POWER AND PERIL OF THE DIGITAL AGE

Dates: Thursday and Friday, 4–5 November 2021, 9.00 am–12.30 pm AEDT
Venue: Live-streamed and now on YouTube
Brochure: The brochure is available in two forms:
(a) an abridged document (pdf: 5.8 MB) providing just the program, and
(b) a complete document (pdf: 6.2 MB) providing the program, abstracts, and speaker biographies.

On this page:

• Overview
• Presentations

Overview

We are at a moment in time when we must acknowledge and address the inevitably rising tide of data use and digital services. History will categorize the early decades of the 21st Century as the digital age, the age of prodigious development and use of digital technologies that enable us to transfer and access information easily and swiftly.

So much so that digital interaction is a defining characteristic of modern human life. Societies, economies, and political processes are infused and connected by the ubiquitous use of smart machines and software that process and communicate information to us in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

The pace of digitisation was already fast by the end of 2019 before COVID-19 emerged. The pandemic broke through cultural barriers and enabled implementation of digital strategies in a matter of days or weeks rather than years. Digital technologies are central to dealing with the pandemic itself, as well as being the primary driver of productivity in almost every other aspect of society.

Almost all companies, governments and organisations across the world are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits associated with data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to solve problems never solved before, to undertake projects in five days that would have taken five years — problems such as those embodied in the United Nations General Assembly’s Sustainable Development Goals and their achievement by 2030. Tangible benefits include greater social connectivity, learning opportunities, information storage, versatile working and transport, and greater access to entertainment, news, banking and finance.

Unlocking the power of the digital age also brings peril, associated with concerns about data security, state-based and transnational crime, and terrorism, complexity, privacy, social disconnection, media manipulation, manipulation of the truth, communities left behind, national defence and market vulnerabilities, outstripping rule-making and regulatory structures.

This year, the Royal Society of NSW in partnership with the Learned Academies - Health and Medicine, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, and Technology and Engineering, has chosen “Power and Peril of the Digital Age” as the theme for its annual Forum.

Our goal is to have a grown-up conversation about digitisation and the use of data. It will be framed around the future life of a child born on the first day of the Forum, 4 November 2021. This child will be born into a world of increasingly complex digital systems that hold great value and vulnerability.

Starting with a technological framing, the Forum will explore several major aspects which will impact the journey of that child as we approach 2030 and beyond. We will explore aspects of technology, health, defence, and security in a digital age, and the changing nature of industry as the world and society evolves.

Finally, our annual Forum will be a call to arms for the host Societies to focus on challenges identified during the day that must be addressed for Australia to remain a prosperous, successful, and safe democracy in the digital world.

The Royal Society of NSW acknowledges the generous support of Her Excellency, the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, and the NSW Smart Sensing Network.

Program and Presentations

[email protected]

presented by

Her Excellency the Honourable
Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW


“Manufacturing at the Atomic Scale”

Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons
   AO FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE
   UNSW Sydney
Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for
   Quantum Computation and
   Communication Technology
Founder, Silicon Quantum Computing

Date: Thursday, 4 August 2022, 6.00 pm - 8.00 pm AEST 
Venue: Government House Sydney - face-to-face and live streaming
Registration: Registration to receive a formal invitation from Government House is required.  Registration closes on Monday, 11 July at 9.00 pm AEST
Entry: no charge but registration is open only to RSNSW members
Enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
All are welcome

Please note that you are registering to receive a formal invitation from Government House Sydney to this face-to-face event.  Until you receive this formal invitation by email from Government House Sydney, within days of the close of registrations, and you RSVP online you are not enrolled for the event.

Please register now

Summary: [email protected] is an initiative of Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW and Patron of the Royal Society of NSW, to host public events at Government House that highlight important and influential ideas. In this lecture, the fifth in the [email protected] series presented by the Governor in partnership with the Royal Society of NSW, Professor Michelle Simmons AO FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE, Scientia Professor at UNSW Sydney, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, and Director of the startup company Silicon Quantum Computing will present a lecture titled "Manufacturing at the Atomic Scale", following the recent announcement of their breakthrough development of the world's first quantum computer integrated circuit. The presentation will be followed by a reception hosted by the Governor of NSW.

Michelle Simmons has pioneered unique technologies to build electronic devices at the atomic scale, pushing the boundaries of global research in classical computing, and opening up the prospect of developing a silicon-based quantum computer: a powerful new form of computing with the potential to transform information processing. Her achievements include the development of the world's smallest transistor, the narrowest conducting wires, 3D atomic electronics, and the first two-qubit gate using atom-based qubits in silicon. Most recently, in June 2022, the startup company SQC, of which she is the founder and director, announced the world's first integrated circuit at the atomic scale, comprising 10 quantum dots that created a quantum integrated circuit capable of simulating molecular behaviour.

Donations

The Royal Society of NSW is a registered charity and very much welcomes your support. Donations in support of our Library and Scholarship programs are tax-deductible in Australia. At this time, in June 2022, our focus is on the following project.

RSNSW Bicentennial Postgraduate Scholarships

We seek your tax-deductible donation in support of the RSNSW Bicentennial Postgraduate Scholarship program that acknowledges excellence and encourages and supports young researchers in NSW. To read further about the intent of the bicentennial scholarships program, please follow this link To support this important work, we invite you to please do so through the donation form below.

Further information about this fundraising effort

After a wonderful year of celebrations, our bicentennial year is concluding with the exciting announcement of a program of scholarships that we can sustain for future years. We are therefore establishing the Royal Society of NSW Bicentennial Scholarships to be offered in any academic field. 

The Society has a long tradition of encouraging and supporting young researchers in NSW. The rationale for establishing these scholarships is that now, more than ever, Australia needs to encourage our future leaders to excel. 

The winners will receive a cash prize of at least $1,000, plus a complimentary year of membership of the Society. Membership provides the young scholars with the opportunity to network with learned researchers and leading professionals across a wide range of disciplines. 

The sustainability of the program will depend very much on your generosity. With your generous, tax-deductible donation, the Society looks forward to continuing this meaningful initiative well into our third century. 

Young researchers are our future.

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“The Global Economy and Australia's Outlook: Geoff Harcourt's contribution to the theory of productivity growth”


Dr Don Russell (1)
Ms Jane Drake-Brockman (2)
Emeritus Professor Robert Marks FRSN (3)


(1) Chair, AustralianSuper
(2) Visiting Fellow, University of Adelaide
(3) Emeritus Professor, UNSW (Sydney)

Date: Wednesday, 5 October 2022, 6.30 pm AEDT 
Venue: Gallery Room, Mitchell Building, State Library of NSW
Entry: $35 for Society members; $45 for non-members; $5 for students
Registration: Registration is required through Membes (link to follow)
All are welcome

Summary: Geoff Harcourt AC FRSN (1931-2021) was a very influential economist, in particular contributing to the profession's understanding of productivity growth with his work on the "Cambridge controversy."  In this session two eminent economists, Don Russell and Jane Drake-Brockman, will discuss the global economic outlook, Australia's place in the world, and the issue of lagging productivity growth and lagging wage growth in Australia. Robert Marks, a friend and colleague of Geoff's for 45 years, will attempt to bring Geoff's ideas into the discussion.

Don Russell is currently the Chair of AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund. Don has extensive public and private sector experience and served as Australia’s Ambassador to the USA in Washington. He was Principal Adviser to the Hon Paul Keating both during his time as Treasurer and Prime Minister.   

Jane Drake-Brockman is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Trade at the University of Adelaide and one of Australia’s foremost experts on trade in services and digital trade. She has served with the International Trade Centre (Geneva), OECD Secretariat (Paris) and Commonwealth Secretariat (London). A former diplomat, she served for example as Chief Economist with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and as Minister/Charge d’Affaires at the Australian Delegation to the EU in Brussels. She is Founding Director of the Australian Services Roundtable, the peak business body for the services sector, Co-Convenor of the Asia Pacific Services Coalition and Co-Chair of the T20 Taskforce on Trade and Investment.

Robert Marks is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Economics, UNSW, and since 2016 the Editor of the Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW. Previously, he was a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Stanford, and a founding lecturer in the Australian Graduate School of Management, where he edited the Australian Journal of Management for 13 years. In 1976 he consulted Geoff Harcourt at the University of Adelaide about future jobs in economics in Australia. In 1987 an algorithm of his won the Second MIT. Competitive Strategy Tournament.