FRANKEN SCIENCE

Humans, Gods and Technology | VPRO documentary | 2017

 What will our world look like 25 years from now? Watch this lecture about the meaning of life shaped by technology in a near future.
Nobody knows how our world will look like in 25 years. Perhaps our work is taken over by autonomous robots and we become the slaves of the technology we have created ourselves. The big questions about the future of man and his relation to technology are presented to two important thinkers of the moment: Kevin Kelly and Yuval Noah Harari. Kevin Kelly is a writer of influential works such as What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Kelly sketches the inevitability of technology and even sees technology as an autonomous evolutionary system. Artificial intelligence becomes commonplace for everyone and will help us analyze difficult issues and challenge them to reflect on who we are. Kelly is convinced that we are already seen as Gods by technology and that robots will also believe in their own Gods. Yuval Noah Harari is a writer of books about the history of Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus. Harari sketches the history of tomorrow and analyzes the way in which we create our own illusions; illusory institutions such as religion, states and money. We believe in gods because we want to be them ourselves. Harari sees a society with inequalities where some people can upgrade themselves to gods and others will remain vulnerable and mortal. Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2017. © VPRO Backlight October 2017