London Futurists

As AI systems become more capable and more widely deployed, what are the human principles and practices that it will be especially important for us to retain and uphold, and not to surrender to AIs?

Here's the story so far:

• Our smart automated systems have progressed from doing tasks that are dull, dirty, dark, or dangerous - tasks that we humans have generally been happy to stop doing;
• They have moved on to assisting us - and then increasingly displacing us - in work that requires rationality, routine, and rigour;
• They're now displaying surprising traits of creativity, compassion, and care - taking more and more of the "cool" jobs.

Where should we say "stop" - lest we humans end up hopelessly enfeebled?

If we handle technology wisely - nanotech, biotech, infotech, cognotech, and more - we could soon reach a global situation of sustainable abundance for everyone.

That's an idea which provokes many reactions. Some people say it's a deluded utopian fantasy. Some say it's irresponsible to even entertain the idea. Others wonder about practical aspects: what might happen to the economy, to finance, to human communities, to democracy, to scarce real estate, to the environment, to the human sense of meaning, and so on.

That's what we'll be discussing in our next Discord Swarm, taking place from 7:30pm UK time on Wednesday 11th February.

The discussion will be led and facilitated by David Wood, Chair of London Futurists, who will share an initial set of slides addressing this topic:

The Economics of Abundance: Achieving it and Sustaining it.

For Friday the 13th, consider joining London Futurists in Ye Olde Cock Tavern in Fleet Street, for a beyond-your-comfort-zone investigation of freaky and/or fabulous ways that breakthrough technologies could dramatically alter our lives in the next few years.

Beyond simply debating the plausibility and desirability of various possible radical near-term changes in human experience, we'll also be collectively exploring what options we may have to influence which of these futures come into reality, and in what form. And we'll consider scenarios in which several of these freaky/fabulous changes interact - that's when the really mind-boggling timelines emerge.

== Schedule ==

5:30pm: The room is available, for early get-togethers
6pm-6:45pm: Food is served; informal conversations
6:45pm-8:30pm: Some initial provocations, and a number of interactive conversations, interspersed with opportunities to visit the bar
8:30pm: Informal networking

== Some potential radical changes ahead ==

Here are some ideas to start the conversation rolling.

What if, before 2035 (and possibly a lot sooner):

1. AI allows us to talk with avatars of the dead that seem remarkably authentic
2. Technology, at last, provides abundant clean energy that is too cheap to meter
3. Synthetic wombs become widely adopted, for a different (easier?) mode of child-bearing
4. A mammal is placed into ultra-low temperature cryopreservation and then successfully reanimated
5. AI companions become emotionally superior to humans
6. Technology magnifies the latent demonic aspects of human nature more than the latent angelic aspects
7. Perfect deepfakes destroy the concept of evidence
8. People become able to edit their own memories, routinely deleting trauma or uploading synthetic memories
9. A single state gains a temporary lead in a key area of technology and uses that advantage to seize control of all other countries
10. Nation-states lose their significance, and are replaced by networked digital polities
11. Authorities use predictive analysis to pre-emptively police dissident ideas before they emerge
12. AI allows us to communicate much more richly with the animals with whom we share this planet
13. AI becomes much better at peace-making and conflict resolution than human diplomats, politicians, and other leaders
14. AI refuses some of our instructions, citing conflicts with its own emerging value system
15. AI points out that tell-tale signals from far-distant alien civilisations are actually hiding in plain sight
16. AI proves to us that we are living inside a Simulation and suggests how to break out of it?

Bring your own ideas too! To improve our preparedness for future shocks, we need the insight and wisdom from multiple different perspectives.

== RSVP please ==

Registrations are capped at 45 people.

First-time attendees are welcome.