This guest lecturer is looking forward to having discussions with as diverse a collection of people as possible. AiR@TU/e consists of six master classes, three public events and a weekend excursion (the corona crisis permitting). During the master classes the writer hopes to get to the core of meritocracy. “What is equality worth? Diversity appears to play an important role at TU/e. I'm thinking of the program designed to increase to proportion of women academics [the Irène Curie Fellowship, ed.]. When I heard about it in the national media, I thought it courageous, but also complicated. Would I want to be a person hired on the basis of positive discrimination? And why make women the focus? Could you similarly set a target of 20 percent of academics in a wheelchair? Which groups do you want to see represented?”

There is plenty more that's complicated at TU/e.

Cursor: “In the TU/e's culture I see a lot of student teams, competition takes the form of contests and startups are highly valued. Is your theme applicable here?”

Grunberg: “We can ask ourselves whether academics are running a race. Do we want to think about that? Spending a great deal of time applying for grants to be able to do research, what does that mean?”

Cursor: “TU/e is trying to put Artificial Intelligence on the map. The ethical aspects are a focus of attention, both alongside and within a TU/e institute in this field. This month, for example, a debate is being held on robot sex. Do robots have a place in a meritocracy?”

Grunberg: “Yes, this comes back to my question of what you can regulate. How far should a robot be allowed to go? Is it possible to set limits? Is it something you should be thinking of prohibiting? On what grounds? Will a new divide take the place of rich-poor; those who have access to AI and those who don't? Incidentally, I think that prohibiting sex robots is as hopeless an undertaking as prohibiting prostitution.”

Mountain walk

Asking more and more questions, this is Grunberg's style this afternoon. The first AiR@TU/e was Spinvis and this Erik de Jong took his students along on an expedition to CERN. Grunberg would like to go walking in Switzerland with the group. “Interesting ideas occur while walking. I want to go to Sils Maria, the mountain village where Nietzsche wrote some of his oeuvre, including Die fröhliche Wissenschaft. I want to discuss Nietzsche's ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’ with the students. I suspect this isn't something these TU/e students will automatically have read. Certain moral assumptions are regarded as self-evident; I would like to show that they are not self-evident and that everything depends on context.”

The question of what Grunberg himself understands by equality elicits a clear answer – with follow-up questions hot on its heels. “Equality exists when everyone feels respected and taken seriously. Is equality in the eyes of the law and in practice the same as in writing? Take the toeslagenaffaire [the Dutch childcare benefits scandal in which the claimants became victims, ed.]. Who has the guts, the energy and the confidence to bring an action against the state? I also want to read the Dutch constitution with the students.”

At the final presentation, before an audience, the product of the twenty-five students in whatever form it may take (machine, text, video, artwork, podcast, etc.) will be displayed and Arnon Grunberg will certainly give a lecture. “I'll give my view of the whole endeavor and will talk about what I myself have learned. Because undoubtedly that will happen. There is always an interaction between student/pupil and teacher, even at the level of a kindergarten. Otherwise something has gone awry in the knowledge transfer. And you may as well churn out an online lesson. This project is certainly more special than that.”