Upcoming events
World Science Festival 2024: Decoding Thought with Toby Walsh
Can machines read minds? Neuroscientists in Australia and the US have made remarkable strides in harnessing the power of AI to ‘read’ the brain’s electrical signals, translating them into natural language. Machines that can read minds can give voice to the voiceless, but what do they portend for privacy? Leading researchers and privacy experts join Brian Greene to explore the function and ethical implications of this technological breakthrough.
Presented with World Science Festival New York
Date: Thursday 21 March
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Playhouse, QPAC, Corner Grey and Melbourne Streets, South Brisbane
Price: $39
World Science Festival 2024: Mysteries from the Museum with Toby Walsh
Museums are marvellous places, full of stories uncovering our history and tales from across the world. Mysteries from the Museum will share three unbelievable stories, revealing their secrets to unsuspecting audiences.
Join ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas host Natasha Mitchell as she forages down the rabbit hole with her three extraordinary guests.
Featuring AI expert Prof Toby Walsh connecting the dots between a scrap of paper and an 18C English mathematician, author Andrew Stafford sharing the discovery of a headless bird in the Museum’s collection and it’s link to an “extinct” nighttime creature, and Principal Curator Geosciences Dr Andrew Rozefelds revealing what object took 10 years to identify (hint, it’s over 252 million years old).
Don’t miss this trail of intrigue and discovery as part of WSFB Conversation Series.
Presented with Queensland Museum
Date: Friday 22 March
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, South Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Price: $39
Clunes Booktown 2024: What Makes a Good Read? with Alice Pung
Alice Pung, Tony Birch, Joanna Murray-Smith are writers who’ve had works on the Year 12 syllabus. They’ll discuss what it takes to keep the next generation reading - with Rebecca Fraser in the chair.
Date: Saturday 23 March
Time: 1:30pm
Venue: Clunes Courthouse, 98 Bailey St, Clunes
Lech Blaine in conversation with John Birmingham
John Birmingham is in conversation with Lech Blaine discussing his Quarterly Essay; On Peter Dutton and the Forgotten People.
Where will Dutton lead the Coalition?
A portrait of Peter Dutton, as well as a modern interrogation of the Australian suburbs and the people who live there.
2022 saw the splintering of the Liberal Party's electoral coalition. Influential conservatives have urged Peter Dutton to forget about the seats lost to the Teal independents and instead pursue outer-suburban and regional seats held by Labor. Since then we have seen his manoeuvring on the Voice. The mortgage crunch in the outer suburbs. The rental and housing crisis, especially for millennials and under.
What does Peter Dutton know about the Australian electorate? Has he updated Menzies' Forgotten People pitch for the age of anxiety? Or will he collapse the Liberals' "broad church"?
An essential essay for 2024.
Date: Wednesday 27 March
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: The Loft, 100 Boundary St, West End
Price: $15