I’m glad that Thinking Digital is back in May. Moving the conference, one of the highlights of the North East events’ calendar to July just felt odd, like moving Christmas to March. Perhaps this is how those who still prefer the Julian calendar feel.
Making my way across the High Level Bridge to the Glasshouse, I was trying to work out how many I had been too. Herb reminded us that this was the fifteenth time the event had been run and it was its seventeenth year. COVID still has a lot to answer for. Anyway, I think it is between 10 and 12 for me.
I love going to Thinking Digital and have a long held ambition to appear on stage. That would certainly be a career highlight, so Herb, if you are reading this, I could do a fancy talk on building communities or even a lifetime achievement award. Perhaps next year but at least I made it to the group photo this time.
This year’s conference did not disappoint with speakers covering many of the things that I find most fascinating; what it means to be human; our relationship with technology; what is reality and; even art in science. It really put the thinking in Thinking Digital.
Mark Schenk’s talk on the use of origami in helping to understand engineering concepts took me back to my work promoting the relationship between art and cyber security, conceptualising complex issues through painting, sculpture and performance. Something I need to get back to.
I had some issues with Charles Fernyhough’s talk on the science of inner experience – the thoughts, memories, images and emotions that form such a large part of our mental lives – in that all experiences are inner. What we perceive as reality is just that, a perception created in our own minds. Yes, there are experiences that others can share, or perceive in the same way as we do, and others that they cannot. Being conscious of the mind’s internal constructs as well as its external inputs can lead to some very interesting thoughts.
Tom Chatfield’s talk on ‘How Do Humans Thrive in an Age of AI’ came back to a theme that has been running through the last few years at the conference – the relationship between people and technology, is it ultimately a force for good and who really controls whom. He spoke about the shift from techno-optimism to techno-anxiety and how we can position ourselves to be able to cope in this brave new world. I bought his book.
I could go on. As always there was one great speaker after another but my blog format does not permit.
Thinking Digital is over for 2024. Spring is truly sprung and I am already looking forward to 14/15 May 2025.
Thanks Herb.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 