Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 27 April
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In our first meeting of the Longform Society we’ll read a selection of compelling, entertaining and occasionally terrifying pieces on the subject of robots and artificial intelligence.
Will humans have moral obligations to robots? Are we guilty of ‘origin chauvinism’ if we believe only natural phenomena can exhibit consciousness? And is this line of thinking a sinister cousin to racism? What’s the definition of moral agency with regards to driverless cars and lethal autonomous weapons? How might artificial intelligence mitigate human suffering?
The Longform Society will discuss these questions – and the context in which brilliant writers have posed them – at this inaugural club session, taking place in a live event at the Wheeler Centre that will also be streamed live from this page. #longformsociety
Tickets to this event have now booked out, and links to the reading list have been sent to ticket holders and live-stream-only subscribers. If you didn't receive yours, click here.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Featuring
Sophie Cunningham
Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer and novelist with a passion for trees, walking and broader environmental issues. Sophie’s most recent books are This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press) and Flipper and Finnegan ...
Mel Campbell
Mel Campbell is a freelance journalist and critic who co-hosts the fortnightly literature and culture podcast The Rereaders. She is a columnist on writing at Overland magazine, and a university lecturer and writer-for-hire on film, TV and media. Her first book was the nonfiction investigation Out of Shape: Debunking Myths about Fashion and Fit (2013), and she’s currently co-writing a second romantic comedy novel with Anthony Morris; their first was The Hot Guy (2017).
Jeff Sparrow
Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, broadcaster, and Walkley award-winning journalist. He is a columnist for The Guardian Australia, a former Breakfaster at Melbourne’s 3RRR, and a past editor of Overland literary journal ...
Rafael Epstein
Rafael Epstein is a journalist who has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Timor, Indonesia, Europe and the Middle East.
He has covered national elections in the UK and Australia, East Timor’s vote for independence in 1999, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, the 2005 London bombings, and the arrest of several high profile war crimes suspects in the Balkans.
Rafael won a Walkley Award for his reporting on the links between police and Melbourne’s underworld wars. He won a second Walkley for his coverage of the Mohammed Hanif case, the Indian born doctor charged over his connections to the failed bombings in London in 2007.
He has also worked at the Investigative Unit at the Age, focusing on politics as well as Australia’s special forces and their role in Afghanistan. Rafael currently hosts the Drive program on 774 ABC Melbourne. His first book Prisoner X is published by Melbourne University Press in March 2014.