Future Today #041 - Space Ethicists, Cynefin, Robotaxi, Supercomputer

Welcome to Future Today!?A newsletter for those curious about social innovation, disruptive technologies and futures studies. In it I will share weekly blog articles, interesting links and recommendations for books, movies, series and courses.

?? Why We Need Space Ethicists. We have the opportunity to make our way into this untrammeled territory with an attitude of reverence and cautious discovery-making, not conquest and claims-making. We need space ethicists to help us to tackle the thorny moral questions that growing interest in space exploration raises.

?? How AI Is Deepening Our Understanding of the Brain. Deep learning wasn’t meant to model the brain. In fact, it contains elements that are biologically improbable, if not utterly impossible. But that’s not the point, argues the panel. By studying how deep learning algorithms perform, we can distill high-level theories for the brain’s processes—inspirations to be further tested in the lab.

?? Dave Snowden: Four Things Leaders Need To Do In A Crisis. When confronted with a crisis like the present pandemic, Dave Snowden says there are four things leaders need to do: assess, adapt, exapt, and transcend. He is one of the world’s leading experts on complexity and the father of the Cynefin Framework.

?? Digital land parcel in the metaverse sold for $2.4 million. A parcel of digital land has sold for $2.43 million in Decentraland, a popular setting in the metaverse. The property exceeds the median home price in Manhattan and San Francisco. Coins in the metaverse have soared, with Decentraland manna up nearly 60% in the last week.

?? Cruise launches driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco. Employees of Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, will be the first to jump inside one of the company’s autonomous vehicles that operate in San Francisco without a human driver in the front seat. Certain members of the public will also be able to ride, but they won’t be charged a fare.

?? NVIDIA to Build Earth-2 Supercomputer to See Our Future. We need to confront climate change now. Yet, we won’t feel the impact of our efforts for decades. It’s hard to mobilize action for something so far in the future. But we must know our future today — see it and feel it — so we can act with urgency. To make our future a reality today, simulation is the answer.

?? AI has made us live in a world based on probabilities. Global data science expert Jeanette Wing believes that reliable artificial intelligence and causal reasoning will succeed in solving society's real problems. That is why she is promoting data science among other disciplines and is confident that it will achieve fairer and less biased AI.

?? What is the Value of Futures and Foresight? There has been a tremendous expansion in awareness of and interest in futures/foresight work recently, especially those approaches that intersect with the arts, media and design. Projects and publications, courses and conferences on these topics are flourishing like never before. What is the Value of Futures and Foresight?

?? Scientists Say There May Be “Humans” All Over the Universe. In a new interview with the BBC‘s Science Focus magazine, an evolutionary palaeobiologist?at the institution’s Department of Earth Sciences named Simon Conway Morris declared that researchers can “say with reasonable confidence” that human-like evolution has occurred in other locations around the universe.

?? Beyond human frontiers. With María López. There are developments in neurotechnology aimed at increasing human capabilities in areas such as work or sports. The applications of this technology seem infinite and this opens a debate of enormous importance on equality and the future of humanity, the condition of superhumans, hybrid creatures and more or less mortal beings depending on access to technology.

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