Dr Hannah Dawson speaks at Davos World Economic Forum

Dr Hannah Dawson, Lecturer in the History of Political Thought at King's, was invited to Davos to speak at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. The theme of the meeting in 2016 was the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is that putative future (and increasingly present) reality in which industry is wholly automated on the production side, and, on the consumer side, the world is plugged into your every need and desire – so that when you walk into a room the light goes on, when your phone is about to die a message is relayed to the factory and a replacement, perfectly customised to your specification, arrives at your door.

Hannah drew on the history of western philosophy to ask whether this is a world in which we want and ought to live. Will the Fourth Industrial Revolution give us the good life? Watch a video of Hannah's presentation below.

Photos by WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/Benedikt von Loebell