Engineering greater human resilience

Engineering greater human resilience. A good or bad idea? How might we best proceed? With what focus?

For example, how about:
*) Strengthening biological immune systems, so we become more resistant to biological infection?
*) Strengthening critical thinking skills, so we become more resistant to deception and fake news?
*) Strengthening emotional intelligence, so we become more resistant to bursts of anger or despair?
*) Strengthening a sense of human solidarity, so we become more resistant to tribalism and partisanship?
*) Strengthening a spirit of inner mastery, so we become more resistant to consumerist pressures?
*) Strengthening other aspects of human resilience, so we become more resistant to distortion and corruption?

In each case, two important questions arise:

1.) Which interventions should be applied at the individual level, and which at a societal level?
2.) What are the unintended drawbacks that might arise from attempts to engineer greater resilience?

** The above can be seen as a description of "practical transhumanism". With what priority should these initiatives be embraced? **

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To register and attend this event, visit https://www.crowdcast.io/e/engineering-greater

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This 90 minute London Futurists live webinar features a number of panellists making 10 minute presentations on the above theme, followed by audience Q&A and wider discussion.

The webinar will be moderated by David Wood, Chair of London Futurists, and co-hosted by:
*) Eleanor 'Nell' Watson, Coronavirus Task Force @ AAPM, and AI Faculty @ Singularity University, https://www.nellwatson.com/
*) James 'J' Hughes, Executive Director @ IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies), https://ieet.org/index.php/IEET2/bio/hughes

Guest panellists will include:
*) Paola Téllez Muñoz, Director of Community @ Transformative Technology, https://www.linkedin.com/in/paola-t%C3%A9llez-mu%C3%B1oz-1bb5a8125/
*) Kathryn Alice, Life coach and former Crisis Support Team Leader, https://kathrynalice.com/about/
*) Hannes Sjöblad, Chief Disruption Officer @ Epicenter Stockholm, and co-founder @ Dsruptive, https://www.hannessjoblad.com/

Attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

The webinar will start broadcasting at 2pm UK time on Saturday 25th April. To find this time in other timezones, you can use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20200425T130000&p1=136

You are advised to log into Crowdcast up to 10 minutes ahead of the publicised start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast. You'll be able to exchange text messages with other attendees as soon as you arrive.

** In case of any difficulties in connecting to the live video content, first try refreshing your screen, and then if need be, press the Help button at the top of the screen and choose the 'Compatibility Mode'. Crowdcast works well on most browsers most of the time, but Chrome is particularly recommended. **

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To register and attend this event, visit https://www.crowdcast.io/e/engineering-greater

A small fee (UKP £2.50) is being charged to register for this event, in order to help offset the costs incurred by London Futurists with the Crowdcast and other software.

If you judge yourself as unable to pay this fee, you can use a special discount coupon code, available on the registration page, to register for free (but only 40 such tickets are available).

As a comparison, £2.50 is probably less than the travel and refreshments costs that most people would have incurred in travelling to a physical gathering of London Futurists.

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Graphics credits: elements are used, with thanks, from Pixabay users Clker-Free-Vector-Images and OpenClipart-Vectors.