Speakers
Big data, technology and what makes us human.
Timandra Harkness explores how data and technology are shaping the way we understand ourselves and the world around us.
With a characteristically curious and accessible approach, she questions some of the assumptions behind our enthusiasm for digital innovation and asks what can be lost when complex human lives are reduced to data, categories and preferences.
Expect a thought-provoking look at our relationship with technology, the promises it makes, and the choices we still have in how we use it.
Timandra Harkness is a writer, broadcaster and presenter of shows including BBC Radio 4’s FutureProofing and BBC Radio documentaries Data, Data Everywhere, and Divided Nation.
She has written for publications including the Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Times, BBC Focus, WIRED and the New Statesman. She was resident reporter on all eight seasons of social psychology series The Human Zoo, and is regularly asked to comment on science, technology and statistics in the news.
Timandra’s book Big Data: does size matter? was published in 2016, with her second non-fiction book, Technology is Not the Problem, published in 2024.
After performing improvised and stand-up comedy, she formed the first comedy science double-act in the UK with neuroscientist Dr Helen Pilcher. She co-wrote and performed Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death, with stand-up mathematician Matt Parker.
Timandra is a member of the Royal Statistical Society Council of Trustees, and chairs the editorial board of their journal, Significance.