31 Inventions that Built Our World: Jonn Elledge

For over 10,000 years, the human race has been busy altering our environment and embracing 'progress', evolving seamlessly from hunter gatherers to the modern urban sophisticates we see ourselves as today.

But what are the ideas and inventions that enabled humanity to become, by the early 21st century, a majority urban species for the first time? How did the essential infrastructure of modern life - the innovations that we barely even notice, but without which our world would fall apart - happen?

With his characteristic wit and boundless curiosity, Jonn Elledge invites us to join him on a fascinating and often surprising tour of the ideas and technologies that made modernity possible. From elevators to electric lighting, street numbering to sewers, he guides us through the history of civilisation itself.

The event will be followed by book sales and a signing with the author.

Tickets: £8

Jonn Elledge

Jonn Elledge is the author of the number-one bestseller, A History of the World in 47 Borders. A New Statesman and New World columnist, he is a regular on the podcasts Oh God, What Now? and the late, lamented PaperCuts, and a frequent contributor to The i Paper, the Guardian and assorted other publications. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written three books, as well as over 200 editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. He lives in London, with the best dog in the world.

Hosted by Dr Kate Devlin

Dr Kate Devlin is Professor of Artificial Intelligence & Society at King’s College London where she is Chair-Director of the Digital Futures Institute. A committed science communicator, she writes for general audiences on the impact of technology on our everyday lives.