Announcing New Anthology “All Tomorrow’s Futures”
Following on from the highly successful 22 Ideas About the Future, we are now launching the second anthology, titled “All Tomorrow’s Futures” covering speculative stories on interdisciplinary technology and policy investigations through near-future science-fiction storytelling
Selected authors engaged with a panel of Cybersalon experts for inspiration before writing their story. This involved receiving brief and relevant materials from the subject experts, forming an idea over 3 weeks which will be discussed with the experts in a zoom call, followed by 4 weeks to write the story with expert input if required. They will also be expected to attend the launch event, which will run simultaneously in person, on an online platform and in V
We asked for short stories of around 2,500 words, set roughly in the 2050s on the following topics: health and longevity; learning – machine and human; policing & justice; finance & digital money; power & energy.
Smart Policing and Justice chapter
Smart Policing and Justice: The Internet of Things (to spy on you) has provided commerce and the smart-home owner an affordable, and efficient, home and office policing solution. But just how valid or sensible is a data-first approach when scaled to meet not just an individual or a neighbourhood’s needs, but the needs of a town, or a city, or a nation? Does the deployment of smart technology turn justice from a social activity into a purely technical one? Or, will the algorithm lead us towards policing by behaviour monitoring and modification, nudging our communities towards lawfulness and rewarding them for ‘good’ behaviour? At what cost an AI’s auto-punishment for detected transgressions? One we can’t afford, or can’t afford to be without?
The smart policing and justice workshop were led by Cybersalonistas Trevor Burke KC whose practice encompasses serious crime, fraud and professional discipline, and regulatory law for Three Raymond Buildings Barristers and Jayen Parmar who is the Deputy Head of Digital Data and Technology at the College of Policing
While you’re waiting, here’s what people are saying about 22 Ideas About the Future: available now.
“The shards from a score of black mirrors reflecting future truths, as only fiction can.”
– Charles Arthur, author of “Social Warming”
“Challenging and lively, these short stories will inspire readers to give more thought to the surprising risks and opportunities of pervasive technologies.”
– David Wood, Futurist and author of Vital Foresight
“These stories will stop you in your tracks, make you think and spur you into action!”
– Jana Hlistova, Founder of The Purse, Host of The Purse Podcast
“When the Western population is lost in a fantasyland of algorithms and abstractions, the 22 tales of speculative fiction in this book are able to provide unique and subversive insights into our possible futures.”
– Richard Barbrook, author of Imaginary Futures
“If visions are futures for the heart, here we have much heartfelt foresight into how our lives, our relationships and our selves, are being transformed by data-fication. These futures feel personal, as they should.”
– Tracey Follows, author of “The Future of You”
The call for power and energy has now closed.
Call #4 – Power and Energy: Whatever the technical challenges, providing a clean, green, energy system able to sustain our existence will also provide significant, geo-political challenges. Historical growth in energy has largely been unconstrained. And we have been blasé about its impact. But can exposing the costs and impacts of energy production sufficiently change the way we consume it, and who can access it? Does our energy future require us to embrace the possibility that sometimes or somewhere it will be dark or cold? Will we need to change our expectations of the comforts of modern life? Or will future technologies mean we will simply be able to replace the gadgets we have with newer ones that enable us to consume less?
Whichever path is chosen, or none, the impact of our future energy system’s deployment will need to be measured just as much by indicators of health, wealth, civil unrest and well-being as by reductions in carbon emissions and mitigations of human-influenced climate change. How on earth do we do that?
The power and energy workshop will be led by Cybersalonistas Richard Heap Project Lead at Foresight Transitions Limited and Dr Gabrielle Samuel Lecturer in Environmental Justice and Health, King’s College London.
The call for learning and education has now closed.
Call #3 – Learning and Education: Machines Learn, Humans Thrive. The past thirty years have brought multiple, transformative revolutions to the methods of machine learning. And if the hype for the next thirty is even partially true, Artificial Intelligence is just getting started. In light of the current and impending challenges of a society that includes digital and artificial intelligences, are we not overdue for a revolution in the way we train our human intelligences?
The learning and education workshop were led by Cybersalonistas Dr. Danbee “Tauntaun” Kim, PhD (@taunbot) and Dr Elizabeth Black (Reader in Artificial Intelligence, Department of Informatics, King’s College London).
The call for finance and digital money has now closed.
Call #2 – Finance and Digital Money: As our economic and financial systems adapt themselves to the emergence of Central Bank Digital Currencies, how well might they address the problems of wealth inequality, access to capital, generational privilege and mounting personal debt? Are we destined to game these trustless platforms and complementary currencies for a foothold in crypto-assets? Or will an artificial intelligent, cashless society finally decentralised finance, and allow us to discover new visions for our money and the ways we might use it?
The finance and digital money workshop were led by Cybersalonistas David Birch (@dgwbirch) and Izabella Kaminska (@izakaminska).
The call for health and longevity has now closed.
Call #1 – Health and Longevity: Improving health outcomes are changing our generational demographics. As a species we are living longer. And longer! With predictive health and lifestyle data, bio hacking, gene splicing, and life extension, our ability to rethink, rework and redesign our living bodies has never been so potentially transformational. If you had a lifetime of health predictions, or could refresh your fountain of youthful promise with a pill or the tweak of a technology, would it change how you live your life? Would it encourage greater long-term thinking about the future of humanity if we didn’t ‘kick the bucket’ before feeling the consequences of kicking the cans down the road?
The health and longevity workshop were led by Cybersalonistas David Wood, Chair of London Futurists and Claire Steves, Professor of Ageing and Health, King’s College London.