London Futurists

London Futurists Hangout On Air: Will science & technology save the world?

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The green revolution in agriculture has freed hundreds of millions around the world from the risk of starvation. The Internet is providing knowledge-on-tap to people as never before. Lifespans have doubled due to remarkable progress in medicine. New desalination techniques are poised to solve problems of shortage of fresh water. Our remaining resource problems can be solved by synthetic biology, nanoscale molecular manufacturing, and asteroid mining. The threat of climate change can be tamed by carbon capture and geoengineering. Although doomsayers are distracted by rolling news stories that highlight human failings in graphic terms, the big picture is that science and technology are changing the world into a much better place. Right?

Not every futurist is convinced by this techno-optimistic narrative. Here’s a forceful critique by renowned speaker, blogger, and interviewer, Nikola Danaylov:

I am tired of hearing that science and technology will save the world.

It is almost the same as saying “Jesus will save you!”

It evokes the very same passive quasi-religious hope that something or someone out there will magically solve all our problems, bring abundance in our lives, help us live forever and bring back the dead.

I am sorry to break this to you but science and technology will not save the world. Never have…

Our civilization is like an alcoholic with a failing liver – we hope we can 3d bio-print a new one just in time, while failing to acknowledge our self-destructive habits and our own responsibility, thereby failing to address the actual problem, rather than the symptom.

It’s like hoping to win the lottery – it’s not totally impossible, but it is almost certain we won’t. (And even if we do, then what? It will only provide more time, not necessarily a solution.)

And so we sit, and wait, and hope for science and technology to come save the world. And we are getting both fat and lazy as we are eating and driving ourselves to death. Both personally and collectively.

(You can read the full article at https://www.singularityweblog.com/technology-is-not-enough/.)

In this London Futurists online video conference, a number of futurists from around the world will be debating questions such as:

  • What are the risks of over-reliance on technology?
  • What are the risks of under-reliance on technology?
  • What goals should be set for the use of science and technology?
  • To what extent is it desirable to try to regulate the development and use of technology?
  • What are the most effective methods to steer the development of technology? Politics? Public advocacy? Or what?

Panelists

Nikola Danaylov – aka “Socrates”, host of the popular Singularity.FM podcast, and author of Conversations with the Future: 21 Visions for the 21st Century

Kim Solez, Director of the course “Technology and the Future of Medicine” at the University of Alberta

Jay Friedenberg, Psychology Professor, Manhattan College, and author of Humanity’s Future: How Technology Will Change Us

Seth Weisberg, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, previously worked at the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Science at Florida Atlantic University

The discussion is hosted and moderated by David Wood, the Chair of London Futurists, and the author of Transcending Politics.

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Futurist David Wood on Transhumanism: Radical Change Lies Ahead

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David Wood YouTubeDavid Wood is the chair of London Futurists and on the Humanity+ board of directors. He is an eminent futurist whose valuable newsletter I myself have been subscribed to for several years now and so I was very happy that, at long last, we managed to sit down for a proper interview. Not surprisingly, I found our conversation both intellectually enlightening and spiritually entertaining. So block off the next 90 min because I believe you may feel the same way too.

During our conversation with David Wood, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as his background in mathematics, quantum mechanics, and mobile computing; his take on futurism and transhumanism; the importance of philosophy in general and ethics in particular; free will, determinism, making choices and taking action; P+, Transpolitica and the importance of (changing) politics; the singularity and our chances of surviving it; capitalism, abundance, and technological unemployment…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with David Wood is:

Radical change lies ahead. We have to be better at discussing that change. If we are aware of the possibilities – we’ll prepare for them. But even more – we’ll be able to shape them. So let’s put more of our attention not in the past, not in the present, but into discussing the future. Let’s all become futurists so that radical change ahead is something we’ll be happy to embrace when it comes rather than something we wish we had anticipated and prepared for differently.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is David Wood?

DWW April 2015After 25 years immersed in the mobile computing and smartphone industries – envisioning, architecting, designing, implementing, and avidly using smart mobile devices – David Wood nowadays focuses his efforts on improving the quality of the global discussion about the future. He does this via:

In 1988 David joined the UK-based manufacturer of some of the world’s earliest PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), Psion, as a software developer (later software architect). Some of his software, written originally for the 16-bit “EPOC” operating system and subsequently ported into the 32-bit “Symbian OS”, shipped in half a billion smartphones between 2001 and 2012.

In 1998, David co-founded Symbian, a spin-out from Psion, and the creator of the world’s first successful smartphone operating system. He served on the leadership teams of Psion Software and Symbian from 1996-2009. At different times, his executive responsibilities included software development, technical consulting, developer evangelism, partnering and ecosystem management, and research and innovation. This included working closely with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, Fujitsu, Siemens, and many other high-tech companies.

David was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in June 2005. In November 2005 he received an honorary Doctorate in Science (D.Sc.) from the University of Westminster, in recognition of his services to the smartphone industry. He was named in September 2009 by T3 magazine as one of the 100 most influential technologists on the planet.

From 2010 to 2013, David was Technology Planning Lead (CTO) of Accenture Mobility, and co-led Accenture’s “Mobility Health” business initiative.

As chair of London Futurists, David has organized regular meetings in London since March 2008 on futurist and technoprogressive topics. Membership of London Futurists now exceeds 3,400.

David was lead editor of the volume “Anticipating 2025: A guide to the radical changes that may lie ahead, whether or not we’re ready”, published in June 2014. His own book “Smartphones and beyond: lessons from the remarkable rise and fall of Symbian” was published in September 2014, and has been described as “One of the most candid and revealing books a technology executive has ever written”.

In January 2015 he founded the think tank Transpolitica, with the aim of “anticipating tomorrow’s politics”. He also serves as Treasurer for the Transhumanist Party in the UK and as a Fellow of the IEET. He has a triple first class degree in mathematics from Cambridge (UK) and completed four years of postgraduate research in the Philosophy of Science.

London Futurists Hangout On Air: Terminator or Transcendence?

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Last Sunday I participated in a fun panel discussion organized by David Wood from the London Futurists. The topic was “Terminator or Transcendence?” and we kicked off the conversation by critiquing the film Transcendence. Then we moved on to other topics such as the timeline to achieving AI in general and ASI in particular, the Turing Test and our hopes and fears for the future. You can see the full 90min recording below:

 

Synopsis: Hollywood has provided some vivid images of what might happen when AI gains superhuman powers. This includes the various disasters depicted in Terminator and Transcendence. These films are science fiction, but appear to have some of their plot lines rooted in potential near-future real-world developments. Should we be worried about real-world near-equivalents of Dr Will Caster? If so, what sort of evasive action should we be taking?

This London Futurists Hangout On Air assembles an international panel of analysts who have thought long and hard about the potential of superhuman AI: Calum Chace, Stuart Armstong and Nikola Danaylov.

The panellists will be debating a number of far-reaching questions raised by recent Hollywood AI extravaganzas:
• Which elements of Transcendence are the least credible? Which elements are the most credible?
• How soon will we see the first human-level AI? Haven’t computer scientists been wrong about their predictions of timing many times before? Why should we take their latest predictions any more seriously than previous ones?
• Aren’t human minds just too complex and mysterious to be replicated?
• If human society can’t even take effective action to address climate change, what chance do we have to take effective action against malignant AI development?
• If we had Hollywood-level budgets at our disposal, what kind of film about AI would we most like to make?