The Institute of Art and Ideas

Do we need higher or lower walls around nations? How open should open borders be? What are the benefits of the Schengen Area, and should we expand it to Britain?

The neoliberalism movement strived to create a multinational utopia at the end of the 20th century, establishing the Schengen Area, which has been expanding ever since. However, as Europe entered the 21st century, the migrant crisis has been one of the most heated, controversial and contentious political issues. Some, like former Reform UK chief political advisor James Orr, believe that we should stop welcoming the vast proportion of people seeking to come to the UK, whilst maintaining albeit restricted channels for those most in need. Others, like Michael Ignatieff, take a more liberal approach, but still maintain the importance of regulating levels of immigration.

But what do you think? Do we need to tighten Britain's borders? Or should we open the country to the wealth of experience that foreign nationals can bring to the economy? Can digital IDs be used as a way to manage migration?

Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to watch the video to learn more!

13 hours ago | [YT] | 3

The Institute of Art and Ideas

James Orr has not had a good couple of weeks.

The former chief advisor to Nigel Farage has been caught in a sting operation with his hand in the illegal international donation cookie jar: ironic, given his criticism of illegal migrants for pocketing British state funds.

For decades, in response to an increasingly global economy, the direction of travel had been the softening of borders and a suspicion of nationalism. But times have changed. Across the western world, support for populist parties has mounted along with calls for tighter borders, defence of national identities, and an end to immigration. And across the political spectrum, the rhetoric has followed. Globalists who had once defended an end to borders now come under attack as defenders of an educated elite.

Is nationalism and national identity necessary to protect the lives and living standards of the average working person, and are open borders and global travel the goal and privilege of the elite? Or is nationalism always a vehicle for intolerance, and the resort of demagogues and tyrants? And as national identities become more precisely drawn, how are we to avoid increasing conflict not only between nations but within them?

1 day ago | [YT] | 17

The Institute of Art and Ideas

Is it too late to save the internet? What is hope? And are we naive to have it?

We have become servants of the internet without realising it. We once believed the internet would flatten power, democratise culture, and make gatekeepers obsolete. But today it doesn't look like that, and arguably did the opposite.

The irony is not lost on us as we publish this community post. Nevertheless, we must understand the trajectory that the internet has been intentionally directed on. Cory Doctorow, author and digital rights activist who has served as European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believes that we can change the points on the track to divert the internet down a future where it serves its users' needs.

Users, not platforms, must begin to set the terms.

But what do you think? Will the internet naturally become more shaped by its users? Is a total internet reset necessary? Will the internet be a kinder place in the future?

Leave a comment below!

3 days ago | [YT] | 33

The Institute of Art and Ideas

Has Thatcher ruined state school education?

The impact of Margaret Thatcher's educational reforms is still felt to this day. The systematic erasure of humanities and arts was the critical philosophy behind her 1988 Education Act, which she hoped would provide more time for students to be prepared for the post-industrial workplace. Today, this has become a phenomena that Guy Standing, economist and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London, dubs 'examinitis': the process of continual examination, with exponential rise in their importance, frequency and difficulty.

In turn, he argues that this has reduced the amount of time that children have free to play, learn through the arts and explore, to the detriment of society. Young people today still suffer under the Iron Lady's iron grip.

But what do you think? Do children have less academic freedom than when you were younger? Are children in state schools still deprived of the arts? Should our education system continue to prepare children for the post-industrial workplace?

Leave a comment with your take!

5 days ago | [YT] | 21

The Institute of Art and Ideas

Is AI over-hyped? Is is masquerading as intelligent? Will it ever become smarter than us?

Intelligence is often measured by facts known and judgements made. Schools reward memorisation, work requires discernment, while AI now reduces intelligence to calculation. But intelligence is more than what can be counted, calculated, or measured. Join clinical psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, the world’s leading autism expert, to explore what the human mind is, how modern education and technology are reshaping how we think, and what is at risk when we mistake a computer's appearance of thought for thought itself.

Simon Baron-Cohen is renowned for his pioneering research on autism, empathy, and the cognitive differences between individuals and is one of Britain’s most influential psychologists,

1 week ago | [YT] | 41

The Institute of Art and Ideas

Throughout the 20th Century, science has imagined that we have a detailed account of the origin and formation of the cosmos, providing a necessary balm to the terrifying diminutiveness of our existence when faced with boundless astronomical infinities.

Science says the universe has a beginning. Society follows.
Science says the universe is expanding. Society follows.
But what do we do, when science begins to contradict itself, tearing astronomy as we knew it limb from limb as if a galaxy caught in a black hole.

In the last few years, new evidence from the James Webb Telescope has led some to propose radically different alternatives to our current scientific vernacular.

In 2023, the telescope identified a higher rate of expansion for the universe than previously predicted. In 2024, NASA confirmed the differences couldn't be explained by measurement error. In combination, these have led some to claim there is a crisis in cosmology sufficiently profound to threaten a wholesale change in our understanding.


Perhaps the most important question to arise is where does this leave astronomy?

What do you think is astronomy's biggest unanswered question? Answer our poll, leave your theories and watch these videos below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVWJn...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cFee...

1 week ago | [YT] | 66

The Institute of Art and Ideas

"Yet, when the West imposed sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, it didn’t notice that 85% of the world’s population did not follow suit. Why not? Does this reflect a lack of moral integrity in the Global South? Or does it reflect a shrewd geopolitical assessment?"

Kishore Mahbubani is no stranger to international politics. The former Singaporean Permanent UN Representative and President of the United Nations Security Council is a veteran of the international scene, which draws significant attention and gravitas to his doomsday predictions about the fall of the West. Whatever one thinks of the future, the questions he raises are equal parts unsettling and profound.

Does illiberal democracy threaten the rise of autocratic or even fascist regimes?
Is democracy meaningless if government constrains freedom of speech or seeks to influence the media and the judiciary?
Will the rise of the 85% benefit, challenge, or destroy the West?

Read Mahbubani's phenomenal article 'The West has engineered its own downfall' to get an expert and experienced take on what the future has in store:

iai.tv/articles/kishore-mahbubani-the-west-has-eng…

1 week ago | [YT] | 90

The Institute of Art and Ideas

Does gravity prove Einstein wrong?
What does it mean to tinker with gravity itself, to tweak the force that we all feel?
Where does dark energy fit into the story and what truth might we uncover?


Claudia de Rham, an award-winning theoretical physicist and trained pilot, deep-sea diver and astronaut, takes us there. In this exclusive interview, she explores the enduring mystery of the cosmological constant, Einstein’s ‘greatest blunder’, and the proclaimed ‘worst prediction in physics’: quantum vacuum fluctuations should exert colossal gravitational effects, yet the universe expands so gently we barely notice. De Rham probes whether general relativity could break on cosmic scales, and what happens when we give the graviton a mass. From higher-dimensional escapes to gravitational waves that nearly travel at light speed, she invites us into the playful, profound frontier of gravity’s nature, and our evolving understanding of the cosmos.

1 week ago | [YT] | 24

The Institute of Art and Ideas

The AfD have just won a commanding percent of the vote in the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, and much of Europe waits with baited breath as to what the far-right party will do. Critics are calling this a severe blow to Western democracy.

Yet, is the West wrong to hold the ideals of liberalism and democracy in such high regard?


The West is often defined as the home of liberal democracy, with liberalism and democracy seen as inseparable. But from the start, there has been tension between democracy as the will of the majority, and liberalism as the protection of minority rights and free speech.

Now we are seeing the rise of so-called 'illiberal democracies', sceptical of checks on executive power and liberal institutions. Illiberal democracies are now the most common form of government, according to The Economist. Victor Orbán, the former President of Hungary, listed his own country along with Singapore, Russia, Turkey and China among them, with 3% higher growth on average over the last 30 years than the liberal democracies of the West.


Will Germany be next?


With a free trial, you can watch the full debate NOW at iai.tv/video/the-age-of-the-illiberal-democracy?ut…

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 35

The Institute of Art and Ideas

With the totemic rise of Artificial Intelligence to it's current position, now nearly inescapable during everyday life, everyone from leading academics to employers to children is envisioning a vastly different future. Some believe that the technology will gain consciousness, but continue to serve the common good. Others believe that it has already gained consciousness and is hiding it away from us, shielding itself like a cunning animal, afraid that Dr Frankestein will kill its monster.

For many AI is a fun way to edit a family photo. For others that very act is as environmentally ignorant as replanting rainforests with palms. As a society, we are all now faced with a decision about our usage of the technology, but also we are increasingly imagining a medley of futures.

Which one will come true? Answer our poll below, and watch these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpe7n...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPJT4...

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 50