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Dr Chris Kutarna debate: humanity is on the right track

  • Date recorded: 21 Mar 2019

  • Duration: 54:48

'It's very hard to occupy two perspectives at the same time but, if that's not possible, then maybe the next best thing we can do is to practise consciously shifting our perspectives from one to the other.'

– Dr Chris Kutarna

About this video

Watch an entertaining and absorbing debate in four rounds, with each side creatively presented by author Dr Chris Kutarna as part of State Library Victoria's Corporate Speakers series.

Debating against himself, Chris speaks for (with jacket) and against (without jacket) the topic: this house believes that humanity is on the right track.

Watch the video to see which side of the debate swings your opinion. Do you agree with the 'for' vote that we should continue the present march of progress towards an abundant human future?

Or do you agree with the 'against' vote that unprecedented growth has pushed the scale and complexity of human civilisation to the point of exhaustion, and we can no longer cope with the political and social, economic and environmental stresses?

Or does the answer lie somewhere in between?

About the speaker

Dr Chris Kutarna is the co-author of Age of Discovery: Navigating the storms of our second Renaissance (Bloomsbury). Among other predictions, Chris publicly foresaw the outcome of the UK's 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Born in Canada, Chris is a two-time Governor General's Medallist, a Sauvé Fellow and Commonwealth Scholar, and a Fellow of the Oxford Martin School with a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford. He lives in Oxford, Beijing and Regina (Canada).

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Our corporate members include industry leaders from a range of sectors including finance and banking, mining, education, media, architecture, luxury brands and law.

Corporate members also gain access to our exclusive speakers series, where the world's leading thinkers share their ideas, experience and expertise, while addressing some of the critical issues facing business and society today.

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