Innehållsförteckning för February 2017 från New Philosopher

“It may be that in the future you will be helped by remembering the past.”Virgil Although the term and precise starting point might be disputed, many anthropologists believe that ‘behavioural modernity’ – when certain traits such as abstract thinking and symbolic behaviour are said to have emerged in humans – started around 50,000 years ago. Some 500 centuries later, here we stand, a link in a chain of human beings stretching back tens of thousands of years. Looking to the future, one can’t help but wonder: Do we have another 50,000 years as a species? Or are we set to be the architects of our own demise? Based on our current trajectory, the latter seems more likely: existential threats abound, from malevolent artificial intelligence to runaway climate change. Or perhaps…

Of course we’d all prefer our best days to be ahead of us. Nobody wants to think they’ve already peaked. If philosophy is good at one thing, it’s pointing out things that seem so obvious we don’t even notice them and making them suddenly seem unnervingly strange. Here’s one: would you rather your best days were ahead of you, or behind you? For most people the answer is irritatingly obvious. Of course we’d all prefer our best days to be ahead of us. Nobody wants to think they’ve already peaked. That might even seem perfectly rational. After all, if your future is going to be better than your past, your life overall will ultimately contain more goods – it’ll have higher ‘net welfare’ – than it would if things just…

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” Neil Postman “The future… something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C.S. Lewis “I think we lost the battle to the machines long ago… we’re going to become the pets – the dogs of the house.” Steve Wozniak “Certain signs precede certain events.” Cicero “Whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see.” Doris Day “You shouldn’t chase after the past or place expectations on the future. What is past is left behind. The future is as yet unreached.” Gautama Buddha “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” Albert Einstein “It must end here... or I am the future.” The…

There may be a point in time where artificial intelligence eclipses our own. Many in the field believe it’s not a matter of if, but when. Our robotic future seems be dominated by two popular visions. One is of a world where we are eventually enslaved by the sentient machines we created. But equally troubling is the other: the construction of a benevolent artificial intelligence that is subservient and almost always feminised. The disembodied voice of a virtual assistant is supposed to be placating, but the implications are disconcerting. Does artificial intelligence need a gender, or a friendly persona? Perhaps this is a projection of material reality, of how we perceive and value certain types of work. Unlike IBM’s Watson or American AIpowered attorney Ross, virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa,…

Purpose frames attention. In a world of plenty, a world of unlimited choice, we can wander towards sensory oblivion or, with effort, towards purpose. “But where there is danger, there grows also what saves.” Friedrich Hölderlin Attention is our most limited resource.  William James proposed that one freedom of a sentient being is “always to choose out of the manifold experiences present to it at a given time some one for particular accentuation, and to ignore the rest.” James was refuting the notion that human beings are simply automata: no matter how enchanting the blinking lights, we can always look away. Our emerging world has removed constraints to the supply of possible experiences – how can, and should, we choose?   How we direct attention  is one of our…

~50 BCE Astrology: “Their [the stars] influence on our fate is considerably less than the influence of a banana peel, on which you can slip and break your leg. But there is no interest in banana peels, whereas serious periodicals include horoscopes.” Stanislaw Lem 2,000 years ago Cicero stated the ‘twins objection’ to refute astrology: with close birth times, personal outcomes can be very different. Forecasting: “When twenty years of the Moon’s reign have passed another will take up his reign for seven thousand years. When the exhausted Sun takes up his cycle then my prophecy and threats will be accomplished.” - Nostradamus, The Prophecies (1555) 14 th  century Cartomancy: “The Tarot deck is dealt out in various patterns and interpreted… The fact that the deck is…

Nick Bostrom is a Professor at Oxford University, where he is the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, a multidisciplinary research centre that enables a set of mathematicians, philosophers, and scientists to think about global priorities and big questions for humanity. He also directs the Strategic Artificial Intelligence Research Centre. Bostrom has a background in physics, computational neuroscience, and mathematical logic, as well as philosophy. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias, Global Catastrophic Risks, Human Enhancement, and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, which became a New York Times bestseller. He is the recipient of a Eugene R. Gannon Award and has been listed on Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list twice. Nigel Warburton: You’re probably best known, in your thinking about…

From Song of the Future (1902), by Banjo Paterson But times are changed, and changes rungFrom old to new – the olden days,The old bush life and all its ways,Are passing from us all unsung.The freedom, and the hopeful senseOf toil that brought due recompense,Of room for all, has passed away,And lies forgotten with the dead.Within our streets men cry for breadIn cities built but yesterday. About us stretches wealth of land,A boundless wealth of virgin soilAs yet unfruitful and untilled!Our willing workmen, strong and skilled,Within our cities idle stand,And cry aloud for leave to toil. The stunted children come and goIn squalid lanes and alleys black;We follow but the beaten trackOf other nations, and we growIn wealth for some – for many, woe. And it may be that we…

Search For Meaning Book Festival Seattle University Seattle, USA 25 March 2017 Launched in 2009, the festival features a veritable who’s who of the literary and scholarly worlds, with over 50 best-selling authors of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more. The annual one-day festival offers general sessions, keynote presentations, book signings, and interactive experiences. Individuals from all walks of life spend a day with some of the world’s most influential authors and scholars while reflecting on their own ability to contribute to a more just and humane world. www.seattleu.edu/searchformeaning/ Invisible Rooms Stuttgart, Germany Until 1 August 2017 It was in the 1930s that Francis Bacon first began to organise the spatial and dramatic structure of his compositions in a strikingly new way: he enclosed his figures in an architectural, ghost-like framework,…

What is your demon? My demons are the same things humanity should be in war against: poverty, ignorance, malnutrition, and hate among brothers. What is the most important part of your education? The most important part of my education is what I learned from my parents and family, and in second place what I learned with the Jesuits. What do you doubt most? The true intentions of a demagogue. If you could change something about the world, what would that be? War and poverty. The question you’d most like to ask others? How do you think we can have a better world and future for all? Your favourite word? Love is my favourite word, but it should refer to true love, not to passion. What would you never do, no…

newphilosopher.com Who cares? Which problems facing the modern world do you really, truly care about the most, and how willing are you to take action? newphilosopher.com/ articles/who-cares/ The end of climate deniers There is one point of agreement for politicians from the left and the right, and leading scientists and philosophers: climate change is real. newphilosopher.com/ articles/climate-deniers/ New Philosopher online store Visit the online store for previous editions of New Philosopher magazine, subscriptions, and other gift ideas. newphilosopher.com/ products-page/magazines/ I should be so lucky It’s bedevilling for the man and woman in the street, who only wish to know whether it’s safe to cross the busy road. newphilosopher.com/ articles/so-lucky/ New Philosopher Writing Prize Entries are open for the New Philosopher Prize for…

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” Winston Churchill “Write down your five-year goals.” Self-help gurus who hold seminars in large auditoriums use this tactic to get the audience fired up. Instantly, the audience goes into future thinking mode, which is unabashedly optimistic. “In five years’ time I will be...” and they dream up all sorts of wild and fanciful things about how they will live, and what they’ll have achieved by this future date. There is nothing more exciting than contemplating the future because, well, the future is pure fiction, an illusion. Business leaders tend towards the wildly optimistic when forecasting the future. In 2004 Bill Gates predicted that spam would be solved in two years. In early 2008, just two months shy of…

In 2008, the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford estimated a 19% chance of humanity becoming extinct before 2100. Current cognitive technology already has immense computational power. IBM’s Watson, for instance, can read 200 million pages of text in 3 seconds. Global population is expected to climb to 9.7 billion by 2050 - with the number over the age of 65 set to triple to 1.5 billion. A recent modelling study has predicted that male babies born in 2030 could live to an average of 85.7 years, with females living an average of 87.6 years. Frey and Osborne examined the US labour market in 2013 and found that 47% of workers in America had jobs at high risk of potential automation. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance estimated…

Dr David Suzuki is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist, broadcaster, and academic. Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, he has won numerous academic awards and holds 25 honorary degrees in Canada, the US, and Australia. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and is a Companion of the Order of Canada. He has written 52 books, including 19 for children, and his 1976 textbook An Introduction to Genetic Analysis, remains the most widely used genetics textbook in the US. He is the recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for Science, the United Nations Environment Program Medal, UNEPs Global 500, and in 2009 he won the Right Livelihood Award, which is considered the Alternative Nobel Prize. Zan Boag: So, we’re here to talk about the future. David…

Over time, I’ve grown accustomed to qualifying any description of myself with the same, all-purpose adjective. Depending on the circumstances, I might think of myself as a young man, or a young writer, or a young lawyer – and while the underlying nouns might shift, that qualifier has been ever present. There is something rather comforting about its familiar presence. It is a mitigating factor, a sign which says, “Look, if this isn’t the best work you’ve ever seen, it’s understandable – after all, I’m young.”  And at the same time, it works to enhance what I have accomplished, so that any praise is doubled. It’s as though I’ve been allowed a free swing because I’ve yet to really get started on life proper. In the sandbox of youth,  any…

We gain nothing without great difficulty, and we often must suffer for what we love the most. Indeed, what is a story without hardship? We always talk about the future, because we are always dreaming of it – when we are not dwelling on the past, that is. But lots of us have very different visions for the next 200 years. Whose future will be the strongest? To have a future, we need stories to tell. Without a story to tell – or several to hear – we become mere mammals rather quickly. We repeat mundane rituals, and we get from point A to point B, as efficiently as possible. The reality of the modern world throws a great many people on this conveyor belt: that is, those who have…

The Utilitarian John Stuart Mill 1806–1873 Density of population “There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase of population, supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, I confess I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the greatest degree, all the advantages both of co-operation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most populous countries, been attained. If the Earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger but not a…

Now Take one last look at your smart-phone. You probably regard it as the cutting edge of technology, and those cute icons as portals to an infinite array of virtual interactions. What I see is nothing more than a hand-held, electronic cabinet of wonders; an anthropological museum crammed full of exhibits of the lives we once lived. Every icon on my phone is a visual prompt for the functionality of an app, based on the very technology it has eradicated. My email icon is a little envelope. The camera’s an old box kind. The calendar is made to look papery by the corner being folded up. Even Facebook has book in its title. These icons of a bygone age are called, in techy circles, skeuomorphs, a term inherited from anthropology…

I, Robot Isaac Asimov No one can stop them “But you are telling me, Susan, that the ‘Society for Humanity’ is right; and that Mankind has lost its own say in its future.” “It never had any, really. It was always at the mercy of economic and sociological forces it did not understand – at the whims of climate, and the fortunes of war. Now the Machines understand them; and no one can stop them…” The Philosopher’s Touch François Noudelmann Powerful and twirling A whole person is revealed in their hands. And who knows this better than a pianist? According to a few accounts, Nietzsche’s piano playing was at once powerful and twirling. One gets the sense that he cared more about he impression conveyed than precision. At times brutal…

DBC Pierre DBC Pierre won the Booker Prize for his debut novel Vernon God Little, which was also awarded the Whitbread First Novel Award in 2003 – the first time the two awards had been granted to the same book. Pierre is also the author of Ludmilla’s Broken English, Lights out in Wonderland, a book of short stories, and a novella, Breakfast with the Borgias. He was awarded the James Joyce Award from the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin. Tom Chatfield Tom Chatfield is a British writer and commentator. He is the author of five books exploring digital culture, including Netymology, and speaks around the world on technology, the arts, and media. Chatfield was launch columnist for the BBC’s worldwide technology site, BBC Future, is an associate…

1943 “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, President of IBM 1977 “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olsen,founder of Digital Equipment Corporation 1995 “I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 [will] catastrophically collapse.” Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet 1999 Y2K will be the “electronic equivalent of the El Niño”. John Hamre, US Deputy Secretary of Defense 2004 “Two years from now, spam will be solved.” Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft 1928 “The United States are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” Herbert Hoover. The Great Depression started the following year. 1929 “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently…

There is a kind of uber-story about the future of ageing, regularly featured in the press, that swings through from the lows of crisis reportage (we’ll all be living longer, the pension pots will be empty, health services will crumple under new obligations to the elderly) to the highs of techno-euphoria (gene therapy and nanotech will enrich our late lives, we’ll be able to see our grandchildren’s children, work until we’re 90 and dodge decrepitude). The story is rooted in a collective fantasy about tinkering with human longevity that speaks far more profoundly to our fear of dying than to how we might actually live our lives as older people. The trouble with this neo-Malthusian story of octogenarian overcrowding is that it doesn’t accord with what we know – which…

JUSTINE POON TOP FIVE BOOKS 1. Ransom, David Malouf 2. Runaway, Alice Munro 3. The Life of the Mind, Hannah Arendt 4. Flesh and Stone, Richard Sennett 5. Embassytown, China Miéville FAVOURITE PHILOSOPHER: Hannah Arendt. FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Poetry can repair no loss, but it defies the space which separates.” - John Berger DOCUMENTARY TO RECOMMEND: Salt of the Earth, by Wim Wenders. FAVOURITE ARTWORK: Bleu de Ciel, by Wassily Kandinsky. FAVOURITE PIECE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC: Symphony no. 9, by Antonín Dvořák. What is philosophy for you? The cultivation of reason in observing the small, specific relationships between things and the bigger picture. Why is philosophy important? It gives us space to ask the knotty questions. What is the biggest problem we face in contemporary society? Working out how to live…

The human sciences research shows that we are already capable of far greater powers of mind, body, emotion, and spirit than we ever imagined. One of Australia’s sandstone universities has a new billboard picturing a robotic arm holding a small piece of origami. It reads: “Robots with a Human Touch”, depicting a critical tension within the global conversation about human futures. Technological optimism reigned throughout the 20th century. Paradoxically, committed techno-utopians – such as physicist Stephen Hawking, philosopher Nick Bostrom, and billionaire Elon Musk – have recently warned of the serious existential threats to humanity posed by artificial super-intelligence. And even though some futurists are bedazzled by high-tech utopias, many others are focused on the social, cultural and environmental impacts of rapid change and the dehumanising effects of exponential technological…

I came to wondering if our attention isn’t drawn more to the future for its anomalies. The notion just hasn’t stopped cropping up in civilisations everywhere, that the future is... The above box with the unfinished sentence is now a thing of the past. Remember it: another box will appear with the rest of the sentence in the future at the end of this piece. If you skip ahead now it will still be the future, only nearer. But why rush I say? We have control over it. More than we can say of most futures. In the meantime we have this elastic playground in between. A sandbox of present. We can do as the artificially intelligent robot did while learning to play games and stop moving forwards in order…

noun 1. Usually ‘the future’ – period of time following the moment of speaking or writing; 2. Events that will or are likely to happen in time to come; 3. The likely prospects for or fate of someone or something in time to come; 4. A prospect of success or happiness; 5. A tense expressing an action that has not yet happened. adjective 1. At a later time; going or likely to happen or exist; 2. (of a person) planned or destined to hold a specified position; 3. Existing after death. Origin: Late Middle English, via Old French from Latin futurus. Source: Oxford English Dictionary…

My friend Marie is interviewing my nephew for a position at an organisation he has always wanted to work for. At this stage she doesn’t know he’s related to me, but he has asked me to put in a good word for him – which, given our friendship, is likely to land him the job. He lacks some of the qualifications for the role and has gone off course lately but this is the opportunity he’s been after and I think it would help get him back on track. Not getting the job could really send him off the rails. I’m keen to do whatever I can to help his future prospects, however I’m not sure how much pressure I should put on my friend – or whether I should…

The genius will find ways to make tedium more novel, but the slacker will seek relief in trivia. If procrastination is the thief of time, then William James knew this criminal intimately – as a detective, not as an accessory to burglary. The philosopher and psychologist described one dilly-dallier doing everything but his job: stoking the fire, dusting specks, nudging around furniture, skimming pages from the library. He will “waste the morning anyhow… simply because the only thing he ought to attend to is the preparation of a noon-day lesson in formal logic which he detests”. James argued that what marks off the idler from the doer is not force of will, but inventiveness and curiosity. The genius will find ways to make tedium more novel, but the slacker will…

I was nearly six when my dad came home to England from the war. He was traumatised, haunted by terrors, emaciated, desperately ill. I remember worried faces and wringing hands, the smell of sickness, people treading softly, tiptoeing, doctors in winged collars and black coats and hushed voices being respectful, putting the tips of their fingers together, meals on trays that didn’t get eaten. I watched one day, through the half-open bedroom door. My mum helped him out of bed. He was smaller than I thought he was going to be. His legs were like sticks. He moved slowly across the bedroom as if the floor was moving and his slippers were full of stones. I don’t remember understanding. I don’t remember him wanting me anywhere near him. I didn’t…

Record Three A Coat A Wall The Tables I looked over all that I wrote down yesterday and I find that my descriptions are not sufficiently clear. That is, everything would undoubtedly be clear to one of us, but who knows to whom my Integral will someday bring these records? Perhaps you, like our ancestors, have read the great book of civilisation only up to the page of nine hundred years ago. Perhaps you don’t know even such elementary things as the Hour Tables, Personal Hours, Maternal Norm, Green Wall, Well-Doer. It seems droll to me, and at the same time it is very difficult to explain these things. It is as though, let us say, a writer of the twentieth century should start to explain in his novel such…

Who gets to be transhuman? Whether superhuman performance, longevity or even immortality is achieved through ridding ourselves of our biological body, augmentations or biohacking, an important question arises: Who gets to be transhuman? Will this create a new class divide, where an elite class emerges through both physical and mental upgrades? A robotic heart for instance, currently costs around $200,000. techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/ the-ethicsof-transhumanism/ devil’s dictionary FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true, and our happiness is assured. The future of reality A game has set off a cascading set of age-old puzzles: what is reality, how do we know, and are we being deceived? This introduces yet another phase in the evolution of realities – an augmented version. Well-known Australian philosopher…

Extraordinary quality in all respects. New Philosopher is one of the best things happening. I love how the writing reminds me that the types of issues we are grappling with today are similar to those grappled with by philosophers for centuries. I love this magazine. I no longer like reading or listening to mainstream news as it is not good for my health. Your magazine is good for me. It has real discussions that relate to life rather than reporting sensational ‘news’. Thank you. Your magazine is so helpful and is churning up the little grey cells, as Hercule Poirot says. Thank you, this world is brighter, more aware, and more meaningful with your publication in it. Great magazine. Finally one worth reading. Will recommend it to all friends. This…