I feel that it is my duty in life to tell you about our latest books. Well, TECHNICALLY it's my job, but in my eyes it is just so much more than that. I want to bring you books but I also want to give you the tips you need to become everything you ever wished you could be. Right, well, the fact that this is starting to sound like a Bette Midler song aside, I’ve got the lowdown on every event you need to be seen at to be considered a butterfly of the social variety, with a little help from one of our authors in particular...
Tonight you can hear Stephen Cave, author of Immortality: The quest to live forever and how it drives civilisation, talking about whether the quest to live forever can be fulfilled and whether we should want it to be.
You can also hear Stephen speak tomorrow, in discussion with biologist Professor Lewis Wolpert and Time Magazine journalist Catherine Mayer, at an event chaired by Caspar Melville, editor of New Humanist.
Don’t worry – if you can’t make either of those events there’s still another chance to meet the man himself. Stephen will also be speaking at the How The Lights Get In festival on the 2nd June.
It’s going to be quite a week for Stephen and I’d thoroughly recommend that you attend the events and read his book. Who wants to live forever? According to Stephen Cave, we all do – every single one of us. And the evidence is all around. Eluding the Grim Reaper is humanity’s oldest and most pervasive wish. It is embedded in our very nature and provides the real driving force behind every aspect of human civilisation: science, agriculture, architecture, religion, the arts, fame and family. From freeing your soul to freezing your brain, all these attempts to defy death fall into four simple categories – the four paths to immortality. Ranging across continents and cultures, from ancient Egypt to cutting-edge laboratories, Immortality raises the curtain on what compels us humans to keep on going. The four paths are ancient, but science is now showing us – for the first time in human history – whether any of them can really lead to infinity. Cave investigates what it would mean for our lives if they can – but also if they can’t. If the paths up the Mount of the Immortals lead nowhere – if there is no getting to the summit – is there still reason to live? And can civilisation survive?
Naturally, in the name of this blog, I asked all of my colleagues (two) for their top tips on being a social butterfly.
Katy: get your boobs out...or make eye contact.
Sam: have lots to talk about. So you can talk to lots of people.
Well, with that advice you’re sure to reign the social scene of your choice. Go forth and flourish.