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11/25/2001 Archived Entry: "Talks"

It always pleases me that we get a regular flow of pretty decent talks and lectures in Cambridge. After being disappointed by the poor array of talks by the Cambridge Union and their silly, Eton-boy*, obnoxious behaviour, it's good to see that the scientists and philosophers can give a good showing.

Most recently, I've been to a couple of talks about whether we have free will, debunking the paranormal and neural structures in the brain, all given by experts in the field and costing no more than £1 each. Tonight I'll be going to a panel with Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen (my psychology supervisor and world expert on autism), Prof. Roger Penrose (renowned physics guy with peculiar ideas about quantum consciousness) and Dr. Brian Lancaster (some consciousness guy), who'll be talking on 'Does science leave room for the soul?' - and it's free!

*This is pretty funny, actually. They recently held elections for the post of President of the Cambridge Union. Both candidates were from Eton. I feel this reflects somewhat on the attitudes and makeup of the Cambridge Union, no matter what they say about non-elitism and so on. There was an uncharacteristically amusing article about the elections in the Varsity student newspaper (I can't find it online).

"...They viciously stared at each other across the hall. The heady scent of betrayal was in the air. Through every man's minds were running the same thoughts: "How can you back him? After all we did at school together?"; "How can you be backing him? His house in school was an absolute dump.";"What are you doing here? You didn't even go to Eton!""