About this event

About the Lecture

Dr Kieron O'Hara has been looking at various issues to do with the invasion of our privacy by technology, as recorded in such terms as the 'database state' or the 'surveillance society'. He has been investigating the balance between unwarranted storing and use of information, and the great value that can be achieved by collecting and analysing data, so that we don't throw the scientific baby out with the political bathwater. But there is no doubt our traditional notions of privacy are coming under great strain, and the battle is currently being lost.

He has also been looking into the increase in the use of technology to store records, photographs, videos, blogs, facebook, twitter etc. The result is in effect a huge outsourcing of memory, analogous to the changes in society and personal psychology that followed the coming of writing and the development of a literate society. 

He will propose that we have not really thought very deeply about the social changes that we might expect when we will be leaving these enormous and semi-permanent footprints behind us. Dr O’Hara will report on research by Southampton University with students to develop devices for recording our daily lives, based on Microsoft's Sensecam.

About the Speaker

Dr Kieron O'Hara is a senior research fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He is the author of nine books and has also written extensively on British politics and political theory, and is a research fellow for the Centre for Policy Studies. He writes frequently for popular journals and newspapers, has appeared several times on radio and television, and regularly blogs for the British Computer Society and the Centre for Policy Studies.

Cost

Free of charge

Are you looking for more events?

Search more events