The Future of Technology: Benefits and Risks

FLI was officially launched Saturday May 24, 2014 at 7pm in MIT auditorium 10-250 – see video, transcript and photos below.

The coming decades promise dramatic progress in technologies from synthetic biology to artificial intelligence, with both great benefits and great risks. Please watch the video below for a fascinating discussion about what we can do now to improve the chances of reaping the benefits and avoiding the risks, moderated by Alan Alda and featuring George Church (synthetic biology), Ting Wu (personal genetics), Andrew McAfee (second machine age, economic bounty and disparity), Frank Wilczek (near-term AI and autonomous weapons) and Jaan Tallinn (long-term AI and singularity scenarios).

• Alan Alda is an Oscar-nominated actor, writer, director, and science communicator, whose contributions range from M*A*S*H to Scientific American Frontiers.
• George Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, initiated the Personal Genome Project, and invented DNA array synthesizers.
• Andrew McAfee is Associate Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business and author of the New York Times bestseller The Second Machine Age.
• Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and philanthropically supports numerous research organizations aimed at reducing existential risk.
• Frank Wilczek is a physics professor at MIT and a 2004 Nobel laureate for his work on the strong nuclear force.
• Ting Wu is a professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Personal Genetics Education project.

Photos from the talk