Panel: Technoshock! The Promise and the Peril in a World Radically Changing through Technology

This panel will be the closing panel at the Singularity Summit Australia.

Chair: Peter Spinks
Panelists: Marcus Hutter, Randal Koene, Meredith Doig
Video of Panel:

What excites you about the future?
What frightens you?
How might the future change the way we live?
And how might we change the way we live in the future?

The panel will explore big-picture questions for human civilization. The last few centuries have seen tremendous change, and this century might transform the human condition in even more fundamental ways. Using the tools of mathematics, philosophy, rationality, and science, we are able explore the risks and opportunities that will arise from technological change, weigh ethical dilemmas, and evaluate global priorities. Our goal is to clarify the choices that will shape humanity’s long-term future.

It is obvious that we could benefit from better predictive models of the future. However there is not enough energy being put into focusing on longer term futures. In an economy of attentional scarcity, we should be focusing on achieving the kind of future we want, and as a consequence we will increase the odds of achieving it.

Consider the progress of some of the beneficial technologies that save lives, that enable us to stay informed, that entertain us, and keep us in touch with those we care about. As the efficacy of these technologies continues to evolve, we have the power to shape their outcome.

After a discussion about how individual technological risks and opportunities of the future should be ranked in terms of their likelihood, participants will focus on ways of thinking about different types of risks. Specifically, the panelists will discuss how the risks and opportunities might best be categorised.

Join the conversation at the Singularity Summit Australia Aug 18-19 to explore the possibilities about how the world will be radically changed through technology.