Dear Futurists,
What makes the forthcoming event The Technoprogressive Opportunity particularly special isn’t just that the speakers are all remarkable people.
It’s the set of topics that they will be discussing – topics that go far beyond the merely fascinating, merely worrying, merely provocative, or merely entertaining.
Rather than discussing emerging technologies in isolation, the speakers will examine how technological possibilities might interact radically with economics, politics, institutions, culture, and the planetary environment.
Today, for the first time, the detailed schedule of the talks at the event can be announced – as you can read below.
Be warned that, if you attend this conference, your life may never be the same again – due to new connections that you make there, surprising new ways of viewing the world, and a new vision for how a growing technoprogressive current can gather momentum and reach a new kind of escape velocity.
1.) Schedule for 19th and 20th September
The following is from this Luma page, where you can also register to attend the conference (tickets are free of charge for the time being).
The event will run from 9:30 to 17:00 on Saturday 19th September, and from 10:00 to 17:00 on Sunday 20th September. Both days will include a 90 minute break for lunch and networking , and another 30 minute refreshment break in the afternoon.
In more detail (some aspects are subject to change):
>> Saturday morning <<
09:30 Registration & morning coffee
10:00 Rohit Talwar, Global futurist and publisher, Fast Future
Technopolitics 2035: How geopolitics and the technoprogressive agenda could shape each other
10:30 Marc Roux, President, Technoprog
Changing human nature or changing human institutions?
11:00 Eva Pascoe, Vice Chair, Royal Society of Arts
Anticipating the future of commerce and work
11:30 Pravar Petkar, Head of Strengthening Democracy Desk, International Centre for Sustainability
Can Technology Make Democracy More Democratic?
12:00 Lunch break
>> Saturday early afternoon <<
13:30 James Hughes, Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Strengthening the technoprogressive current
14:00 Phoebe Barnard, Global change scientist, systems and civilisation shift strategist, Global Restoration Collaborative
Civilizational Blindspots and Risks: Caution Signs at the Crossroads
14:30 Nafeez Ahmed, Systems theorist, investigative journalist, strategic advisor, Age of Transformation
Planetary Phase Shift and Civilisation Renewal
15:00 Afternoon break
>> Saturday late afternoon <<
15:30 Parmy Olson, Technology Columnist, Bloomberg
Supremacy: The AI race that is changing the world
16:00 Mark Robinson, Senior Science Diplomacy Advisor, Oxford Martin School AI Governance Initiative
The future International Artificial Intelligence Agency
16:30 Alex Williams, Political theorist and author, University of East Anglia
The paradoxes of contemporary AI capitalism
17:00 Day 1 ends
>> Sunday morning <<
10:00 Registration & morning coffee
10:30 Matteo MacDermant, Researcher and podcaster, Bread and Robots
Technoprogressive Worldbuilding 101
11:00 Indra Adnan and Pat Kane, Co-Initiators and Founders, The Alternative UK
A Parallel Polis For The Regenerative Era
11:30 Indy Johar, Co-Founder, Dark Matter Laboratories
The Corrigible State
12:00 Lunch break
>> Sunday early afternoon <<
13:30 Paul Mason, Journalist, The New World; Author, “PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future”
PostCapitalism and Agentic AI
14:00 Steve Keen, Economist and author, Debunking Economics
How economists will destroy capitalism
14:30 Carissa Véliz, Professor in Philosophy, University of Oxford
Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future
15:00 Afternoon break
>> Sunday late afternoon <<
15:30 Mark Cliffe, Visiting Fellow, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
Tipping Points – How Positive Should We Be?
16:00 Eli Zupnick, Communications Strategist, Singularity Communications
Technoprogressive opportunities: learning from the American situation
16:30 Aubrey de Grey, President and Chief Science Officer, LEV Foundation
Lessons from building a pro-longevity movement
17:00 Day 2 ends
Options to join speakers for dinner gatherings will be announced shortly.
2.) What’s needed most? Thursday 27th August
As a prelude to the two-day event on 19th and 20th September, there’s a chance for people to gather tomorrow evening (Thursday 27th August) in our usual pub venue, Ye Olde Cock Tavern in Fleet Street, from 6pm onward.
For more details of this gathering, click here.
To catalyse the conversation, I’ll be presenting a few provocative slides at the start of the event. Here are images of the first three:
After these first three, I’ve got several more slides to share, and then I expect considerable pushback from at least some attendees.
That’s why the event has the subtitle “Hopes and fears”.
As well as the main discussion, there will be plenty of opportunity for quieter, smaller conversations.
3.) The latest London Futurists Podcast episode
The latest London Futurists Podcast episode – Episode 135 – features two of the people who will be speaking in London on the 19th and 20th of September, namely Pat Kane and Indra Adnan, the co-convenors of The Alternative Global. They launched that project in 2017 with the question, If politics is broken, what’s the alternative?
I’ve received lots of very positive feedback about this episode. Check it out here, or in any of the usual podcast applications.
By the way, if you’re wondering about the various multi-coloured spiral images in some of these pictures, you can read the explanation at the end of the Luma page about The Technoprogressive Opportunity.
4.) Looking forward to Longevity Day
Sergio M.L. Tarrero, a long-time friend of London Futurists, has been working on a very interesting AI-assisted video on the theme of “Longevity Day”.
Here. “Longevity Day” has a double meaning:
- October 1, every year, when longevity research activists from around the world organize events and promotions (with some of these events spilling onto adjacent dates too)
- An imagined day in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future, when a significant scientific breakthrough triggers a sequence of “OMG” realisations that rouse humanity from our current “aging acceptance trance”.
The longer version of Sergio’s video is still undergoing some revisions, but for now, you might enjoy some of the teasers he has made available, e.g. on the AlianzaFuturista YouTube channel.
Above, I’ve embedded a teaser from the video, that highlights the kind of conversations that will be happening on September 30th and October 1st at the International Longevity Summit in Madrid.
And here’s a photo from the same event held last year, which featured a visit by the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida:
The other José Luis in that photo – José Luis Cordeiro, the primary organiser of the Madrid event, likes to point out that Spain is not only the football champion of the world but is also the European champion of longevity:
Perhaps after Longevity Day, and once rejuvenation treatments have become widely available, we’ll all be able to play football with something like the present-day skills of the best teams from the Premier League. But first, of course, there’s a great deal of work to be done. Not only by scientists and medical researchers. But by reformers of institutions and legislation, and by engineers of better narratives.
Arguably, before we can reach longevity escape velocity, we need to collectively reach technoprogressive escape velocity. Which takes this newsletter back to its opening paragraphs.
// David W. Wood – Chair, London Futurists
London Futurists 