University of Melbourne Events Calendar

Episode 3: USA Votes: Harris or Trump?

The third in a new series by the University of Melbourne to encourage informed respectful discussion around the critical issues of our times.

Please join us in person or online where a panel of experts will have an informed and considered discussion around the critical issues of our times.

The USA election result affects the entire world. Why is American politics so polarised? Will policy or personality decide the outcome? Is American democracy at a crossroad? A former Biden staffer debates a republican insider, drawing on their unique insights, research and teaching at the University of Melbourne’s political science department.

Hosted by broadcaster and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow Jon Faine the series will invite experts in their fields across a range of areas to discuss the important global issues facing our society.

Real-time predictions, from autonomous driving to supply chain management, leverage the increasing datafication of our lived environments with the impressive power of today’s computers. Rather than predictions that help us prepare for action in a likely future—like a weather forecast of rain—real-time predictions allow us to make decisions in the present based on a stream of futurist calculations. Through a variety of examples that track from chess to algorithmic beauty filters, this seminar will argue that the use of these machine learned, real-time predictions have changed not only our relationship to transportation, production, and subjectivity, but also to our conception of time itself.