The student society has been running for a while now, yet I have never stopped being amazed by the weight of knowledge, understanding - and the ability to communicate both of these things - that comes from every speaker.
From socialism to space to steam trains and from crypto currency to classical music, the lectures have spanned a huge variety of topics
From socialism to space to steam trains and from crypto currency (follow this link to our latest Economics blog to read this talk) to classical music, the lectures have spanned a huge variety of topics from some of the most seemingly random areas of interest. It’s been a pleasure coordinating this series of lectures – I’ve gone away from each and every talk with something to think about, a new perspective on things and a vivid picture of whatever niche and exciting corner of the world the speech happened to be on. It's a little strange to think that a year after I rambled on about Aliens in the senior library, we’ve just made it to our thirteenth talk.
Speaking of which, this week, Tom Cantillon (Lower Sixth) gave a presentation on Artificial Intelligence (AI). He covered the four types of AI, starting with basic systems that have become a part of our everyday lives such as Siri and Alexa, and going all the way to self-aware beings such as the machines in Terminator. Luckily for us, he remarked the latter technology is currently theoretical (no need to panic. Yet). He then went into how AI works, talking about nodes that act as artificial neurones, and how they connect to form neural networks; these could one day form something as complex as the human brain. Given that Mr. Wardell was in the audience and (as always), waiting with a question, the talk ended with some light-hearted philosophy - a discussion on the fate of humanity at the hands of artificial overloads.
I’ve gone away from each and every talk with something to think about, a new perspective on things and a vivid picture of whatever niche and exciting corner of the world the speech happened to be on.
Tom also runs the Student Society with me, and it goes without saying I am very grateful for his help, and for sharing this growing area of technology with us. Given that this is the first Student Society blog post, I would also like to thank all the speakers from our current Lower and Upper sixth – Will Sice (who was mad enough to do two), Nick Wheeler, Chris Wheeler, Zach Davies, Albie Goodchild, Alex Preuss and Alexandra Fischer. They were all received with great interest and I can only hope that future talks live up to the same standards that all these speakers have set.
I would also like to give a specific shout out to a dynamic duo on that list. Nick and Chris (Upper Sixth) gave talks on the History of the Royal Flying Corps, and the concept of Vertical flight respectively. They are currently in the process of building a plane (Yes, they are building a real plane!), and just before the Easter Holidays, Tom and I had the pleasure of helping them move it to a new location to continue the build. Just goes to show that a bit of passion for a subject can go a long way.