Talks
I give talks about technology, philosophy, and what it means to be human today.
My talks are deliberately non-academic in form. I take difficult ideas seriously, but aim to make them concrete, accessible, and relevant to everyday life. I draw especially on the humanities’ long tradition of thinking about what it means to be human, convinced that these accumulated insights continue to have much to teach us about ourselves in late modernity.
I take on commissioned talks tailored to particular audiences and occasions, but also offer a series of talks based on my writing and research. A selection is presented below.
We tend to think of digital technology as something that distracts us against our will. But what if that is only half the story?
We have become increasingly good at keeping suffering, anxiety, boredom, uncertainty and death at a distance. But what might we gain by allowing the darker sides of existence back into our lives?
We increasingly speak of machines as intelligent. But what exactly do we mean by intelligence – do machines possess it, and does it even matter?