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Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2014

Professor Laura Vaughan, UCL Bartlett School of Graduate Studies

Is the death of the high street inevitable? Prof Vaughan describes her research using historical, geographical and spatial analysis of suburban centres. The results tell us how land use diversity and road connectivity have helped the high street adapt to significant social and economic change.

You can also watch this lecture on the UCLLHL YouTube channel at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEQ2Ta38_o


Butcher, baker, candlestick-maker (11 Feb 2014)

Continuing discussion of David Brin’s novel Existence (without him) and adding Nick Bostrom’s essay “Why I Want to Be a Posthuman When I Grow Up” (2006).

Are our present human capabilities sufficient for meeting the challenges our civilization will face? Should we devote our technology to artificially enhancing our abilities, or would that be a crime against nature, a God-play that would probably lead to disaster? Is thinking about this issue a juvenile waste of time?

Mark, Seth, Dylan, and Brian Casey are rejoined by Wes to reflect on ep. 90′s discussion with David Brin and figure out how his project is related to transhumanism. While you’ll get a more thorough introduction to transhumanism from Rationally Speaking or many other web sources, we did confront Bostrom’s argument that extending our lives and enhancing our IQ and emotional range would be good, and human-all-too-human fun was had.

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