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If you would
like to be emailed about upcoming events, please join the mailing list. Note that
all normal society members are automatically added to this list when
they join.
All lectures tend to take around 45 to 50 minutes and conclude
with a questions and answers session. Most lectures are videotaped and
placed on the website afterwards in the Resources
section. Unless
otherwise indicated, lectures do not require prerequisite reading.
Watch
the lectures now (just choose the one you want and press play):
 - Tuesday
26th
September 2006 7.30pm School I, The Quad (Price: Free) [video slides]
Topic: Introduction to
the Future Society
Lecturer: Niall Douglas, President of FutureSoc, Tertian, University of
St. Andrews
This Introductory Lecture, which is open to all, explains in detail
what the Future Society has to offer members, including a brief history
of the movement and a demonstration of the power of the New
Way of Thinking techniques. After the lecture people may choose to join
the society.
 Thursday
5th October 2006 7.30pm
School I, The Quad (Price: Free/£2) [video slides handout]
 Topic: Knowing and
being: new prospects for integrating science and spirituality
Lecturer: Prof.
Chris Clarke, University of Southampton
A
combination of insights from cognitive psychology, quantum physics
and religious studies is now restoring an integral worldview, whose
hallmark is the acceptance of a plurality of different ways of knowing.
This offers hope for finding a way of peace in a future which, with the
rise of religious and secular extremism in both East and West,
increasingly seems fraught with threats to both civil society and the
ecosystem.
Chris Clarke is a Visiting Professor at Southampton University, where
he was previously Professor of Applied Mathematics. His main research
has been on astrophysics, moving more recently into the physics of the
brain and consciousness studies, and leading to the edited book "Ways
of Knowing: science and mysticism today"
 Thursday
12th October 2006 7.30pm School I, The Quad (Price:
Free/£2) [video slides
script]
 Topic: The
failings of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Lecturer: Dr. Crawford Spence, University of
St.
Andrews
The rise of the multinational corporation to unchallanged supremacy
is probably one of the most significant characteristics of modernity.
However, this rise to power was equally marked by substantial and
continuing declines in living conditions for much of the world's
population, even in the West. Corporations have little incentive to be
socially or environmentally responsible past that legally required, and
a great deal of incentive to be as destructive and unsustainable as
possible in order to increase short term profits.
Crawford with Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
- Thursday 19th
October 2006 9pm TV Room, Student's Association
(Price: Free/£1)
Topic: Fractals - The
Colour of Infinity by Sir Arthur C. Clarke
This 1995 documentary is famous for good reason - lots of pulsing
psychedelic colours with a custom written Pink Floyd sound track while
a wizened Arthur C. Clarke croaks out a description. It scored 9.4 out
of 10 on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241317/)
. Lasts less than an hour, but you'll almost certainly want to discuss
it afterwards.
- Monday 12th February 2007 7.30pm,
37 Churchill Crescent (Price: Free)
Topic: Mindwalk by Fritjof
Capra
A
rare and famous movie written by Fritjof Capra (the author of many of
the books on our reading list) and directed by his brother Bernt Capra,
this movie depicts a conversation between three characters representing
the forces of Cartesian mechanism, Romanticism and the New Way of
Thinking, the Systems approach. Occupying a space between The Turning Point
and The Web of Life,
it is set in the spectacular scenery of Mont. St. Michael in France and
scored 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100151/).
If you have been struggling with the books, this movie provides an
easier introduction to the fundamental concepts.
We
have chosen to present this movie at our house due to University
problems with potential copyright violation. Numbers have to be limited
as our front room can only take a few people!
 Tuesday
20th February 2007 7.30pm School II, The Quad (Price:
Free/£2) [video slides]
 Topic:
So you thought
accounting and
finance was boring? Beelzebub and the Beancounters
Lecturer:
Prof. Rob Gray, School of
Management, University of St. Andrews
Most people
think that accounting and accountants are boring. Yet from antiquity,
accountants have dictated to governments, kings, corporations and
dictators alike
what they can and cannot do. Accountants have driven everything from
the Highland Clearances of Scotland, Vietnam and both World Wars, the
British and Roman Empires right down to how much teaching and resources
you get during your degree. As the book from last semester's
reading list The
Economic Hitman showed, accountants have had more
influence on the modern world than you could imagine.
Furthermore,
accountancy holds the key to our survival. Global warming, destruction
of the environment and potential mass extinction all depend on how
accountants score assets and liabilities on the balance sheet. Prof.
Rob Gray is one of the world's leading theoretical accountants who is
at the very forefront of new forms and methods of accounting. He is one
of the originators of social & environmental accounting, in
2000
was acclaimed as the most cited accounting author in the world and the
seventh most cited author in a review of environmentally-related
research in management and in 2004 was elected as one of fourteen
founding members of the British Accounting Association Hall of Fame.
 Wednesday
28th February 2007 7.30pm School II, The Quad (Price: Free/£2) [video]
 Topic:
Historiography
Lecturer:
Prof. Michael Bentley, School of
History, University of St. Andrews
Historiography
is the history of historical writing - how & why history was
written. Too often, people make decisions determining the future from a
false understanding of the past, thus leading inevitably to the
repetition of mistakes. How they come to such a false understanding
involves political, cultural and psychological biases, and indeed a
discussion of the narrative that underpins historical story-telling.
The
last four decades have seen a major rise in the introspection of
writing history, with post-modernist and post-structuralist approaches
yielding potentially new avenues of investigation. What these
approaches have yielded and may yield is an exciting area for
disciplines far removed from History, and there are few in the world
better able to lecture on this topic.
Prof. Michael
Bentley is one of Britain's leading experts in Historiography. As the
author of the world best-selling book Modern Historiography: An
Introduction,
he has consistently impressed his students with an unwavering intellect
and commanding knowledge of his subject. Unlike most modern lecturers,
he tends to lecture entirely from the cuff with little or no prepared
lecture notes leading to a passion and customisation of speech unusual
in modern universities.
 Monday 7th May
2007 6.45pm Venue 1, The Student's Association (Price: £2/£3) [video]
 Topic: Climate Change & Gaia
Theory
Lecturer:
Sir
Crispin Tickell GCMG KCVO, chaired by the
Rector Mr. Simon Pepper OBE
We
are extremely proud & honoured to be able to host a lecture by
one of the
people in the environmental movement and someone who has done as much
as Rachel Carson or James Lovelock to initiate awareness in society.
Sir
Crispin is one of Britain's leading authorities on climate change and
did much to initially draw attention to the problem with his 1977 book Climate Change and World Affairs.
Also a leading diplomat, he was Chef de Cabinet to the
President
of the European Commission (1977-1980), British Ambassador to Mexico
(1981-1983), Permanent Secretary of the Official Development Assistance
(now Department for International Development) (1984-1987), and British
Ambassador to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the UN
Security Council (1987-1990).
As an
environmentalist, he was
President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1990 to 1993,
President of the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental
Protection 1997 - 1999, President of the Marine Biological Association
1990-2001, warden of Green College, Oxford between 1990 and 1997,
Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development 1994 - 2000
and Chairman of the Gaia Society 1998 - 2001. He is currently
director of the Policy Foresight Programme of the James Martin
Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford
(formerly the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and
Understanding) and Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute, in
Washington DC. He has many interests, including climate change,
population issues, conservation of biodiversity and the early history
of the Earth.
The
lecture shall be chaired by our much-beloved Rector, Simon Pepper, who
also has a long track record in environmental conservation. This is one
of the biggest events by any society this academic year - we look
forward to seeing you all there for a capacity attendence.
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