Cory Doctorow, internet savant, anti-copyright activist and science fiction writer, was in down last night as a guest of SFU's Faculty of Applied Sciences' Leonardo Institute Lecture series.

The lecture was titled "The Totalitarian Urge: total information awareness and the cosmic billiards" and I didn't really know what to expect, as it was the first time I had heard Cory speak (although I am pretty familiar with his work). I thought it was a pretty engaging talk, with a multitude of tangents and references insuring that there was something in it for everyone, on every level. I thought it was pretty great. There were a lot of shocking bits and a lot of funny bits and even so I was so tired that I'm sure I missed a lot of it.

This is how Cory Doctorow described the talk in the SFU promo:

"It's about how technology changes the way we view social problems," says Doctorow. "Older mechanical technologies make us see the world as deterministic, knowable and manipulable. New emergent technologies like the Internet teach us that control is an illusion, the universe is out of control and laughing at us, and that the more we watch and control, the more problems we have."

He will be speaking again this afternoon, Friday March 9th at 3:30pm at the SFU Burnaby Campus in Academic Quadrangle, C9001 if you can make it. The event is free, but go early to make sure you can get a seat. Alternatively, you can download a recording of last night's lecture at blogaholics. Thanks IanIv!

Image courtesy of Uncleweed.