Apple co-founder will be the headline act at Edinburgh technology festival

A TALK from the man who co-founded Apple will be among the highlights at a festival of technology in the Capital.

The Turing Festival, named in honour of wartime codebreaker and father of modern computing Alan Turing, will celebrate the latest developments in science and technology. This year is the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing.

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, will deliver his first keynote speech in Scotland as the headline act of the festival.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He will talk about his life at Apple, entrepreneurship, his autobiography iWoz and the future of computing and the web, with the event at the Edinburgh Playhouse marking the opening day.

Founder and festival director Dr Jamie Coleman said Mr Wozniak’s participation was the “most fantastic thing ever”.

“Steve is the world’s most famous geek,” he said.

The three-day festival, which is expected to attract up to 6000 visitors, will also include a talk from accomplished deep sea explorer Dr Robert Ballard, who found the wreckage of the Titanic and Bismarck. Dr Ballard’s talk will be beamed live from a boat in the Black Sea.

The event will also include a lecture from the scientists behind CERN, which provided the strongest evidence yet of the existence of the Higgs boson – the so-called God particle, which helps explain why objects have mass.

Dr Coleman, 37, who lives in the New Town, said: “The Turing Festival brings the digital industries and the web into this gathering in a celebration of digital culture and creativity.

“Our mission is to bring the world’s leading innovators and technologists together with artists, performers, scientists and entrepreneurs to debate and discuss the impact of technology on humanity.”

The festival, now in its second year, will feature more than 40 of the world’s top explorers, scientists and technologists, including leading population geneticist and National Geographic Explorer Spencer Wells. He is the director of the Genographic Project, which involves taking swabs from inside people’s mouths to determine where their ancestors originated.

Dr Coleman added: “It will be an amazing few days. I’m hoping some of the people of Edinburgh might want to come along and bring their kids to see some of the world’s explorers, scientists and technologists do some really cool things.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The not-for-profit festival, which runs from August 23 to 25, aims to bring together technical, digital and artistic experts.

Most of the events will take place in Appleton Tower, with some also being held at Dynamic Earth, Summerhall at the Meadows and the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Related topics: