The 'Science of omniscience' Breakfast, 22nd February 2013

Richard Robinson worked in TV for many years, as a founding member of Spitting Image and creating the puppet characters in several children's programmes, including The Riddlers. He was also a busker for almost as long, starting the Covent Garden buskers pitch. He has written twenty science books, including 'Why the Toast Always Lands Butter-side Down'. Richard set the Brighton Science Festival up eight years ago and has never looked back, he says, in the way that someone climbing a dangerous mountain never looks back. What pulls him up is the astonishing discoveries that are revealed daily and the pleasure of sharing them. What pulls him back is the ludicrous lifestyle and the imminence of bankruptcy. At this breakfast Richard talks about omniscience: what happens when you know too much? History is littered with the trembling remains of people who not only knew too much but also suffered for it: Galileo, Darwin, Brunel, Hooke, or in mythology Odin and Cassandra... Big names, but what about you? When one morning you realise you know more about running the office than everyone else there, do you incite the wrath of the gods? Richard Robinson offers a stark choice.