The story of the mavericks and scientists, crackpots and artistic visionaries who imagined a future where machines fuse with our minds.
TICKETS £12 (inc booking fee)
As humanity and technology become ever more tightly interwoven, Wireheads explores the final and most intimate frontier: the brain, and the electronic devices, magnetic signals, implants, and computer interfaces that promise to merge it with the world of the machine. Will these technologies eventually direct our thoughts and behaviour—or are they doing so already? Will they maintain us in states of artificial bliss, or connect us to higher intelligences, or replace the world of our senses with simulated realities?
Mike Jay, acclaimed author of Psychonauts, will be discussing the tangled, paranoid history of these real and fantastical brain technologies. From the fictions of H. G. Wells and Philip K. Dick to The Matrix, the CIA’s Cold War experiments and Elon Musk’s Neuralink, scientists and visionaries have long chased the dream of neural enhancement and control, with wildly varying degrees of success.
Mike Jay will be In Conversation with Dr Simon Bowes of Sussex University.
AUTHOR BIO
Mike Jay is a celebrated historian of science, medicine, and culture. He is the author of acclaimed books including Free Radicals, Mescaline, and Psychonauts, described by Michael Pollan as “easily the most interesting work of psychedelic history I’ve read in years.”
CHAIR BIO
Simon Bowes is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science in the Informatics Department and a lecturer in Philosophy at Sussex University.
His interdisciplinary background has led to a broad range of research interests, including: attributions of intentionality to AI, philosophy of perception, causation in multi-agent systems and emergence of cognition in conscious systems.
BOOK SIGNING
Mike will also be signing copies of his new book, Wireheads, published by Yale University Press, which will be available to purchase on the night.
This event will take place at The Walrus, Ship St, Brighton. There is a licensed bar, but unfortunately there is no wheelchair access available at this venue.
DOORS OPEN : 19:00
TALK STARTS : 19:30
AUDIENCE Q&A : 20:30
BOOK SIGNING : 21:00