Night of Ideas
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    WHAT'S ON

  • Opening Ceremony

    18.00–19.00 - Ciné Lumière - Opening
    Hélène Duchêne, French Ambassador to the UK, will open the Night of Ideas 2024.
     
    French-Canadian novelist Nancy Huston will deliver a speech on the main theme of this year’s edition Fault Lines, inspired by her eponymous novel first published in 2006. Former UK cabinet minister and diplomat Rory Stewart will then address the same topic in light of his own experience in a pre-recorded video.

     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • The Return of Geopolitical Blocs?

    19.20-20.10 - Ciné Lumière - Debate
    As growing tensions challenge the multilateral order, diplomatic, scientific, industrial, and military rivalries escalate. Beyond the competition between states and their institutions, conflicting ideologies and new narratives are at stake. How can international cooperation face these geopolitical fault lines and play a key role in ensuring a stable future?
     
    With:

    • Sébastien Maillard, Journalist, Research Fellow at Chatham House, Special Advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute
    • Djenabou Cissé, Defence and Security Expert, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique
    • Susan Coughtrie, Director, Foreign Policy Centre

    Chaired by Ramona Bloj, Vice-President, Groupe d’Etudes Géopolitiques, Founder, Le Grand Continent.
     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris

    19.20-20.10 - La Médiathèque - Debate
    On 15 April 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris suffered the biggest blaze in its history causing a profound emotion felt around the world, beyond religions and beliefs. Why was everyone so deeply moved? With the cathedral’s reopening scheduled for 2024, this discussion will also address the paradoxes of heritage preservation, between tradition, adaptation and technological innovation. As an exceptionally complex restoration, the building site has become a testing ground for arts, as well as for digital data processing and visualisation.
     
    With:

    • Aline Magnien, Former Director of the Research Laboratory for Historic Monuments, French Ministry of Culture
    • Rodney Harrison, Professor in Heritage Studies and Director of the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, University College London
    • Rob Woodside, Estates Director, English Heritage

    Chaired by Agnès Poirier, Journalist and Author of Notre-Dame: the Soul of France.
     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • The Limits of the Body

    19.20-20.10 - Les Salons - Debate
    Bending the ethical rules of sports and science, transhumanism is the idea that human beings should be able to use technology to modify and enhance their capabilities beyond biological constraints. On the eve of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, let’s address the ethical issues around transhumanism in sports and science.
     
    With:

    • Apolline Taillandier, Political Theorist and Historian, University of Cambridge
    • Cecilia Mascolo, Professor in Mobile Systems and Head of the Mobile Systems Research Laboratory, University of Cambridge

    Chaired by James Wilson, Professor in Philosophy, University College London
     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence?

    20.30-21.20 - Ciné Lumière - Debate
    Booking
    Amid a technological revolution supposed to change the way we live, work, and interact with each other, researchers and lawmakers face a burning issue: is it possible to reap the benefits from artificial intelligence technologies without putting our society at risk?
     
    With:

    Chaired by Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Imperial College London.
     

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  • The Future of Warfare

    20.30-21.20 - La Médiathèque - Debate
    Against a fast-evolving geopolitical backdrop, sweeping technological breakthroughs are changing our understanding of modern warfare. As such, anticipating military risks – and avoiding them – has become increasingly complex. How can defence experts draw both on the history of warfare and contemporary conflicts to foresee the threats of tomorrow?
     
    With:

    • Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, Senior Vice President, Geostrategy, German Marshall Fund of the United States
    • Laure de Roucy Rochegonde, Research Fellow at the Security Studies Center, Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI)
    • Mats Berdal, Professor in Security & Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group, King’s College London

    Chaired by Isabella Antinozzi, Research Analyst, Defence, Industries and Society, Royal United Services Institute.
     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • Fighting Disinformation

    20.30-21.20 - Les Salons - Debate
    In a more than ever inter-connected world, strategic misinformation reaches people – through social media and smartphones – in the most intimate parts of their life. From the war in Ukraine to the conflict in the Middle East, recent upheavals have renewed the circulation of doctored content and fake news online. This panel will address how disinformation sets up to influence the way geopolitical conflicts unfold on the international stage, manipulate public opinion, and weigh on the course of national elections. We’ll also look into the actions to tackle the expansion of fake news at a time when factually correct information is all the more needed.
     
    With:

    Chaired by Jessica Cecil, Founder, Trusted News Initiative.
     

    This panel is sold out. However, you can try your luck at the Box Office on the Night as tickets may be released at the last minute. There is still availability on panels (Un)Leashing Artificial Intelligence? or Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition.


  • Splitting the Bill: Funding the Green Transition

    21.40-22.30 - Ciné Lumière - Debate
    Booking
    Green policies designed to tackle global warming have been accused by some of reinforcing existing inequalities, with underprivileged people bearing the cost of the green transition as a result. How can we equitably finance the fight against the climate crisis while taking urgent action?
     
    With:

    • Brendan Curran, Senior Policy Fellow, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science
    • Emily Fry, Economist, Resolution Foundation
    • Jérémy Mast, Sustainable Development Counsellor, French Embassy to the UK

    Chaired by Laela Pakpour Tabrizi, Director of Consumer Converged Finance, Virgin Media O2 –Franco-British Young Leader.
     

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  • Closing Concert with Saults

    22.40–23.30 - La Médiathèque - Concert
    Booking
    Produced by Jack Wilson (Fickle Friends), Saults draw their inspiration from 70’s and 80’s pop music with a modern and English sound influenced by French Touch bands.
     
    On stage, the most British of French duos sweeps everything on its path, mixing dance, guitar solos, rock, funk and electro with a sprinkle of that brotherly bond audiences can feel as soon as Antoine and Greg Saults start singing in harmony.

     

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    SIDE EVENTS

  • Virtual Visit of Notre-Dame

    18.00-22.00 - Foyer

    See the interior of the Notre-Dame Cathedral and relive its most glorious hours, from Henri IV’s wedding, Napoleon’s coronation, to the construction of its spire. Tracing back 850 years, from the groundwork in the 12th century to the tragic fire of 2019, participants will be able to experience the rich history of Notre-Dame up close, through digital tablets set in the Institute’s foyer, courtesy of Histovery.

     



  • The Big Warehouse

    19.40-20.10 - L'Atelier
    Booking

    Drawing on work on the emergence of ‘free zones’ from industrial and commercial ‘grey zones’, The Big Warehouse sociology research project suggests that the storage function plays a crucial role in the organisation of what some economists call the ‘warehouse economy’. In this workshop, led by sociologist Delphine Mercier and illustrator Mélanie Forné, we will explore how a researcher and an illustrator can work together to explain a scientific process and make its aim tangible.

     

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  • The Red Team

    20.50-21.20 - L'Atelier
    Booking

    Composed of science-fiction authors and scriptwriters working closely with scientific and military experts, The Red Team aims to anticipate the technological, economic, societal and environmental aspects of the future that could generate potential conflicts by 2030 – 2060. Marie Roussie, Research Engineer at PSL Research University, which leads the project on behalf of the French Defence Innovation Agency and its partners, Xavier Rival, Air and Space Attaché at the French Embassy to the UK, and Illustrator François Schuiten will introduce us to the 4 seasons of scenarios developed by The Red Team.

     

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