Sat 27 May
12:00pm
Venue: Arena
Event [57]

Debates

The Game of Life

Steven Bonnell, Lisa Miller, Slavoj Žižek. Myriam Francois hosts

Games are everywhere. And not just on the football field. Workplaces, dating lives, education and even friendships are being packaged as games. Tinder makes love a swiping game of snap, AI claims to have solved long-standing scientific problems by ‘converting them into games’. But critics argue games distort life and empty it of meaning. And games can be dangerous. QAnon was created initially as an alternative reality game, and the world is not made safer by understanding military build up as 'an arms race'.

Do we need to eradicate the relentless gamification of life? Should we recognise life has no clear goal, no way to win, no measures of success, no extra lives or second chances? Should we see games as furthering inequality - creating winners and losers? Or have games always been with us, from the system of money to the hierarchies of education, and for the very good reason that they are a remarkably powerful motivator for action?

World-leading philosopher Slavoj Žižek, radical internet personality Steven Bonnell, and bestselling author and psychologist Lisa Miller grapple with the gamification of life. Myriam François hosts.

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