21st Century Survival Skills: a new Hertford series
18 September 2020
Hertford loves a lively conversation. In a new series, Principal Tom Fletcher will be asking members of the Hertford community and special guests about the survival skills they believe we need but are not always taught. Join us as we learn from webinars, podcasts and articles how to survive in the 21st century.
From the quality of our sleep to protecting ourselves from cyberattack; from learning to take intelligent risk to making a speech anywhere on anything at any time; from tackling the climate emergency to effective activism; Hertford’s experts, alumni and leaders from the worlds of politics, sport, education and more will share their tips and advice. Why does their survival skill matter, where can we observe it, and how can we learn it?
The series starts with Hertford’s newest Fellow, philosopher Dr Carissa Veliz. In the week she launches her brilliant new book, Privacy Is Power: Why And How You Should Take Back Control Of Your Data, Carissa will help us understand how to protect ourselves from the growing data harvesting industry. How can we escape the surveillance that is undermining our individual and collective freedom? As we look forward to a period when we will be spending even more time online, what practical steps can we take in our own lives to take back control of our data?
Join us for the live discussion at 18:00 on Thursday 24 September. As well as Tom and Carissa, we’re delighted to have special guest contributors HRH Zeid Ra’ad – the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a passionate advocate for freedom – and Hertford Fellow Prof. Mike Wooldridge, author of The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI and Head of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science.The interview will then be available on YouTube and later in abridged form as a podcast.
If 2020 teaches us anything it is that we don’t have all the skills to navigate an uncertain and rapidly-changing world. Help us understand how we can all develop the new survival skills.
