The Great Conversation

Within each of us there is a drive to move the human project forward. We are told to maximize our agency, to "just do things."  But how do we know which things are worth doing?

On May 27th, The Toronto Society, supported by Ambition, Notion, and Cursor, presents The Great Conversation.

We have been telling the story of technology backwards. Our tools—steam engines, silicon chips—take center stage, but these artifacts are the lagging indicators of progress, not the drivers. Tools are the image of their creators. If we are to understand technology, we must begin by understanding technologists.

To be a technologist is to have a theory of what it means to be human, and to make that theory concrete through the craft of engineering and design.

In this lecture, taking place during Toronto Tech Week, we will profile extraordinary individuals in the history of technology—many Canadian—and trace their lineage to our present day. We will show what it looks like to imagine yourself not as a “builder”, but as a historic actor doing powerful work with a stake in politics and culture. And we will show how to connect to the source of ideas that shape the world, in so doing, find yourself shaping the world too.

Technology is a conversation that stretches across millenia. You have been part of this conversation your entire life. You just haven't been formally introduced.

This event is a collaboration between Benjamin Parry, Matthew Jordan, Michelle Jia, and Joss Murphy, with design by Anthea Tawiah.