Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

Although it was way back in the 1970s that the famous Czech dissident Vaclav Benda outlined his vision of a "parallel society" within a society - one that would enable its members to live their lives in greater freedom and without government interference - it's only in the past couple of decades that we've seen the kind of technological developments that can make Benda's vision of a parallel society a reality. This according to Pavol Luptak, IT security specialist and co-founder of Paralelna Polis, a technology-oriented community with centres in Prague and Bratislava whose founders were directly inspired by Benda's writings. Jonathan caught up with Pavol recently to learn more about parallel societies and why he and his colleagues think that it's important to establish them in today's world. Rerun: Does the Big Bang scientific theory have any implications for philosophical or religious beliefs about the origin of the universe? Do modern governments spend too much money on weapons and not enough on scientific research? These questions are addressed by Brano Sitar, a Slovak nuclear physicist who has spent the past 26 years deeply involved in experimental research at CERN, one of the world's top scientfic institutions.