Events

The idea that the end of science “as we know it” is near may sound absurd to many. And yet, in the era of “Big Data and Artificial Intelligence” the limits of human insight seem to saturate, as scientific revolutions and revelations stall. In this instalment of The Future Scientist series, we will reflect upon the limits of knowledge, the idea of scientific progress, and current exciting directions in both in fundamental physics and consciousness studies. We will also discuss the role of science journalism in shaping the public perception of science in the age of selfies, outlining future challenges and present opportunities at the intersection of science and society.

This session will explore selected familiar works of literature and popular culture in order to consider what clues these they contain to the implicit meanings of love that haunt us. What secret does the song suggest when it tells us:
Love makes the world go ‘round
Love makes the world go ‘round
Somebody soon will love you
If no one loves you now

As gravity holds the physical world together, love holds the metaphysical world together.  Love permeates through all our activities and gives us a sense of joy, fulfilment and contentment. Satish Kumar will speak about personal love, love of people, love of nature; love at all levels.

A well-known wisdom teaching from de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince mirrors what Vedic rishis, Sufi and Christian mystics alike have imparted for millennia: ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.’

How then do we perceive this unseen field of potential-filled guidance? And how, once aware of it, can we engage with it in a conscious and coherent way? That’s what researcher-clinicians and integrative medicine practitioners Ramona Rolle-Berg, Ph.D. and her sister, Renée Rolle-Whatley, Ph.D. will discuss using the results of their published and ongoing research about parental love.

Love is often used in nebulous or ill-defined ways, which means that its nuanced perceptions and mature forms can be hard to grasp. The need for a deeper awareness of love becomes particularly acute in times of crisis, though times of crisis also offer moments to understand love move fully. In this talk, Mark Vernon will explore the links between love and personal development, different types of power, its relationship with freedom and mind, as well as erotic yearning, suffering and loss, and so also to the knowledge of the ways in which reality itself is shaped by love.

It is often noted that the ancient Greeks had an advantage in possessing several words for love. Eros, philia, agape and others allowed them to be nuanced about love and navigate its differences. So is there benefit in considering how love has been understood in different wisdom traditions, too? This conversation will explore how love has been understood in various faith contexts and across time, looking at Christian, Sufi, Platonic and other insights. The aim will be to tease out similarities and differences so as to deepen and refresh the felt presence of love in our lives.

What is philosophy? Why do we philosophise? And why, in a time of crisis, does philosophy matter?

In a time of crisis, the temptation is often to withdraw, to fall back on our own resources, or to batten down the hatches. But in this talk, writer and philosopher Will Buckingham will explore how Levinas sets out a more challenging, and more fruitful, path. Weaving together philosophy and storytelling, he will argue that in a time of crisis, the greatest philosophical demand may be this: to open up the door.

In this installment of The Future Scientist series, we will concentrate on the revolutions of physics at the dawn of the 20th century. The transformations of the very idea of science that ensued from certain ways of interpreting those advances percolated to biology and neuroscience all the way to the present moment. Drawing from major concrete historical events, we will discuss the very concept of measurement, the troubled relationship between the sciences and the humanities, and the crucial question of who has the authority to make claims about reality, and why. Although historians repeatedly learn that we hardly learn from history, a careful looking back can certainly offer a glimpse as to how to make the future science more scientific.