with our current financial system and start building an alternative. Hence

earlier this year Mick co-founded Goodmoney CIC, a Brighton-based social

enterprise whose aim is to provide ethical financial services designed around the

needs of small businesses, local communities and everyday people.

About the talk:

“The evils of child labour and modern slavery and what can be done.”

Anthony will look at these subject both in a UK context and around the world, with reference to the legal, political and social aspects; what is driving them and what can be done about them.  Including some historical context.

Antony’s bio:

Antony Hook, aged 34, lives in Deal, Kent and was educated at Dover Grammar, University College London, City University and the Inns of Court School of Law.

He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 2003 and has practised as a barrister ever since, specialising in criminal law often in serious cases with international dimensions.

In 2014, he was a Liberal Democrat candidate for the European Parliament.  He was selected as candidate to succeed retiring MEP Sharon Bowles but was not elected in this most difficult year for Liberal Democrats.  However, as Chair of the Liberal Democrats campaign in the South East region he has widely been given significant credit for achieving the re-election of his running mate Catherine Bearder MEP, now the only UK Liberal Democrat MEP.

In 2001, aged 21, he stood in the Conservative/Labour marginal seat of Dover and was the youngest candidate of any party in that year’s General Election.  He won one of the biggest Liberal Democrat swings and was named Young Leader of the Year from the Royal Society of Arts.

He is currently a school governor and has served as a Trustee of the British Youth Council.