Future Today #049 - Transhumanism, Black Swans, Neuralink, Robot

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

?? Dubai Future Foundation launches ‘Future Opportunities Report: The Global 50’ . The Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) launched the “Future Opportunities Report: The Global 50” that highlights the most promising opportunities in various vital and future sectors in the next fifty years.?

?????? Humans Find AI-Generated Faces More Trustworthy Than the Real Thing . One tell for a deepfake used to be the “uncanny valley” effect, an unsettling feeling triggered by the hollow look in a synthetic person’s eyes. But increasingly convincing images are pulling viewers out of the valley and into the world of deception promulgated by deepfakes.

?? Futures Literacy . Life exists in our universe, as does time, hence it is no surprise that all living things incorporate the “later-than-now” in their functioning. Anticipatory systems and processes, the fruit of serendipitous evolutionary wanderings, express an amazing diversity of reasons and methods for taking into account the not-yet-existing future.

?? The future is only renewable (ES) The European Commission's decision on gas and nuclear power, motivated exclusively by business interests, means breaking with the path of technological progress and energy democratization that we had begun.

?? Adopting a Futures-Oriented Mindset to Support a More Responsible Design Practice . In 1968, Herbert A. Simon wrote in The Sciences of the Artificial that “the natural sciences are concerned with how things are.… Design, on the other hand, is concerned with how things ought to be, with devising artifacts to attain goals”

?? Speculative design as a black swan countermeasure . Black swan events are extremely rare, unpredictable phenomena that have severe economic and social effects. The theory goes that black swans are born of our collective and individual presumptions, biases, and day-to-day experiences. Our limited worldview blinds us to the fact that swans can be black — until we see it with our own eyes.

?? A sustainable transhumanism in the present future (ES) Transhumanism must be anchored in science and in the present. There is no transhumanism without science. Science teaches us that there is only one safe path at this time and it has to do with sustainability.

?? The almost impossible challenge of providing security and privacy in the metaverse (ES) The NGO Oasis has launched a series of recommendations for companies to develop safe virtual spaces. Toxic digital behaviors could become even more aggressive in these environments and we need ways to protect users without sacrificing their privacy.

?? Elon Musk’s Neuralink is an absolute disaster, former employees say . Trouble is still brewing at Neuralink. Despite co-founder Elon Musk’s insistence that the brain-computer interface startup will be headed to human trials later this year, many experts aren’t so sure.

?? Economists are revising their views on robots and jobs . When the pandemic first struck, unemployment soared. Not since the Depression had American joblessness surpassed 14%, as it did in April 2020. But fears of a prolonged period of high unemployment did not come to pass.?

If you liked it... Share it! Don't be shy! And subscribe! If you want to get in touch with me, ping me at?[email protected]. See you next week!

???Read the newsletter in Spanish