Talk Series: Debate — The Case for Interstellar
Date: 2nd March 2021
Time: 8pm UTC (London time)
Presenter: Patrick Mahon and John Davies, with Rob Swinney moderating
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Summary
On Tuesday 2nd March, as the last item of the current series, we are arranging, for i4is members only, not a talk but a structured debate between the for and the against the case for interstellar. Patrick Mahon will be putting the for case and John Davies will be arguing the against. They will make their pitch and then we will open up to the members of the audience for their questions and comments. This structured debate will be moderated by Rob Swinney.
About the speakers
Patrick Mahon is a member of the Board of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies, as well as Deputy Editor of i4is’s quarterly magazine Principium. His first degree was in Mathematics and Physics, and he also has a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy. Patrick works for a UK sustainability charity as a policy wonk. In his spare time he volunteers with i4is, helps run his local writing group and writes science fiction. He is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and a life-long space nerd.
John Davies is a retired software engineer and mobile telecom consultant. In his early career he was briefly part of the UK space sector where he worked on ground checkout for the Bluestreak vehicle and contributed to an early study for the Hubble telescope. He has a first degree in Electronics from the University of Liverpool and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Manchester. He spent much of his career developing systems software for UK academic networks, based at the universities of Edinburgh and London, and in technical standards and technical sales in mobile telecoms at Hutchison Telecom and Sema Group. He joined i4is soon after its founding and his own retirement. He edits the quarterly Principium and coordinates outreach (to schools and scientific societies) and infrastructure (membership, app, web and email). He wrote The Interstellar Downlink - Principles and Current Work published in Principium 31, November 2020.
About the series
For more information on this series please visit our Talk Series page.