 | Richard Swan is an ex-secondary school teacher, now operating as a freelance writer, lecturer and academic. By training and inclination a medievalist, he has organised and participated in a wide range of talks and debates including extra-terrestrial intelligence, animal cognition, Mervyn Peake, T.S.Eliot and Lana Del Rey. He is also partial to Classed Growth claret, if anyone’s offering. |
Engineering the future: cautionary tale or utopia?
"I was impressed by the intensity of the debate and the high level of intellectual engagement, not least by the audience. It was an invigorating, even exhilarating experience to be part of a festival based on the conviction that disagreement is good. The Battle of Ideas is a fantastic concept, may it spread epidemically to the rest of the world. I am already looking forward to next year's event."
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; novelist
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