iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The winners of wars are the quickest to innovate, the fastest to reach technological milestones. And now this dynamic is driving the race in AI. bit.ly/4y51KuR Here, Andy Owen argues that we must slow down technological progress; the race is not worth the risk.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 07/10/2026

Conscious beings stand in sharp contrast to mere things. They are something over and above their body and brain. bit.ly/4yx4dzd Join philosopher Martine Nida-Rümelin as she argues for her distinctive subject-body dualism, which is not obscurantist but a demand for intellectual honesty.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 07/10/2026

An MIT study found that using AI leaves us more ignorant, yet more certain of our own arguments. bit.ly/4y1TbRv Here, researcher and author Minh-Hoang Nguyen argues this is a new kind of brain rot: a literal degradation of our ability to think, and a new form of intellectual cowardice.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 06/10/2026

How well can we really tell a reasonable belief from a ridiculous one? bit.ly/3TBmwUR Stephen Law, Director of Philosophy at The Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford, argues once we're too invested to be wrong, we explain away every inconvenient fact.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 05/10/2026

Is string theory doomed? iai.tv/video/the-trouble-with-strin… Join Nobel prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose, renowned string theorist Brian Greene, groundbreaking scientist Tasneem Zehra Husain, and polymath mathematician Eric Weinstein to debate the cosmological theory.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 05/10/2026

In this article, Sam Shpall makes the case that the notion of "falling in love" isn't just an imprecise idea, but a hazardous one. bit.ly/47wuGB8 Buried inside it is a forgotten concept called 'limerence': an involuntary, obsessive craving for reciprocation, distinct from romantic love.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 02/10/2026

President Xi Jinping has repeatedly said China will "never seek hegemony, expansion, or a sphere of influence." Nonetheless, Western academics like John Mearsheimer continue to argue China will seek to become a regional hegemon. bit.ly/4zb14VB Professor Astrid Nordin argues both are true.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 01/10/2026

Evolution has long been understood as random genetic changes occurring. But current research is revealing a messier reality. bit.ly/4xTPs8E Denis Noble, Eva Jablonka, and Samir Okasha debate whether evolution is a blind process, or whether we should see life as actively shaping itself.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 30/09/2026

Liberal democracy once appeared to be a self-sustaining machine, but in recent years it has proved increasingly fragile. bit.ly/4rIzooT Historian and politician Michael Ignatieff explores whether liberalism still has the intellectual and moral resources to sustain and defend itself.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 30/09/2026

Brutal wars, torturous executions, and violent revolutions have always been justified on moral grounds. bit.ly/3VXAS2q Drawing on wisdom from Wittgenstein to Zhuangzi, philosopher Hans-Georg Moeller argues that trying to be moral often only does more harm than good.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 29/09/2026

Liberal democracies around the world are under threat, and Giovanni Capoccia argues that there’s a paradox that prevents efforts to defend them. bit.ly/4ylseJv Illiberal movements are easiest to stop early, but propaganda and subtle erosion prevent democratic forces from acting quickly.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 28/09/2026

We often describe distraction as a failure of focus, but what if it is also a crisis of meaning? bit.ly/47pk5rA Drawing on decades of research, Gloria Mark explores how our cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are being reshaped by environments that never allow the mind to rest.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 28/09/2026

In this article, Michel Bitbol counters Antony Valentini’s recent argument that quantum mechanics is a straightforward description of material reality. bit.ly/47mUWhe He instead proposes quantum mechanics is a tool for predicting our “creation” of our own experiences and ideas of reality.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 25/09/2026

The oldest problem of democracy is how do we come to agreement about the 'facts'. | bit.ly/3VbgAT2 We now live in a world where scientists are unable to agree on the nature of reality, and a decline of the institutions meant to keep them in check.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 24/09/2026

AI could lead to mass social upheaval, but given that it supports some jobs whilst undermining others, it’s unlikely that a united front will form. bit.ly/4h9MIyT Carlos Felipe Balcazar argues this will further concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the top income earners.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 23/09/2026

The Vienna Circle tried to turn ethics and politics into science, while Wittgenstein recoiled at this idea. F.P. Ramsey argued they were both wrong. bit.ly/3Vv0iUV Cheryl Misak @MisakCheryl and David Edmonds discuss why these issues are more pressing today than ever.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 22/09/2026

To get anything done in politics, it seems clear that activists need to win power first. bit.ly/4xIA8vo But in an increasingly complex and divided society, Sophie Scott-Brown argues the disorganized methods of fringe campaign groups are surprisingly effective at achieving political change.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 21/09/2026

We often assume that our memories are stored in our brains, just like a hard drive stores data. bit.ly/4AfiMbS In this talk, philosopher Victoria Trumbull argues this is a radical mistake: she argues that the brain enables memory without containing it, and that time itself stores memory.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 16/09/2026

Time, we are told by most physicists, does not truly flow; its apparent passage is dismissed as a human illusion. bit.ly/3UTJkPZ Join creator of the Elitzur–Vaidman bomb tester, quantum physicist Avshalom Elitzur, as he challenges that orthodoxy.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 15/09/2026

Is the self an illusion? Julian Baggini argues this question is too simple. bit.ly/3SL0miD He argues the self is both a construction and real, drawing on philosopher Derek Parfit's ideas to describe a complex, ever-changing, many-sided self which better aligns with our everyday experiences.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 15/09/2026

In this interview, Carlo Rovelli takes aim at analytic philosophy's return to realism. bit.ly/4xtEsi3 He argues that much of 20th century philosophy either hasn’t taken up the new sciences of Einstein and Bohr, or is too trapped focusing on how mind, spirit, or consciousness is special.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 14/09/2026

In this discussion, Faiza Shaheen and Jeremy Corbyn discuss why the future of the left requires ideas that match the scale of the crises we face: bold economic transformation, climate justice, and a politics that puts people before profit. Tap here to watch now. bit.ly/4rdwpV8

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 14/09/2026

Søren Kierkegaard claimed that a self is not a static object, but something one must become, by struggling through distinct, often incompatible modes of existence. bit.ly/4xSKHNc Christopher Barnett argues that this model of the self is the key to understanding Bob Dylan’s career.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 11/09/2026

As AI's capabilities advance, it is natural to wonder whether they can extend to the sciences. bit.ly/4xWheCo Harry Collins disagrees: an essential part of doing science involves being part of a community that can invent new language to describe the unforeseen problems facing them.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 10/09/2026

Is nationalism and national identity necessary to protect the lives and living standards of the average working person, or is nationalism always a vehicle for intolerance? bit.ly/4xNGpGT James Orr, Gillian Tett, and Michael Ignatieff debate. Hosted by Rana Mitter.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 10/09/2026

Tongdong Bai’s recent IAI article argued that democracy and liberalism are fundamentally at odds. bit.ly/4gT91HC Today, political philosopher Philip Pettit responds, arguing liberalism is essential to democracy. Tongdong’s mistake, he argues, is to equate democracy solely with elections.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 09/09/2026

Intelligence is more than what can be counted, calculated, or measured. iai.tv/video/the-thoughts-computers… Join clinical psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen to explore what the human mind is, and what is at risk when we mistake a computer's appearance of thought for thought itself.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 09/09/2026

The West sees Sudan's war as a humanitarian catastrophe beyond comprehension. bit.ly/3SzoxjZ Matthew Benson-Strohmayer argues that misses the point: both sides now run commercial empires, and until that machinery is dismantled, any peace deal will only reset the conditions for the next war.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 08/09/2026

Mainstream economic models obscure the structural power dynamics at the core of global inequality. bit.ly/46bG2Ko Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven argues that capitalism has always been an inherently uneven, global system shaped by imperialism, class, and unequal power relations.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 08/09/2026

The West has become a lonely, narcissistic civilization, argues former President of the UN Security Council Kishore Mahbubani. bit.ly/3Vjhk8n It must give up the self-deception that it’s Earth’s most virtuous civilization.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 07/09/2026

Reality appears full of distinct objects. In such a reality, the Buddhists' claims of the world's "emptiness" are hard to make sense of. bit.ly/3Uu43K5 Join Oxford philosopher Jessica Frazier to explore emptiness as relational richness, not nothingness.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 07/09/2026

Were nature’s constants even slightly different, life wouldn’t exist. bit.ly/3V06Iet But Jeff Shainline thinks we’ve been missing a crucial clue to explain this: the universe isn’t just fine-tuned for life, but also for the creation of technology.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 04/09/2026

Tony D. Sampson argues that natural creative genius is a myth. bit.ly/4haDW3r He claims even the best-known creative geniuses were skilled borrowers, copying and reworking what came before them, and who gets recognised for it depends less on raw talent than on privilege and access.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 03/09/2026

What would mission to Mars provide us with? bit.ly/4zOwVNj Neuroscientist and philosopher Erik Hoel makes the case that Mars could act as a planetary museum for life’s origins, and that we must go to Mars to investigate.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 02/09/2026

We assume we live in a shared reality, with differences in experience attributed to differences in perspective. But Steve Fuller argues this is a mistake. bit.ly/4zSfRpw We don't have different perspectives on the same reality, but inhabit different realities altogether.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 01/09/2026

John Ralston Saul argues that faith in globalism is a dangerous illusion. bit.ly/46ETHcN He contends that genuine freedom and resilient citizenship demand we reclaim national agency, rebuild community self-reliance, and rethink the orthodoxy of globalisation.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 01/09/2026

Catherine Rowett, British academic and former Member of the European Parliament, argues democracy survives on lies. bit.ly/4x57Gnh Drawing parallels between Plato's Republic, Rowett traces this fiction through modern democratic myths: equal votes and equal capability.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 21/08/2026

America claims to view state intrusion into individual liberty as tyranny. So why does it have the world’s largest prison population? | bit.ly/45EkW72 David Garland argues that this clash is the logical outcome of the country’s political economy.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 20/08/2026

Gravity is simultaneously familiar and mysterious. | bit.ly/3U8HHxo Physicist Melvin Vopson argues for a controversial view of gravity, arguing information is as fundamental as mass and energy, and gravity is a way for the universe to minimize the complexity of information.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 19/08/2026

Are our gut senses of good and evil a reliable moral compass? | bit.ly/4ghfmfI Psychologist Jordan Theriault-Brown argues morality is in fact an energy-saving trick of the brain. Our brains crave a predictable world, and moral feelings enforce rules that make our behavior predictable.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 18/08/2026

Are we mistaken in thinking that the future follows the past? | bit.ly/4zvyGii Theoretical physicist Avshalom Elitzur argues that quantum physics alters our conception of time and causation: a measurement done in the present influences not only the future, but the past.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 17/08/2026

Economist and author Guy Standing argues the modern education system has been corrupted by market logic. | iai.tv/video/education-has-lost-its… Standing argues for an education system rooted in social cohesion, democracy, and the enhancement of individual freedom.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 17/08/2026

The assumption that the world is made of particles is mistaken at the most fundamental levels of science, argues leading philosopher of science Olimpia Lombardi. | bit.ly/4xNQCD5 The realm of chemical transformations appears to be independent of the realm of physical things.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 13/08/2026

A scientist inside a dream can discover the physical laws of that dream world, but can never use science to discover they're dreaming. bit.ly/4gbwDHc Andrew T. Jaffe argues this isn't a gap science will fill: consciousness is prior to the world science describes.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 12/08/2026

Links between labour, production, income, and survival are becoming increasingly unstable; with AI, societies can produce more with less work. | bit.ly/4gcm9HH Manuel Delaflor here argues for a new economic framework, one in which we should draw a line between survival and competition.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 11/08/2026

Power is a story of personality, not political ideology, argues veteran New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. | bit.ly/4zgrOoQ Dowd contends that leaders are undone not by their enemies but by their own insecurities: Nixon's paranoia, Clinton's appetites, Trump's hunger for spectacle.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 11/08/2026

Neo-Darwinism was founded by a devout Christian who tied evolution to God's laws. | bit.ly/4fZZU7v Stanford historian Jessica Riskin argues its atheist champions like Richard Dawkins have forgotten their own theory's theological roots.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 10/08/2026

Scientists are optimistic that we are on the verge of finding life beyond Earth. bit.ly/4z7BVw1 But Christopher Cowie thinks this optimism rests on a simple mistake: unless life exists close enough for our telescopes to observe it, its abundance elsewhere is irrelevant to us.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 07/08/2026

Some physicists claim the entire universe can be described as just a quantum wave function. bit.ly/3U289sm But Ali Barzegar argues that quantum mechanics supports a very different cosmological story.

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Institute of Art and Ideas @iai.tv · 06/08/2026

Is mathematics the ultimate foundation of reality, or a tool we impose on it? iai.tv/video/the-key-to-the-cosmos Sarah Hart, Dean Rickles, and Hilary Lawson debate.

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