where will we live? Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, and urban populations continue to increase. At the same time, regional cities and small towns are actively reinventing themselves as places to live and visit and mobile young people may make surprising choices about home ownership. How will the housing market respond? Mary Casey Chair, Living Future Institute

what will our environment Be like? Most people now accept that human beings are permanently changing the world’s environment through their actions and inactions. How will future Australians adapt to a changing world? Dr Jaci Brown Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO

what will we own? In the middle of last century, owning stuff was the great ambition, but the sharing economy is increasing the range of things which people only use and might never own In some countries manufacturers of products such as whitegoods and cars are responsible for the product once the consumer no longer wants it. How will industry respond to these new economic drivers? Dr Chris Riedy Associate Professor Institute for Sustainable Futures University of Technology Sydney

where will we work? 250 years ago the industrial revolution put men, women and children into farms, mines and factories. The robotics revolution has only just begun, and we don’t yet know if this technology will liberate humans from the drudgery of work, or threaten the way we live. Dr David Tuffley Lecturer in Applied Ethics and Socio-Technical Studies School of ICT Griffith University

what will we eat? The world’s population is expanding faster than our capacity to provide good food. Will future Australians get their food from their own backyards, from the farm, from the factory, or from overseas?    

A good life, Or a long life?  Average life expectancy for Australians is now over 80 years, that means lots of us will live longer and maybe better lives  What makes for a good life and how do we keep it good for a very long time? Join Dr Bruce Rumbold, Director Palliative Care Unit, Latrobe University and Dr Ralph Hampson, Senior Lecturer Health and Ageing, University of Melbourne for a lively discussion.

WILL MY ROBOT LOVE ME BACK? Maybe in the future all of us will own a robot, and it seems we will develop emotional attachments to them. Will they have the capacity for emotional engagement with us? Join Professor Rob Sparrow, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies,Monash University and Professor Rajiv Khosla, Director, Research Centre for Computers, Communication and Social Innovation at Latrobe University for a lively discussion.

What are the barriers to good governance? Many of the challenges we face are global in scope.  Would creating a world government make them easier to deal with, or would this create more problems than it solves? Dr Luis Cabrera                                    Dr Mark Beeson Associate Professor,                             Professor of International Politics…

25 May in Sydney WE DON’T EAT AUSTRALIAN FOOD, HOW CAN WE RECONCILE WITH ABORIGINAL PEOPLE? Australians engage with our own and each other’s cultural heritage through cooking and eating.  How can we reconcile with our Aboriginal heritage when we don't even eat Indigenous food? Join Indigenous Chef Clayton Donovan (from Jaaning Tree Restaurant in Nambucca Heads) and freelance food writer, journalist and teacher John Newton for a lively discussion.

WE DON’T EAT AUSTRALIAN FOOD, HOW CAN WE RECONCILE WITH ABORIGINAL PEOPLE? Australians engage with our own and each other’s cultural heritage through cooking and eating. How can we reconcile with our Aboriginal heritage when we don’t even eat indigenous food? Join John Newton, freelance writer journalist, novelist and teacher and Clayton Donovan Indigenous Chef at Jaaning Tree Restaurant, Nambucca Heads for a lively discussion.  

GENE EDITS GOING CHEAP. SHOULD WE BE WORRIED? New techniques make it quick and easy to edit-out defective genes and maybe to edit-in preferred genetic material. Is this eugenics, or a gift to the next generation? Join Peter Seligman from the Bionics Institute and Professor Rachel Ankeny from Adelaide University in a lively discussion  

RIGHT TO LIFE OR RIGHT TO DEATH? As pain relief and medical care improve, fewer people die in suffering. But many people still want the option to end their life if they are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Would legal euthanasia make human life worthless? Join Dr Neil Levy, Professor of Philosophy at Macquarie University and Dr Megan Best from Hope Palliative Care for a lively discussion on a very topical issue.

Urban, Regional, Rural - where will future Australia's live? Join Dr Alison Taylor from the University of New South Wales and Dr Neal Argent from the University of New England for a spirited discussion. As our cities become larger, will they become less livable?  What would Sydney be like with 10 million residents?  Why will people decide to live outside major cities?

REGRETABLY THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.  IF POSSIBLE IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED IN 2018.    

Will we lose all our jobs to robots? Join Dr Jim Stanford from the Centre for FutureWork and Tim Mahlberg Work/Community specialist and organisational psychologist for a spirited discussion. We know that the workplace is changing and low skilled jobs are disappearing.  Now it seems that some high skilled jobs could be mechanised too.  Will this free us to do higher value work, or consign us all to the unemployment queues?

What does it mean to be human? Join Dr Kirrilly Thompson from Central Queensland University and Dr Martin Luerssen from Flinders University in an lively exchange.   Humanity faces many crises.  What is it about us humans that is worth preserving?  Is it our history and social evolution that make us 'human'? Or could we replace ourselves with artificial intelligence and still be 'human'?