Following discussions in the wake of various recent meetups, London Futurists is launching a project to organise the best of our collective thinking on the question:

• What ethical principles should guide humanity as technology becomes increasingly powerful?

The project was proposed as follows by London Futurists member Dil Green:

Without a decent, shared, openly managed and modern ethical foundation, all these conversations become ‘hand-waving’ – endless details and observations, objective and subjective, will be adduced – none readily distinguishable from post-rationalisations of our emotional responses…

So, having been so harsh, do I have anything positive to offer? How’s this for starters?

• Invite a wide range of ‘progressive’ stakeholders for a ‘deliberative democracy’ event to propose an open, shared, worldwide ‘Constitution for Progressive Ethics’.

From the start, this must understood as a project, rather than a one-off product – that it must propose a mechanism, as well as an easily communicated set of statements.

The aim would be to produce something which can be accepted, worldwide, by a large minority of self-identified progressives – accepting that variety will be added – that must be folded into the overall mechanic, so that this Constitution remains alive, relevant, meaningful.

Such a Constitution would enable a global, non-state, non-party, secular grouping to engage with power structures and bring a clear and consistent progressive ethical position to the world stage.

In an initial phase of the project, material can be collected, reviewed, and refined online. This can happen via two mechanisms (among others):

• References to existing material can be collected in H+Pedia
• Original material can be published on the Transpolitica blog.

Feedback is welcome!