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== Our Most Recent Meeting ==
== The S&T Wiki is now back! ==


Our last meeting was with Prof Martyn Thomas who will give a talk on the 15th February  entitled '''Cybersecurity: the scale of the threat and why we have made almost no progress towards a solution'''.  This was a fascinating talk which had several of us wanting to throw away our smart phones, and tape over our webcams. He offered a compelling argument that until software developers are held strictly liable for failures of security of the applications they sell, to banks for example, the problem will remain. Currently, the indemnity insurance provided against losses by customers of financial institutions removes the incentives to force providers of mission critical software to protect the public.
This is the old wiki, upgraded to MediaWiki 1.40.
The old version was broken by a mandatory PHP upgrade conducted on the shared server where this is hosted.
It needs updating to reflect the current officers and programme but at least when you visit it you don't get a slew of error messages.


We were told that a low power transmitter, operating on the right frequency, suspended from a balloon somewhere over London, could switch off ever GPS device across the capital. We heard that Russia were able to disable the power grid, and the telephone system, in Ukraine, purely by via cyber attacks. I think several members who attended decided to abandon use of their smart phones, and return to the old style dumb mobile phones, because of all the ways in which our behaviour can be monitored via our modern phones!
I had some problems with spam accounts, so I've restricted account creation rather severely. You can always ask me to create an account for you.


[mailto:steve@caxtonvilla.org?Subject=I%20would%20like%20an%20account&body=My%20name%20is%3A%20%2C%20my%20email%20address%20is%3A%20%2C%20and%20my%20preferred%20username%20is%3A%20 Steve Hemingway]


Read more about the meeting [[Martyn Thomas|here]].
== Now planning meetings for the 2022 Season  ==


== Next Meeting: Joint Meeting With Cryptos: 27 February 2017 ==
Please get in touch if you know of a suitable speaker or would like a specific topic addressed.


= 2022 Programme =


We invite you to a joint meeting  with Cryptos, the Reform society ''Devoted to Military History and  Intelligence'.'


The meeting will take place on Monday 27 February 2017, at 18:30 for 18:45.
<!--


Charlie Hall, MA, BA, of the University of Kent will give a talk entitled '''British Exploitation of German Science and the Start of the Cold War.'''
Dates for our meetings in 2020 are as follows (future dates are always provisional):
We will put this back when it has some shape.
{{2022 Programme}}


Mr Hall is an Assistant Lecturer. School of History , Rutherford College; University of Kent. He is now in his second year of study for PhD, under the  supervision of  Professor Ulf Schmidt and Dr Stefan Goebel. His research area is the  British  exploitation of science and technology in Occupied Germany after the Second World War.
-->


Mr Hall has won first prize in the inaugural Cryptos essay competition. He won the prize an essay on the subject of Science and Conflict in the 20th Century.  Mr Hall's research field is the history of  science and technology in the twentieth century. He is studying the use of technology by the military and intelligence communities. He has also examined the policy implications of this work.
I am currently working on the 2022 programme. I hope to have talks on the following subjects:


Please note the that for this meeting we will follow the Cryptos meeting format. The start time is 6.15 for 6.45pm, with the talk preceding an optional buffet supper. See the next section for details.
- Dark Matter,


=== Reserving tickets for the Joint Meeting  ===
- Quantum computing,


'''Please note the that we will follow the Cryptos meeting format.''' and not the normal Science Group one. The start time is 6.15 FOR 6.45pm, with the talk preceding an '''optional''' buffet supper.
- Cyptocurrencies,


Tickets may be reserved via the calendar in the members’ section of the website or by contacting:clubevents@reformclub.com or by telephoning 020 7747 4603.
- Applied Artificial Intelligence (speaker from DeepMind),


Cryptos tickets are available for £15.00 per person. (this includes a reception drink on arrival). For convenience, please copy your e-mail to arnold@arnoldrosen.co.uk and to steve@caxtonvilla.org. 
- Exploring Space (Nicole Stott),  


A buffet supper at 8.00 p.m. is available at an additional cost of £33.00 which includes a drink. Please note this must be booked in advance along with any notice of any special dietary requirements no later than noon the day before the event.
- Autonomous vehicle liability,


Additional drinks may be purchased during the buffet. Digestifs are served in the Smoking Room after dinner.
- Use of psychedelic drugs in treatment of mental illness,


Note that prices are subject to revision by the Club.
- The Chinese social credit system (or related).


== March Meeting: Anil Seth, Machine Consciousness ==
If you have a comment, please get in touch, especially if you can refer me to a suitable speaker on any of the topics above.


March 15, Strangers Room.


:    Consciousness is, for each of us, the presence of a world. Without consciousness there is no world, no self: there is nothing at all. But we do not know much about the material and biological basis of this most central feature of our lives. How do rich multisensory experiences, the senses of self and body, and volition, agency, and ‘will’ emerge from the joint activity of billions of neurons locked inside a bony skull? Once the province just of philosophy and theology, the neuroscience of consciousness has emerged as a one of the great scientific challenges for this century. In this talk I will sketch the state-of-the-art in the new science of consciousness. I will distinguish between conscious level (how conscious we are), conscious content (what we are conscious of), and conscious self (the ‘I’ behind the eyes), describing in each case how new experiments are shedding light on the underlying neural mechanisms, in normal life and in neurological and psychiatric conditions. Throughout, I will emphasize phenomenology – the way things seem – as the target for any satisfying explanation of how the brain, in conjunction with the body and the environment, gives rise to and shapes conscious experience.
[[FAQ]]
 
[[Anil Seth|Read More...]]
 
= 2017 Programme =
Dates for 2017 are as follows (all meeting are on Wednesdays, usually the 3rd one of each month):
 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Month !! Day of Month !! Speaker !! Title
|-
| February || 15th || Prof [[Martyn Thomas]] || Cybersecurity
|-
| March || 15th || Prof [[Anil Seth]] || Machine Consciousness
|-
| April || 19th || Prof [[Peter Wilson]] || Anti-Microbial Resistance.
|-
| May || either 16th, 17th, <!-- whichever is vacated by Pol Comm, 23rd (alternative, but near to Thackeray), or 31st (late in the month, not ideal) --> || [[Giles Yeo]] || Are your genes to blame if your jeans don't fit?
|-
| June || 21st || Chloe Anthias || CART Study, Anthony Nolan. See Trello.
|-
| September || 20th || Dr [[Paolo Tasca]] || Bitcoins and the Blockchain
|-
| October || 18th || Prof [[J A Madrigal]] ||  Stem cell therapies.
|-
| November || 15th || To Be Confirmed || To Be Confirmed
|-
|}
 
For more information, please visit our [[Meetings]] page.

Latest revision as of 08:46, 6 August 2023

The S&T Wiki is now back![edit]

This is the old wiki, upgraded to MediaWiki 1.40. The old version was broken by a mandatory PHP upgrade conducted on the shared server where this is hosted. It needs updating to reflect the current officers and programme but at least when you visit it you don't get a slew of error messages.

I had some problems with spam accounts, so I've restricted account creation rather severely. You can always ask me to create an account for you.

Steve Hemingway

Now planning meetings for the 2022 Season[edit]

Please get in touch if you know of a suitable speaker or would like a specific topic addressed.

2022 Programme[edit]

I am currently working on the 2022 programme. I hope to have talks on the following subjects:

- Dark Matter,

- Quantum computing,

- Cyptocurrencies,

- Applied Artificial Intelligence (speaker from DeepMind),

- Exploring Space (Nicole Stott),

- Autonomous vehicle liability,

- Use of psychedelic drugs in treatment of mental illness,

- The Chinese social credit system (or related).

If you have a comment, please get in touch, especially if you can refer me to a suitable speaker on any of the topics above.


FAQ