Dear Futurists.

1.) Request for debaters for event on 6th August

On the evening of Monday 6th August, London Futurists in partnership with the Great Debaters Club will be holding a formal debate on the motion

“A digital dictatorship will create a better society than democracy”

There will be a number of speakers both for and against the motion.

If you would like to be one of these speakers, then please get in touch. Bear in mind that:

• The main speeches from each speaker will be restricted to six minutes
• Prior experience with this kind of format will be an advantage
• Speakers will also be expected to respond to questions from the floor, and to points raised by other speakers
• The Great Debaters Club will offer a small amount of advice and preparation to each of the speakers selected.

Let me know on which side of the motion you’d like to speak – or whether you would be prepared to speak on either side.

Once the planning for this meeting is more advanced, a meetup page will be created, for people to RSVP to attend it.

(Picture source: Geralt on Pixabay.)

2.) Big Data vs. Democracy – Monday 16th July

You may notice that the topic of the event on 6th August (“A digital dictatorship will create a better society than democracy”) has a lot in common with that of the event on 16th July (“Will Democracy Survive The Age Of Big Data & Artificial Intelligence?”):

Will the age of big data and artificial intelligence mean the demise of democracy, with collective human decision-making being displaced by the algorithms of big data and artificial intelligence?

The overlap is intentional: this topic is a critically important one to discuss.

The even on 16th July is taking place in a relatively small room in Conway Hall. All 60 places allocated to London Futurists were snapped up by RSVPs some time ago.

If you have RSVP’ed ‘Yes’ for this event, but no longer expect to be able to attend, kindly update your RSVP to ‘No’, so that someone on the Waiting List can go in your place.

Note that this event is jointly hosted with a couple of other organisations – GlobalNet21 and Conway Hall Ethical Society. At the time of writing, it is possible to obtain tickets for the event (if you aren’t already on the ‘Yes’ list with London Futurists) at this EventBrite site.

3.) Videos of recent London Futurists events

You can view a video recording of our 30th June event “A plea for sanity in the Energy debate: The humanist case for nuclear energy” here:

Recordings from our 2nd June event “Universal Basic Income and/or Alternatives: 2018 update” are all embedded into this event page.

As for the recordings from our 14th June event “TechXLR8 Futurist Summit: Advice from 2023”, I’m still trying to find out from the events company Knect365 what has happened to them. More news in due course…

4.) London Futurists on BBC Sunday Morning Live

For a different kind of video recording, those with access to BBC iPlayer can fast forward to 40:40 in the recording of the BBC Sunday Morning Live programme from 24th June.

In the programme segment from 40:40 to 52:30, I was one of four panellists discussing the question “Is gene editing unethical”.

The timeslot was over almost as soon as it had begun, but I was glad for the opportunity to inject a few “positive futurist” ideas into the discussion.

5.) RAADfest news: Laurie Handlers in London; VIP seating

I’ve mentioned RAADfest a number of times in these newsletters over the years. Planning is gearing up for this year’s event in San Diego on September 20-23. With some justification, the event claims to be:

The largest event in the world where practical and cutting-edge methods to reverse aging are presented for all interest levels, from beginner to expert.

As a reminder, RAAD stands for Revolution Against Aging and Death, and it is presented by the Coalition for Radical Life Extension.

If you’re unsure whether to attend, and would like to talk through what may be involved, you may enjoy meeting one of the RAADfest team during a visit she is making to London. This Monday evening (9th July), Laurie Handlers of Butterfly Workshops is giving a talk in London W1 on the same themes as she regularly speaks about at RAADfest. The title of her talk is “Cultivating Sexual Ecstasy for Radical Life Extension”. For more details, and to register to attend if tickets are still available, see this Facebook event page.

For more details about other speakers at RAADfest itself, see here.

In separate RAADfest news, note that a special deal is available until 16th July:

People who register by that time will receive VIP seating for the whole event.

Best wishes

// David W. Wood
Chair, London Futurists