Risk and responsibility, with Timandra Harkness

In her Letter – Risk and Responsibility – author and broadcaster Timandra Harkness argues that our risk-averse society is stopping us from realising what real freedom means. Far from being irresponsible, she writes, taking risks is the only way to be a truly responsible adult. To live a life devoted to constraining uncertainty, minimising bad possibilities and maximising predictability is to live as a child. Rather than trying to prevent uncertainty, she argues, we need to take on the inherent risk that any worthwhile human enterprise entails, wholeheartedly, and with full acceptance of the moral responsibility that brings.

Speaker:

Timandra Harkness is the author of Technology Is Not The Problem (2025) and Big Data: Does Size Matter (2026). She has presented hundreds of programmes for BBC Radio including 6 series of Future Proofing (about technology and big ideas that are shaping the future), and Steel Manning and How to Disagree.

Chair: Chris Akers

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