Trolling AI Doomerism & Longtermism

Decolonising Hype by Tech Billionaires and Exploring Active Responses

Meetup with Emile P. Torres, philosopher

When: Tues Sept 26 2023, 7.00pm
Where: ACUD MACHT NEU, Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin. We will be in the ACUD CLUB, on the ground floor.
Admission: 5 € Get Tickets

For the closing meetup of the ARTIVISM programme, we invite artists, technologists, activists and investigative journalists to take active part in a guided debate on AI Doomerism and human extinction with the philosopher and scholar Emile P. Torres, one of the most vehement critics of longtermism. As a new moral philosophy gaining popularity in Silicon Valley with backers like Elon Musk and Sam Bankman-Fried, longtermism suggests prioritising an immensely larger future human population over the current billions, by focusing and channeling massive funds on the needs of trillions of potential future individuals rather than the immediate needs of those currently alive.

Torres is author of the book “Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation”, published by Routledge this year. Over the past many months, they helped popularize the acronym “TESCREAL” to denote a constellation of ideologies that have become enormously influential within Silicon Valley. Playing an integral role in shaping the TESCREAL concept with Torres was the computer scientist Dr. Timnit Gebru, former co-leader of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence team at Google, and co-author of the research paper, "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?", that covered the environmental, social and financial risks of very large language models, and for which Google later fired her amid dispute.

Participants in the meetup will first get a widespread overview of the current movements and finalities of tech billionaires' new moral visions surrounding the long-term future of humanity, human extinction, planetary colonisation and existential risks related to the development of AGI - Artificial General Intelligence. The overview will be conceived to exert a multidisciplinary understanding of the implications of such visions, including how these are by design disconnecting from an ecological regeneration of our planet and ecosystems. Finally, participants will be invited to join a playful philosophical debate, and contribute to generate a collective vision of resistance, reaction and protest against this elitist domination of future foresight. The overall intent of this collective conversation will be of decolonising our visions, journeying from the worst possible future for a few utilitarianists, to hopeful inclusive futures for / by / with all living bodies.

Reserve your spot at this link.

The event is curated and moderated by Sabina Barcucci, part of the Disruption Network Lab team.

Émile P. Torres is a philosopher and historian whose work focuses on existential threats to civilisation and humanity. They have published on a wide range of topics, including machine superintelligence, emerging technologies and religious eschatology, as well as the history and ethics of human extinction. In 2023 they published the book "Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation" (Routledge). 

https://www.xriskology.com/ 

https://twitter.com/xriskology

Sabina Barcucci is Italian architect and cultural manager in Berlin, focuses on engagement linking science, technology, art, and social studies. Her efforts create actionable knowledge, connecting communities and enabling structural and cultural change. She has influenced as change maker and designer a wide range of research, education and cultural institutions in Italy and Germany, and bridging grassroots and institutional endeavours. In 2023, she joined Disruption Network Lab as community manager. 

https://twitter.com/sabinacuccibar

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