Sean Slater - 5G or Not 5G – Taking Arms Against the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Pseudoscience
5th generation mobile networks are coming in for increasing criticism by otherwise reputable sources and commentators. Its been demonised as mind-control, as using ‘untested, weapons-grade, ultra-high frequency technology’ and to cause severe harm to the population just by existing. Is it a back-door for governments to manage their population through technology? Are we simply leaving ourselves open to overseas countries to infiltrate our national infrastructure? Are there real dangers to this new technology? Sean Slater will try and address these fears head on and create some clarity around what 5G is and what it is not.
Sean has worked in the mobile phone business for over 25 years and has seen 2G, 3G, 4G and now 5G being rolled out by several different networks. He is also the vice-chair of Edinburgh Skeptics and as such has taken an interest in the pseudoscience surrounding his industry.
Twitter - @TheTrueScotsman
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email contact@edskeptics.co.uk) and we will try to help.
Monthly Talk format with Q&A. FREE ENTRY. Room open from 7:25. Voluntary donations are welcome to help cover costs.
Tom Chivers - The AI Does Not Hate You: How much should we worry about an AI apocalypse?
Fears around "superintelligence" and the AI apocalypse usually bring up pictures of the Terminator, and Skynet rebelling when it achieves consciousness. But a group of people worry that the truth is both more prosaic and more frightening: that a superintelligent machine will do exactly what we ask of it, but in doing so will kill us all. In my book – and in this talk – I look at whether their worries are worth paying attention to.
Tom is a science writer. He worked for seven years for the Telegraph and three for BuzzFeed UK before going freelance in 2017. He has won several awards for his writing, including a Statistical Excellence in Journalism prize from the Royal Statistical Society, and was nominated for Best Science Journalism at the British Journalism Awards 2017. Terry Pratchett once told him that he was ""too nice to be a journalist"", but he has struggled on regardless.
His debut book, The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintellligence, Rationality, and the Race to Save the World, is due to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in June 2019.
Tom Chivers - The AI Does Not Hate You: Why worry about an AI apocalypse
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Monthly Talk format with Q&A. FREE ENTRY. Room open from 7:25. Voluntary donations are welcome to help cover costs.
Tom Chivers - The AI Does Not Hate You: How much should we worry about an AI apocalypse?
Fears around "superintelligence" and the AI apocalypse usually bring up pictures of the Terminator, and Skynet rebelling when it achieves consciousness. But a group of people worry that the truth is both more prosaic and more frightening: that a superintelligent machine will do exactly what we ask of it, but in doing so will kill us all. In my book – and in this talk – I look at whether their worries are worth paying attention to.
Tom is a science writer. He worked for seven years for the Telegraph and three for BuzzFeed UK before going freelance in 2017. He has won several awards for his writing, including a Statistical Excellence in Journalism prize from the Royal Statistical Society, and was nominated for Best Science Journalism at the British Journalism Awards 2017. Terry Pratchett once told him that he was ""too nice to be a journalist"", but he has struggled on regardless.
His debut book, The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintellligence, Rationality, and the Race to Save the World, is due to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in June 2019.
Sean Slater - 5G or Not 5G – Taking Arms Against the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Pseudoscience
5th generation mobile networks are coming in for increasing criticism by otherwise reputable sources and commentators. Its been demonised as mind-control, as using ‘untested, weapons-grade, ultra-high frequency technology’ and to cause severe harm to the population just by existing. Is it a back-door for governments to manage their population through technology? Are we simply leaving ourselves open to overseas countries to infiltrate our national infrastructure? Are there real dangers to this new technology? Sean Slater will try and address these fears head on and create some clarity around what 5G is and what it is not.
Sean has worked in the mobile phone business for over 25 years and has seen 2G, 3G, 4G and now 5G being rolled out by several different networks. He is also the vice-chair of Edinburgh Skeptics and as such has taken an interest in the pseudoscience surrounding his industry.
Twitter - @TheTrueScotsman
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Robots are in the news, and if you believe what you hear they are about to take all our jobs, if not run the world and make humans their pets. But how far are these accurate assessments of robots and their current and likely future capabilities? Could we be holding a mirror up to ourselves and our own bad behaviour in making these assumptions about robots? What's real and what's hype; what can robots really do and why? What roles are they likely to play in our human world?
Ruth has been researching AI and robotics for nearly 30 years and is a member of the Edinburgh centre for Robotics, at Heriot-Watt University. Her early specialism was in AI planning systems. Since then she has taken part in projects developing long-lived robot companions and an empathic robot guide. Her current interest is in robot expressive behaviour and incorporating models of emotion into robot control.
She is working on a project to investigate whether an expressive robot can assist high-functioning adults with autism to improve their understanding of the social signals that regulate human interaction. Difficulties in this area are associated with the very high rate of unemployment of this group. She is happy that the world is currently interested in robots but less happy at some of the wild assertions about their capabilities: like most researchers in the area she does not accept that robots will take over the world.
Twitter - @ruthaylett
www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Every year we scour the line-ups and attend the bleary-eyed shows of pseudo-comedians just to bring you the skeptically best the Fringe has to offer. Come along to be amused, entertained and educated by some of Edinburgh’s most entertaining skeptics.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Maria Gauci - Chemophobia: should we all be running scared?
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Maria Gauci - Chemophobia: should we all be running scared?
With the invigorated awareness around climate & environmental issues, we have become a population of ‘naturophiliacs’ – lovers of the natural. With ‘natural’, ‘organic’ and ‘chemical –free’ products being publicised and sold ubiquitously, are these natural products really all that they are hyped up to be? Are chemicals so bad? Can we really live in a ‘chemical-free’ world? Is natural another word for safe? Are synthetic chemicals artificial? Are all artificial chemicals dangerous?
All these questions will be addressed and discussed in the ‘Chemophobia – should we all be running scared?’ talk by Maria Gauci.
Maria will challenge the notions of what is ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ and with hands-on experiences and make you question all that you previously thought about chemistry and ‘chemicals’– no lab coats required!
Maria describes herself as a staunch chemist with a background in, and a deep fascination for, the world of pharmaceuticals. She is dedicated to disseminate knowledge and awareness of the importance of these so called ‘chemicals’ and ‘drugs’ and the vital role that they play in our daily lives.
Her first degree was a Bachelor’s degree in Biology & Chemistry at the University of Malta, after which she read for a Masters in Drug Design & Biomedical Science at Edinburgh Napier University. She has worked in industrial and academic labs, dealing with all manner of different compounds and molecules with their own special abilities. Her long term aspiration is to make the world of chemistry much more approachable and accessible and show everyone that “we are not all breaking badly!"
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Dr Colin Snodgrass - Oumuamua: interstellar comet or alien probe?
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Dr Colin Snodgrass - 'Oumuamua: interstellar comet or alien probe?
In 2017 astronomers discovered the first interstellar object - a small comet or asteroid coming from another star system. It flew past Earth at great speed, and was visible to our telescopes for only a couple of weeks. These observations revealed a number of surprising properties, which led some people (including very senior professional astronomers) to suggest that this may be an alien spacecraft. I'll examine those claims, and reveal the latest theories about 'Oumuamua and its origins.
Colin Snodgrass is a Scottish astronomer who specialises in studying comets. He grew up in the Borders and studied at St Andrews and Queen's University Belfast before working at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, and the Open University in England. He returned to Scotland as a Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where he combines research into comets and asteroids with teaching astronomy and building links between academic research and the space industry in Edinburgh, as part of the university's Data Driven Innovation initiative.
Colin's research combines observations of comets using telescopes on Earth with spacecraft exploration. He was part of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission team, and now is the deputy lead for ESA's next comet mission, which is proposed to launch in 2028 to intercept a yet-to-be-discovered comet. He is part of the team that will use the next generation Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile to discover very distant comets. When the interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua was discovered in 2017, Colin led efforts to obtain spectroscopy observations with the Very Large Telescope in Chile, to discover what it is made of.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Bats are the best mammals. That's a fact, and I won't be entertaining any questions on that issue. Want to know why bats are the best? Come along and find out.
Tracey Jolliffe began her working life as a Veterinary Nurse, spending years working in small animal practice, before attending university as a mature student. She gained a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and an MSc in Medical Microbiology. Now working for NHS Scotland as a Biomedical Scientist doing diagnostic microbiology, she has also worked as a Research Scientist in the rabies laboratory at The Animal & Plant Health Agency (DEFRA), and as a Senior Scientist in the Rare & Imported Pathogens Laboratory at Porton Down. She has been caring for sick and injured bats for 25 years, and has attended a residential course on bat care in the USA. She regularly gives talks and leads workshops on bats and bat care, both locally and nationally.
Twitter - @The_BatNurse
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Professor Richard Wiseman - Investigating the Impossible
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Presented by the Royal Society of Edinburgh & Edinburgh Skeptics Society
Professor Richard Wiseman will cast a sceptical eye over the paranormal, questioning whether ghosts really exist, the tricks of the psychic trade, how to walk on fire and the real power of your dreams.
Please note, this is an RSE event in conjunction with the Edinburgh Skeptics Society. Tickets are free and can be booked through the RSE Website - https://www.rse.org.uk/curious/investigating-impossible-professor-richard-wiseman-edinburgh-skeptics-society/
Stevyn Colgan - Life, the Universe and Elderberries
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Stevyn Colgan - Life, the Universe and Elderberries
The universe is made of confusing things - some of which are very big and some of which are very small but, remarkably, everything can be explained via the contents of Einstein's fruitbowl. Honest. How heavy is the internet? What does space smell like? Why do rainbows have a colour that doesn't exist? Expect fantastic facts, titillating truths and extraordinary insights from former QI elf and award-winning comedy writer Stevyn Colgan.
Author, speaker, artist. Ex-cop, ex-QI elf, occasionally X-Rated. Tea aficionado, collector of 3D Viewmasters and winner of several awards. Frequent flaneur.
Twitter - @stevyncolgan
www.stevyncolgan.com
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Dr Victoria Stiles - Fascist Thought in Britain, Past and Present
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Dr Victoria Stiles - Fascist Thought in Britain, Past and Present
Fascism in its various forms did not spring from nothing and what it sprang from was not eradicated by the Second World War. It was an international phenomenon, with each national variation drawing on elements from other countries. Focusing on several Anglo-German examples, this talk will explore the links between elements of fascist thinking in the past and present, covering British influences on the development of Nazi ideology, sympathisers and collaborators during the war, and the legacies of these ideas in politics today. Through these links we can examine how biases in our thinking around nationhood, citizenship and international relations can help fascist ideas to gain ground.
Victoria Stiles holds a PhD in History and has read more Nazi-approved books than is recommended for a person of nervous disposition. She has worked as a tutor, translator and educational consultant, and has been giving public talks on history for over five years. She also hosts and edits the history podcast "1066 Wasn't All That".
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Beatrice Johnston - Microexpressions: A Cautionary Tale...
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Beatrice Johnston - Microexpressions: A Cautionary Tale on the Consequences of Unchecked Research
Rockstar researcher Paul Ekman coined the term microexpressions in the late 90’s, to explain his findings of culturally universal and entirely involuntary facial expressions that lasted for microseconds. These brief flashes of emotion, visible only to the highly trained, or through the use of slow motion video equipment, were hailed as a major breakthrough in deception detection, as they could reveal the hidden emotions of individuals. Quickly, microexpression research was incorporated into many areas, such as forensic interview techniques and national security measures. 20 years later after millions of dollars of funding for microexpression programs, as well as a TV series centering around Ekman (Lie to Me), the results show that these techniques are no better at detecting lying than flipping a coin. This talk will investigate why microexpressions failed to perform as expected, and set the research in a wider context of the social science replication crisis.
Beatrice Johnston is currently a masters student at the University of Stirling, studying human behaviour and behavioural economics. She achieved her undergraduate at the University of Glasgow in Psychology. She has long been interested in human behaviour and social science, with a particular focus on how to how to apply scientific research findings to the betterment of people's everyday lives. She has conducted research on altruistic behaviours, specifically investigating the effects of the recipients age and gender, as well as research on pro-environmental and health behaviours. Her current research looks at the psychological underpinnings of vaccine hesitancy and other behaviours motivated by anti-scientific attitudes.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Kevin Precious - Unholier Than Thou: The Non-Believing Religious Studies Teacher
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SPECIAL EXTRA EVENT - Monthly Talk format with Q&A. FREE ENTRY. Bar opens at 7, room open from 7:25. Voluntary donations are welcome to help cover costs.
Kevin Precious is a former religious studies teacher and non-believer turned stand-up comedian, who attends his local humanist group. Featuring jokes and stories about teaching religious studies as a non-believer, being a humanist, the God-shaped hole, as well as the philosophy of religion
Clare Allely - The Psychology of Mass Shooters: Case Study of Dylann Roof
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Clare Allely - The Psychology of Mass Shooters: Case Study of Dylann Roof
In this talk, the Path towards Intended Violence will be applied in the case of the mass shooting perpetrated by Dylann Roof on June 17, 2015 at an Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. This perspective is important since it attempts to build on accounts regarding how he progressed towards his mass shooting, beyond the information presented in the forensic evaluations already available. Forensic evaluations will also be explored. Finally, the Path towards Intended Violence will be discussed as a potential way forward towards trying to identify individuals who may be more vulnerable and at-risk, so that appropriate interventions and supports can be put in place in order that such extreme violence can be prevented.
Dr Clare Allely is a Reader in Forensic Psychology at the University of Salford in Manchester, England and is an affiliate member of the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre at Gothenburg University, Sweden. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Manchester and has previously graduated with an MA (hons.) in Psychology from the University of Glasgow, an MRes in Psychological Research Methods from the University of Strathclyde, and an MSc in Forensic Psychology from Glasgow Caledonian University. Dr. Allely is an Honorary Research Fellow in the College of Medical, Veterinary, and Life Sciences which is affiliated with the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. Her primary research projects and interests include the pathway to intended violence in mass shooters; serial homicide; investigating how autism symptomology can contribute to different types of offending behaviour; and autism in the criminal justice system.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Dr Clive Davenhall - Charles Piazzi Smyth and the Great Pyramid
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Dr Clive Davenhall - Charles Piazzi Smyth and the Great Pyramid: Pyramids, Photography and Pseudoscience
Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900), the Second Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, enjoyed a long and productive career, making important contributions to astronomy and other fields. He was, for example, responsible for the Edinburgh time gun. However, he is best remembered for his eccentric ideas about the Great Pyramid of Giza. In the early 1860s he became convinced that the dimensions of the Great Pyramid demonstrated that it had been built using a unit of measurement almost equal to the British inch, that it encoded the dimensions of the earth and the solar system, and that consequently, its construction was divinely inspired. In order to verify these ideas he travelled to Egypt and carried out a thorough survey of the Pyramid, more accurate than any previous ones, and also photographed the interior, the first successful application of flash photography in the field. Piazzi Smyth’s ideas attracted an enthusiastic group of followers who extended them, maintaining that the interior features of the pyramid encoded predictions of events subsequent to its construction, again by divine inspiration. In the 1880s the underlying notion of Smyth’s pyramid-inch was shown to be erroneous and based on a misunderstanding of the dimensions of the Pyramid. Nonetheless his ideas continued to attract a committed following for many years. This talk will describe Piazzi Smyth’s work on the Great Pyramid and discuss its reception and criticism during the nineteenth century and continuing afterlife through the twentieth century and to the present.
Clive Davenhall is a recently retired from a position as a Project Manager and Software Developer in the Wide Field Astronomy Unit, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, working on star catalogues and astronomical databases. He has a long-standing interest in the history of astronomy and has written and presented talks on this subject. A particular interest is the reception and influence of astronomy on wider society during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has degrees from the universities of London and St Andrews, He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Member of the British Computer Society.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
James Williams - Man's Best Friend: A Skeptical Investigation of Bestiality
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
James Williams - Man's Best Friend: A Skeptical Investigation of Bestiality
In 2005 a man named Kenneth Pinyan was anonymously dropped off at a Hospital in Washington, where he was later found dead in the emergency room. The man had died from a perforated colon from receiving anal sex from a full grown horse. In the following investigation the police were lead to a rural Enumclaw-area farm, which was known on the internet as a destination for people who wanted to have sex with livestock. There, they seized hundreds of hours of videotapes of men engaging in bestiality and the incident became known as the Enumclaw horse sex case. The case became infamous and lead to a rapid passing of a bill which made bestiality punishable in Washington by up to five years in prison. But what is bestiality? How is it defined? Why do people engage in it? Where does it come from? What is it's history? And why is it so reviled? Storyteller and skeptic James Williams will be taking a thorough and entertaining look at the murky world of bestiality; disentangling fact from fiction and discussing its bizarre history, zoology, humanity and philosophy. Humans, deer, monkeys, seals, dolphins, pigs, cattle, dogs and more. A world of Minotaurs, Gods disguised as swans and terrifying sounding grizzly–polar bear hybrids... What separates us from the animals? What makes us human?
James Williams is a storyteller, science communicator and skeptic based in Bristol who specialises in critically discussing dark and taboo topics with humour and irreverence. An enthusiastic humanist and scientific skeptic, he cares deeply about science, education, critical thinking and social justice. His series of talks on taboos have appeared in venues across the country and covers other taboo topics such as cannibalism and necrophilia...
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Dr Stacy Hackner - Paleofantasy and Ancient Aliens
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Dr Stacy Hackner - Paleofantasy and Ancient Aliens
Do you imagine cavemen going out to club a bear while cavewomen stayed home with the kids? Did you learn in school that the Greeks invented civilisation? Do you believe that aliens built the pyramids? When you see the image of apes evolving into man, do you stop to question the idea that it represents a progression to the ultimate goal of contemporary Western civilisation? These are all myths about the ancient world perpetuated by the media, uninformed pseudo-scientists, and sometimes outright racists. The way we teach history tends to focus a model of humanity that’s reinforcing 1950's white gender roles and reproducing capitalist patriarchy. I’ll discuss a few ways in which a common conception of the past doesn’t add up, why we’ve come to think of history in this biased way, and how we can continue to question and correct these misunderstandings.
Stacy Hackner is a human fact generator and archaeologist specialising in human bones, focusing on a reassessment of gender-based social roles in the ancient world, drawing attention to ideas we hold that are based in 1960s ideals of family life ("man hunt, woman cook!" is a hard belief to kill). She has worked in a number of dusty holes across the globe, most recently in a 19th-century cemetery in Cyprus, and has lectured at UCL and Birkbeck in archaeology, epidemiology, and museum studies. Stacy also believes that science needs to be more public-facing and decolonialised, and hosts science communication activities at museums and festivals to this end, while also managing a public engagement team at UCL Museums. Students describe her as "a good reason to wake up before 9" and her lectures as "kinda like falling into a Wikipedia hole". She enjoys camping, queer cinema, and giving internet trolls a smackdown. She will always pop up on your feed to share a terrible archaeology pun.
Twitter - @stacytg
stacyhackner.wordpress.com
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Robots are in the news, and if you believe what you hear they are about to take all our jobs, if not run the world and make humans their pets. But how far are these accurate assessments of robots and their current and likely future capabilities? Could we be holding a mirror up to ourselves and our own bad behaviour in making these assumptions about robots? What's real and what's hype; what can robots really do and why? What roles are they likely to play in our human world?
Ruth has been researching AI and robotics for nearly 30 years and is a member of the Edinburgh centre for Robotics, at Heriot-Watt University. Her early specialism was in AI planning systems. Since then she has taken part in projects developing long-lived robot companions and an empathic robot guide. Her current interest is in robot expressive behaviour and incorporating models of emotion into robot control.
She is working on a project to investigate whether an expressive robot can assist high-functioning adults with autism to improve their understanding of the social signals that regulate human interaction. Difficulties in this area are associated with the very high rate of unemployment of this group. She is happy that the world is currently interested in robots but less happy at some of the wild assertions about their capabilities: like most researchers in the area she does not accept that robots will take over the world.
Twitter - @ruthaylett
www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
Cathy Crawford - Some things you might not know about HIV
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Skeptics on the Fringe Presents:
Cathy Crawford - Some things you might not know about HIV
A brief resume of some of the current issues around HIV including PrEP, ageing with HIV, stigma, U=U, criminalisation and looking at the progress on treatments and potential vaccines and cures. All from the point of view of an involved patient.
Running parallel with a career in EFL/ESOL teaching in the UK and faraway places, Cathy has lived with HIV for over 20 years and campaigned actively for HIV treatment for all worldwide. This is as well as being involved in other human rights organisations since coming to Edinburgh in 2000.
Similar events on the Fringe normally cost around £10 but all our Fringe events are free and non-ticketed. Entry is first-come-first-served basis and we will ask for a donation to help cover our costs. Your support is very welcome. Venue is strictly over-18 and access is via a narrow staircase. If you need help getting access, please let us know in advance (email [masked]) and we will try to help.
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