Ethics for Our Future World

What are the possible futures of humanity? And what can do do about it? We’re bringing you a special series of classes focused on ethics for our future world.

A lady looking through the band of headphones like a cyborg. What do smartphones, Donald Trump, self-driving cars, climate change and computer games all have in common? They all tell us what the future could look like. As technology advances faster and faster, the world gets smaller and we all get richer. Our capacity to change the world grows ever stronger, and the future can be intimidating.

This series of classes will look at realistic scenarios for the future. We will analyse how we fit into it, and most importantly of all, what we can do about it.

Get an introduction to an ethics-based analysis of our potential future.

All classes are $14 and are held at Embiggen Books in Melbourne CBD.

Automation and the End of Human Employment

Do we need to work? An everlasting weekend sounds great, but what would we do?

How do we support ourselves financially if there is less work available? And how do we feel about robots and automated machines taking over all of our manufacturing, products and services?

Tuesday, May 16th, 2017

This class has passed.

A CGI woman's face with circuit board patterns across it

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Robots that can learn, robots with feelings, robots that can override their programming.

There are many possibilities for artificial intelligence, and a lot of those are unknown. Do robots have rights? Should they intermix with humans? And if so, to what extent are we comfortable with that?

Tuesday, June 13th, 2017

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A man and a woman holding their smart phones together

Smartphones: The End of the Individual?

Computers progress at an amazing rate. In one lifetime they have gone from being enormous, expensive pieces of machinery, to being in everyone's pocket. And with the rise of smartphones and digitalisation we have become more connected online, but more isolated in reality. What will happen to us as individuals? What can we continue to claim?

Tuesday, July 11th, 2017

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A space ship landing on the red surface of Mars

Perils of Successful Space Travel

Travelling to the stars has been a fascination and hope of humankind for much of our existence. Now a new age of commercial space travel and ownership of the moon is rising.

What rights do we have to claim extraterrestrial land? What should we do if we meet aliens? Are we alone?

Tuesday, August 8th, 2017

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The End of the World

What will we do when we world, as we know it now, no longer exists?

With run-away climate change our world is changing faster and faster. How will we support the existence of humanity? What sort of changes will we be forced to make to our lifestyles? How will we decide who gets to have what?

Tuesday, September 12th, 2017

This class has passed.

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