A provocation at the South Devon and Plymouth "Inquiry" stage of the Alterantive UK's collaboratory process in the area, Sat 13th October, 2018

1. Take yourself 50 years into the
future…. 2068
What’s possible?
How can you imagine
responding to it?
[1968 – 50 years ago - not that
long away…]

2. 2068: We will be
surrounded by robots who
can do most of the physical
labours we now can do
And by “artificial
intelligences” who can do
all of the routines and
services around knowledge
that humans now can do
So what will we do?

3. 2068: Can we imagine a much
better life for ourselves if so many
of our boring, routine labours are
doable by machines?
Imagine if we focused on what
machines can’t do, and what
humans can do – love, care,
create, play, relate, be
compassionate
Will these be the jobs of the
future?

4. 2068: Will we still be
surrendering our data to big
companies like Facebook and
Google (be slaves like the
Matrix…)
Or will we have asserted our
digital rights, and be profiting
directly from these patterns of
information?

5. 2068: We will be able to shape
human biology so that we live
another 50, 100 years, in a
healthy state
And also be able to design our
babies as we wish them--
smarter and stronger, wiser and
calmer.
Will we choose to? Or not?

6. 2068: Although many of us
would not want to go against
nature, who wouldn’t want to
avoid all the current illnesses of
old age?
How could we use our
accumulated wisdom – if old
age was not defined by frailty?

7. 2068: However successful we
are in the next 50 years in
turning the climate crisis
around, we will have had to go
through a deep adaptation to a
more volatile world.
But in what ways will that give
us more connection to each
other, our environment, the
quality of our lives?