Extinction isn't a single death but a collective death. It is a permanent death. We are living through strange times. From the horrors of the whaling industry to the melting ice caps of the Arctic, we've become an agent of extinction like an Ice Age, driving species of plants and other animals into this permanent death. At the same time, our thoughts have turned to the possibility of our own death. Now we have technologies that might reverse extinction, promising to bring back the forever lost. And some of us dream of enhancing humans so that we can escape the threat of our own extinction.

In this talk, author Melanie Challenger raises the question, what does extinction mean in an age of de-extinction? Examine how our growing apathetic detachment from nature is directly responsible for the post-industrial rash of extinctions that have afflicted our planet. She will review the progress of artificial intelligence and bioengineered life juxtaposing it against our loss of what it means to be an animal

This event has been postponed.

Melanie Challenger
Melanie is a writer and researcher across environmental history and philosophy. She is the author of On Extinction and the forthcoming How To Be Animal. She broadcasts and engages the public on natural history, bioethics and environmental ethics. She is a current member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.