Previous meetings

Here’s a selection of previous meetings. Click on the links to see more details.

2023

AI Summit Talks featuring Professor Stuart Russell – Tuesday 31st October

  • Co-organised with the Existential Risk Observatory and Conjecture
  • Speakers and panellists: Stuart Russell, Connor Leahy, Annika Brack, Hal Hodson, Jaan Tallinn, Max Tegmark, Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Ron Roozendaal, Mark Brakel, and Andrea Miotti
  • Video recording of the event

AI Summit Talks: Navigating Existential Risk – Tuesday 10th October

  • Co-organised with the Existential Risk Observatory and Conjecture
  • Speakers and panellists: Roman Yampolskiy Sir Robert Buckland MP, Connor Leahy, Jaan Tallinn, Alexandra Mouzavizadeh, Tom Ough, Eva Behrens, and Andrea Miotti
  • Video recording of the event

Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit: A preview – Saturday 23rd September

Creating and exploring AGI scenarios – Saturday 26th August

  • Took place online in Remo courtesy of Telepresent
  • Recording not available

Questions about AGI – Sat 12th Aug

  • Speaker Peter Scott
  • Meeting was not recorded

Paradigm shifts in science, health, longevity, and society – Tues 27th July

Assessing AI Risk Skepticism – Sat 27th May

Biostasis Symposium UK – Sat 20th May

  • Organised by Tomorrow Bio at Birkbeck College
  • Speakers include Max More, Aschwin de Wolf, Emil Kendziorra, Garret Smyth, Tim Gibson, and João Pedro de Magalhães
  • Meeting was not recorded

The case for Singularity Activism – Sat 29th April

Humanity before and after AI – Sat 4th Mar, 4pm

World Futures Day 2023 – Wed 1st Mar, 24 hours

  • Event was not recorded

How misinformation spreads – Sat 4th Feb, 4pm

AI regulation and the EU – Sat 28th Jan, 4pm

The prospects for Universal Basic Income – Sat 21st Jan, 4pm

Progress in understanding consciousness? – Sat 14th Jan, 4pm

2022

Deep? Fake? Future? – 7pm, Tue 20th Dec

Artificial General Intelligence and the Future of Ethics – 4pm Sat 17th Dec

Going beyond GDP: Changing statistics in the 2020s – 4pm, Sat 26th Nov

AI & ESG for Corporates, 2022 – 9am, Wed 19th Oct

  • 12 speakers and panellists throughout the day
  • Hosted by the Centre for AI and Prosperity

Futurists after Dubai – 4pm, Sat 15th Oct

A Carbon Currency based on Carbon Allowances – 4pm, Sat 8th Oct

Imagining 2084: A Utopian Perspective – 4pm, Sat 1st Oct

Economic Possibilities for our Children – 4pm, Sat 24th Sept

Unprecedented Startup Losses and Small Markets for New Technologies: Why? – 1pm, Sat 24th Sept

Artificial Intelligence and You – Sat 23rd July

Embodied cognition and the future of teaching and learning – Sat 18th June

Human cryopreservation: the key legal and policy issues – Sat 28th May

Building Aligned Artificial Intelligence – Sat 14th May

Future Superhuman: Our transhuman lives in a make-or-break century – Sat 7th May

How might we control AI, before AI controls us? – Sat 30th April

The Vital Syllabus: Project Update 2 – Tue 12th April

Interventions to Trigger ‘Younging’ Mechanisms – Sat 9th April

The Rise and Implications of AGI: Survey Report – Sat 2nd April

Building an existential risk observatory – Sat 26th March

Where is my flying car? – Sat 19th March

The Vital Syllabus: Plans and Opportunities – Tues 15 March

The future of thinking about death – Sat 26th February

How Dangerous is Artificial Superintelligence? – Sat 5th February

Replacing Aging – Sat 22nd January

Which issues should futurists prioritise? – Tue 18th January

The case for ’30 in 30′: Adding 30 years to healthspans by 2050 – Sat 8th January

2021

Younging: Triggering Ancient Mechanisms for Rejuvenation – Sat 20th November

Aftershocks and Opportunities 2: Navigating the Next Horizon – Sat 30th October

Rule of the Robots: How AI Will Transform Everything – Sat 16h October

A new future for politics? – Sat 2nd October

A Paradigm Shift in Aging Research? – Sat 18th September

Cryptocurrencies for profound good? – Sat 4th September

The Global Brain Argument – Sat 28th August

The Science and Technology of Growing Young – Sat 21st August

Inventing World 3.0 – Evolutionary Ethics for Artificial Intelligence – Sat 7th August

The Future of Transhumanist Studies – Sat 31st July

Anticipating a sea-change in public attitude – Sat 17th July

The 2020s: A Decade of Cognitive Dissonance – Sat 15th May

How to talk about climate change in a way that makes a difference – Sun 9th May

The Future Starts Now – Sat 24th April

Thinking about the end of the world – Sat 17th April

We Have Always Been Cyborgs – Sat 10th April

The Future of You – Sat 20th March

Towards an artificial consciousness? – Sat 6th March

The Post-COVID Social Contract Trilemma – Sat 27th February

Sovereign Money Creation and Basic Income – Sat 13th February

The wallet of tomorrow? – Sat 6th February

The future of cancer – Sat 30th January

The future of the science of aging – Sat 23rd January

2020

Reinventing democracy in the age of intelligent machines – Sat 5th December

The Good Country Equation – Sat 28th November

Anticipating the next Black Death – Sat 7th November

Living in the Age of the Jerk – Thur 22nd Oct

The troubled future of startups and innovation – Sat 18th July

Adventures at the Frontier of Birth, Food, Sex & Death – Mon 13th July 2020

Politics for greater liberty: transhumanist perspectives – Sat 20th June 2020

Regulating the rise of Artificial General Intelligence – Sat 30th May 2020

Mental distress – the coming pandemic? – Sat 23rd May 2020

Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity – Sat 16th May

Apps that track users: Questions of trust, privacy, effectiveness – Sat 9th May

Could Covid-19 spark a Moral Revolution? – Sat 2nd May

Engineering greater human resilience – Sat 25th April

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Seeing through technology hype – Mon 20th April

The world after coronavirus: key dimensions for decisions? – Sat 11th April

Risks beyond Covid-19 – Tue 7th April 2020

UBI: wise response or naive distraction, to Covid-19 and more? – Thu 26th March

  • Took place online, via Zoom
  • Lead panellists: Phil Teer, Calum Chace, Barb Jacobson, Carin Ism, Gennady Stolyarov
  • Video recording of event

What should we learn from the Covid-19 crisis? – Sat 14th March

  • Took place online, via Zoom
  • Panellists: David Doherty, Steve Buss, Tim Pendry, Adah Parris, Pat Kane
  • Video recording of event

Towards a Technoprogressive New Deal – 5th Mar

  • Taking place at Newspeak House
  • Speaker: David Wood
  • No recording available

The future of personal implantables: opportunities in healthcare and beyond – 22nd Feb

Automation and Utopia – 11th January

2019

The future of nanotechnology – 7th December

The future of education: a technoprogressive plan – 1st December

  • Zoom Online Conference Call
  • Video recording of event coming soon

Technoprogressive Roadmap, 2019-2035 – 17th November

The Past, Present and Future of Quantum Computing – 16th November

You can’t see the future without changing your thinking – 12th October

What are the real risks of super A.I.? – 26th September

  • Hosted by Funzing
  • Lead speaker David Wood
  • No recording available

The future of improving human performance – 7th September

TransVision 2019 – 6th and 7th July 2019

  • Humanity+ @ London
  • 22 speakers over two days
  • Video recordings not available

Roadmapping the UK’s future, 2019-2025-2035 – Mon 1st July

Healthcare & Artificial Intelligence – Wed 26th June

  • Hosted by GlobalNet21 at Imperial College
  • Lead speakers Simon Hooper and David Wood
  • Event was not recorded

The future of mental health – Sat 13th Apr

  • Speakers from  and the Transhumanist Party UK
  • Introductory remarks by David Wood: Video
  • Presentation by Darren Springer, Ancient Future: Video, Slides (PDF)
  • Presentation by Anya Oleksiuk, The Psychedelics Society UK: Video, Slides (PDF)
  • Presentation by Mathieu Gosselin, Psykosoft: Video
  • Audience Q&A: Video

Overcoming entrenched politics: The example of Extinction Rebellion – Mon 8th Apr

  • Main speaker: Andrew Medhurst
  • Event was not recorded

Politics for profoundly enhanced human wellbeing – Sat 2nd Feb

The Future of Work – Mon 28th Jan

  • A joint event with GlobalNet21 and Conway Hall Ethical Society
  • Panellists: Charles Radclyffe, and David Wood
  • Chair: Francis Sealey of GlobalNet21
  • Meeting was not recorded

2018

A Very Human Future – Sat 17th Nov

  • Speakers Rohit Talwar and Steve Wells
  • Video recording not available

The future of driverless vehicles – Sat 8th Sept

  • Facilitated by Paul Thistlethwaite of Thinking Box
  • Meeting was not recorded

Debate: A digital dictatorship will create a better society than democracy – Mon 6th Aug

Will Democracy Survive The Age Of Big Data & Artificial Intelligence? – Mon 16th July

A plea for sanity in the Energy debate: The humanist case for nuclear energy – Sat 30th June

TechXLR8 Futurist Summit – Thu 14th June

  • Theme: “Advice from 2023”
  • Features 9 speakers – see here for full details

Universal Basic Income and Alternatives: 2018 update – Sat 2nd June

  • Featured 9 speakers – see here for full details and video recordings

The future of collective intelligence – Sat 14th April

Technology and the radical transformation of politics – Mon 26th March

Back to the Future for a Real Democracy – Sun 11th March

A Future Glimpse into Human Healthcare and Medicine – Sat 17th February

Grand futures and existential risk – Sat 3rd February

2017

Future Consciousness: The Path to Purposeful Evolution – Sat 7th Oct

  • Speaker: Tom Lombardo
  • Video recording pending

The future of healthcare, decentralized – Sat 23rd Sept

Agenda for the Future – Sat 2nd Sept

Democracy In The Digital Age – House of Commons Meeting – Tues 11th July

The future of AI and sustainability – Sat 1st July

Can technology abolish aging? – Mon 26th June

5G World Futurist Summit – Thu 15th June

 A serious assessment of the Technological Singularity – Wed 14th June

  • Part of TechXLR8; Speaker David Wood
  • No recording available

Better Politics Via Progressive Technology & Digital Transformation? – Tues 23rd May

Radicals: A disturbing guide to the future? – Sat 20th May

Who can save Humanity from Superintelligence? – Sat 29th Apr

Can technology abolish aging? – Tues 25th Apr

  • Hosted by Funzing; Speaker David Wood
  • No recording available

Industrial strategy for a sustainable world – Sat 8th Apr

The age of technology arrived. Now what? – Sat 18th Mar

AI and our Future – Sat 18th Feb

Effective Altruism: The future of doing good deeds – Sat 21st Jan

Progressive ethics in the digital age – Wed 11th Jan

2016

Transpolitica 2016 – Sat 3rd Dec

  • “Real world policy changes for a radically better future”
  • Fifteen speakers delivering TED-style talks, followed by Q&A, audience discussion, and reflections for action
  • Videos available

Masters of the Exponential Age: An immersive leadership development experience – Sat 5th Nov

  • Speakers Warrick Harniess and Patrick Romano
  • No video recording available

Ask Me Anything About The Future – Tues 1st Nov

The Economic Singularity (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the AI) – Sat 8th Oct

Priorities for steering the digital revolution – Tues 4th Oct

Technology vs. Humanity: The coming clash between man and machine – Sat 10th September

The end of banking? – Sat 10th September

Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work – Sat 20th August

The Future and All That Jazz – one night only – Thurs 18th August

  • Featuring Kim Solez & the Mallory Chipman Quartet

Our geopolitical futures – Sat 16th July

Scenarios for the future of healthy life extension – Sat 25th June

The Singularity Controversy: 3 years later – Sat 14th May

Constructing a roadmap to immortality? – Sat 30th April

The future of cryopreservation: research and applications – Sat 16th April

From Tipping Site to Tipping Point: Making the Circular Economy Happen – Sat 9th April

Work, Love, and Life when Robots Rule the Earth – Sat 19th March

Improving and Accelerating Innovation from a Strategy Perspective – Sat 27th February

  • Speaker Luciano Oveido
  • (No recording available)

The future of prediction markets: how technology can enable the wisdom of crowds – Mon 22nd February

  • Speaker Mike Halsall
  • (No recording available)

Network Society: the coming socio-economic phase transformation – Sat 6th February

The future of cybersecurity and cybercrime – Sat 9th January

2015

Experiment Earth: Responsible innovation in geoengineering – Mon 14th December

The increasing role of soft power in a hard world  – Sat 12th December

The State of the Future – Fri 13th November

Transhumanist Party Day (including AGM) – Sun 4th October

Anticipating 2040: A roadmap to sustainable abundance? – Sat 3rd October

Surviving AI: The promise and peril of artificial intelligence – Tue 15th September

From the 3 Rs to the 6 Ds – Digital Disruption within Education – Sat 5th September

Will We Crash Again? Why capitalism needs debt write-offs to survive – Tues 1st September

Enabling the ethical development of strong AI – Sat 1st August

  • Speakers Michael Stewart and Kay Firth-Butterfield
  • Video recording available here

Everything is normal, or is it? – Tues 21st July

  • Speaker Nik Badminton
  • Video recording available here

The future of business – Sat 20th June

  • Multiple speakers, including Rohit Talwar
  • Video recording available here

The radical potential of blockchain technology – Sat 6th June

  • Speaker Niki Wiles
  • Video recording available here

Can Technology Contribute to Social Equality? – Thu 4th June

  • Organised by UCL and supported by London Futurists
  • Panellists Judy Wajcman, David Wood, Marcos Cruz
  • Chair: Jack Stilgoe
  • Video recording available here (but has since been made “private” by UCL, sorry!)

The future of bioethics – Sat 23rd May

  • Speaker Stefano Vaj
  • Video recording available here
  • Slides used available here

The future of robot ethics – Sat 18th April

  • Speaker Joanna Bryson
  • Video recording and slides available here

Anticipating tomorrow’s politics – Sat 21st March

  • Speakers Amon Twyman, David Wood
  • Video recording available here

The winning of the Carbon War – Sat 7th March

  • Speaker Jeremy Leggett
  • Video recording and slides available here

The case for Universal Basic Income – Sat 14th February

  • Speakers Barb Jacobson and David Jenkins
  • Video recording available here

Singularity University Summit Spain preview – Thurs 12th February

  • Speakers David Wood, Russell Buckley, Luis Rey, Nick Chrissos
  • Video recording available here

Blue Skies – the future of regenerative medicine – Sat 31st January

  • Speaker Stephen Minger
  • Video recording available here

What is a fair distribution of brains? – Sat 17th January

  • Speaker Anders Sandberg
  • Video recording available here

2014

Transvision review: the social angle to transhumanism – Sat 6th December

  • Speaker David Wood
  • Video recording available here

The upcoming decentralization singularity – Sat 8th November

  • Speaker Stefan Tual
  • Video recording available here

How Human Will Posthumans Be? – Sat 25th October

  • Speaker David Roden
  • Video recording available here

The new future of old age – Sat 27th September

  • Panellists William Bains, Michael Price, Alex Zhavoronkov, and Sebastian Sethe
  • Video recording available here

Can technology and positive values revolutionise society? – Tues 23rd September

  • Speakers James Phillips (TZM) and Amon Twyman (WAVE)
  • Video recording available here

The proactionary imperative – Sat 13th September

  • Speakers: Prof Steve Fuller and Veronika Lipinska
  • Video recording available here

The future of futurism – Sat 18th August

  • Speaker: World Future Society CEO, Dr Amy Zalman
  • Audio recording available here

The future of self-hacking – Sat 2nd August

  • Panellists Jack Lewis, Andrew Vladimirov, and Stuart Calimport

The future of intelligence – Sat 26th July

  • Speakers included: Rohit Talwar, Stuart Calimport, Ajit Jaokar, David Wood

Three keys to a radically better society? – Tues 17th June

  • Speakers: David Wood (London Futurists) and James Phillips (The Zeitgeist Movement)

The State of the Future – Thurs 5th June

  • Speaker: Millennium Project CEO Jerome Glenn

Robots, unemployment, and basic income – Sun 11th May

  • Panellists James Hughes, Marshall Brain, and Gary Marchant

Terminator or transcendence: The future of super AI, Hollywood and beyond – Sun 4th May

  • Panellists Nikola Danaylov, Calum Chace, and Stuart Armstrong

The future of healthy longevity – Sat 26th April

  • Panellists Phil Micans, Tuvi Orbach, and Avi Roy

Anticipating 2025 – Sat 22nd and Sun 23rd March

  • This two-day conference brought together 18 expert speakers and an audience of over 200 budding futurists of all shapes and sizes. The goal was to elevate serious analysis of the potentially radical scenarios that may unfold between now and 2025.
  • The speakers gave their views as to which future scenarios are technically feasible and desirable. They also debated the best steps to take to bring these desirable visions into reality, despite the many roadblocks that are likely to be encountered en route.

Priority actions for a positive 2025 – Sun 16th February

  • Panellists Ben McLeish, Rohit Talwar, David Pearce, and Amon Kalkin

Our Final Invention – AI and the end of the human era – Sun 26th January

  • Panellists James Barrat, Jaan Tallinn, William Hertling, Calum Chace, and Peter Rothman

The burning question: climate change in context – Sat 18th January

  • Speaker Duncan Clark
  • An audio recording is available here.

Ramez Naam discusses Nexus, Crux, and The Infinite Resource – Sun 12th January

  • Panellists Ramez Naam, Randal Koene, Michell Zappa, and Giulio Prisco

2013

When linearity met exponential – a summer at Singularity University – Sat 7th December

  • Speaker Anish Mohammed

The future of cryonics – Sun 1st November

  • Panellists Max More, Anders Sandberg, Natasha Vita-More, and Garret Smyth

Drugs 2.0, The Web Revolution That’s Changing How The World Gets High – Sat 23rd November

  • Speaker Mike Power
  • Click here for an audio recording of this talk.

Secularism, Liberalism, and the Human Future – Sat 9th November

  • Emerging Technologies and the Challenge for Liberal Democracies
  • Speaker Russell Blackford
  • Click here for an audio recording of this talk, and for the slides used by the speaker

Which technologies will have the biggest impact by 2025? – Sun 3rd November

  • Panellists: Kevin Russell, Peter Rothman, Riva-Melissa Tez, Clyde DeSouza, and José Luis Cordeiro

Futurists discuss The Transhumanist Wager, with Zoltan Istvan – Sun 20th October

  • Panellists: Zoltan Istvan, Giulio Prisco, Rick Searle, and Chris T. Armstrong

The Energy of Nations, with Jeremy Leggett – Sat 5th October

Projects to accelerate radical healthy longevity – Sun 29th September

Futurism, Spirituality, and Faith – Sat 21st September

Biomedical Discoveries and the Ageless Generation, with Alex Zhavoronkov

 See here for a recording of this meeting, and to join the discussion about the topics covered.

The future of transport: Preparing for driverless vehicles? With Nathan Koren

The robots have arrived. Driverless transport pods are now in operation at Heathrow Terminal 5 and several other locations around the world. Driver-assist technologies are becoming commonplace. Many believe that fully driverless cars will be commercially available before the decade is out. But what will the broader impact of driverless transport be?

Automobiles were once called “horseless carriages,” as though the lack of a horse was their most important feature. In reality, they changed the way we work, live, and play; changed the way we design cities; and altered the global economy, political landscape, and climate.

It will be the same with driverless vehicles: we can expect their impact to be go far beyond simply being able to take our hands off the wheel.

This presentation and discussion went into depth about how automated transport will affect our lives and reshape the the world’s cities.

2045: Conscious avatars or wishful thinking?

This meeting aimed to provide a balanced review of the ground-breaking “Global Futures 2045” conference taking place in New York the previous weekend, 15-16 June.

The review was be led by David Wood, and included contributions from other London Futurists who are also taking part in the New York event.

The future is not what it used to be, with José Luis Cordeiro

Rapidly changing technology is changing how we think about the future – and how we MUST think about the future.

Topics covered in this talk included:

  • Options for dealing with shortages of fuel and energy: “moving from dirty energy to clean energy”
  • Synthetic biology – radical implications for the environment and for personalised medicine
  • The surprising future of technological convergence – “Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno” (NBIC)
  • Changing the meaning of humanity: prospects for indefinite healthy lifespans, artificial brains, and sentient robots
  • Practical progress at Singularity University: improving the world, a billion people at a time
  • The four types of futurist – which are you?

Radical Abundance, with Eric Drexler, the founding father of nanotechnology

This event marked the publication of the eagerly-anticipated book,“Radical Abundance: How a Revolution In Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization“, by K. Eric Drexler, the founding father of nanotechnology.

In this book, Eric Drexler explores the coming revolution in nano-scale engineering, and how it will change the world as we know it.

London Futurists are very fortunate that the author agreed to speak at this specially arranged meeting, to cover key themes from his book.

See here for a recording of this meeting, and to join the discussion about the topics covered.

Singularity Hypotheses: A Scientific and Philosophical Assessment

This event marked the publication of the important new book The Singularity Hypotheses: A scientific and philosophical assessment. Speakers included Dr Amnon Eden and David Pearce.

What is the Singularity? Existential risk or cultist fantasy? Rapture of the nerds? An unstoppable intelligence explosion? The rapid acquisition by humanity of god-like powers? The rise of Terminator-style killer robots? The dramatic culmination of progress in enhancement technologies, enabling the emergence of a posthuman race which overcomes all existing human limitations, both physical and mental, and conquers aging, death and disease?

See here for a video recording of the event.

Assessing major risks: what should we worry about? With Anders Sandberg

Much of future studies is often treated as entertainment by the public, but if there is one thing people ask futurists about in a serious way, it is risks – including risks of catastrophic disasters. Having foresight against potential threats matters.

As well as the more ‘obvious’ global catastrophic risks like nuclear war, nuclear terrorism, global pandemics, and runaway climate change, we may also worry about risks from meteor and comet impacts, gamma ray bursts, bioterrorism, nanoscale manufacturing, and super-AI. For an even longer list, see Wikipedia.

But how do we assess large risks where there is little past evidence, or where we think the rules may change due to new technology, climate or culture? How do we factor in different kinds of uncertainty, and how do we present them to the public? What about biases that distort the message?

This talk looked at different ways of assessing risks, the many ways they are uncertain, and gave some practical tips about how to do it slightly better where it matters.

The future of Global Healthcare, with Lois Macklin

This event examined the future of Global Healthcare, with a talk by Dr Lois Macklin, a leading Canadian futurist. In her presentation, Dr. Macklin:

  • Examined the forces and factors that will shape global healthcare in the future
  • Provided new insights into emerging opportunities
  • Identified economic, legal, and social challenges presented by a global healthcare system.

Hacking our wetware: the biophysical approach – with Andrew Vladimirov

What are the most promising methods to enhance human mental and intellectual abilities significantly beyond the so-called physiological norm? Which specific brain mechanisms should be targeted, and how? Which aspects of wetware hacking are likely to grow in prominence in the not-too-distant future?

This talk went beyond the topic of pharmacological and future genetic avenues of human cognition enhancement, and was instead dedicated to the relevant physical neurostimulation approaches and methods.

By reviewing a variety of fascinating experimental findings, this talk explored:

  • The potential of non-invasive neurostimulation using direct and alternating current and their combination
  • The potential of using TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) for cognition enhancement
  • Data suggesting the possibility to “awaken” savant-like skills in healthy humans without paying the price of autism
  • Apparent means to stimulate seemingly paranormal abilities and transcendental experiences.

A Singularitarian Utopia Or A New Dark Age? With Ian Pearson

We’re all familiar with the idea of the singularity, the end-result of rapid acceleration of technology development caused by positive feedback. This will add greatly to human capability, not just via gadgets but also through direct body and mind enhancement, and we’ll mess a lot with other organisms and AIs too. So we’ll have superhumans and super AIs as part of our society. But this new technology won’t bring a utopia.

We all know that some powerful people, governments, companies and terrorists will also add lots of bad things to the mix. The same technology that lets you enhance your senses or expand your mind also allows greatly increased surveillance and control, eventually to the extremes of direct indoctrination and zombification. Taking the forces that already exist, of tribalism, political correctness, secrecy for them and exposure for us, and so on, it’s clear that the far future will be a weird mixture of fantastic capability, spoiled by abuse.

Even without deliberate abuse, many people tend towards illogical thinking processes that result in bad decisions and that will both delay good things and worsen them when they finally come.

The big question (that I can’t answer and will need some debate) is what are the relative strengths of these forces? And will the future be a whole lot better than today, worse, or just different?

The Symbiosis Of Man And Machine. With Peter Cochrane

In 2000 it was clear that mankind was building a networked world of people and things that was non-linear, chaotic, highly unpredictable not well understood, and probably impossible to control and manage. Signs of increasing instability and management difficulty culminated in global stagnation and recession by 2010. Throughout this period it was clear that bankers, financiers, economists and politicians did not understand what was happening and could not adapt to the situation.

It was also clear that the old industries and management methods were unsustainable and fundamentally unmanageable in the long term. Something new was needed, something radically different!  A new era for industry, economics and management was being forecast that relied upon the tools and wisdom provided by intelligent machines, and by 2012 a vision of what was needed and why was beginning to emerge.  And perhaps for the first time it seemed that the machines were ready but people were not.

So what will be the state of play by 2035?  Will we have made it or not?  What is technologically possible, and what might humans accept?

In this presentation we therefore look at what looks to be technological possible and likely by 2020, 2030 and 2035, and speculate on the reaction and acceptance of people and political systems.

2012

Singularity Saturday, with Jaan Tallinn and Robin Hanson

In this extended (3 hour) session, Robin Hanson and Jaan Tallinn revisited and expanded the material from their ground-breaking presentations from the Singularity Summit 2012 – presentations that Vernor Vinge, commenting shortly afterwards, described as refutations of the saying that “there is nothing new under the sun”:

  • An Economic Analysis of Brain Emulation – Robin Hanson
  • The Technological Singularity: Why now? – Jaan Tallinn

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