Themes for 2024
Themes for 2024
Artificial intelligence (duh), impact on culture, and moral ambition
Hey there,
I get an important part of my insights and ideas when I visit a conference. Last year, I attended four leading events in the field of technology and the future.
In this newsletter, I share the most important themes for 2024 from those events.
Enjoy reading,
Peter
P.S. Or if you prefer to watch, I also made a video about this with the answer to the question: could I ask my hero (author, blogger and podcast maker Tim Ferriss) a question?
For English subtitles: select the icon of a sprocket (settings), and then Subtitles. 🇺🇸
Themes for 2024
I get my inspiration, insights and ideas from reading (newsletters, books and papers), watching (documentaries and films) and talking (with experts and practitioners).
But I also love going to conferences as a visitor. For example, I recently went to The Next Web, Brave New World, Dutch Design Week and the Amsterdam Business Forum.
This is what I learned there:
AI all over the place
Impact of technology
Moral ambition
1. AI all over the place
It was unmissable at The Next Web (Amsterdam and Zaanstad). During the lectures, at the stands on the exhibition floor and in all conversations, artificial intelligence (AI) was the main topic.
Nice example from Philips. Shez Partovi MD, chief innovation & strategy officer there, said their goal is for AI to be invisible to doctors and patients.
Smartphones have smart algorithms to filter out noise. Philips uses a similar method to improve the quality of the CT images and much less radiation is required.
2. Impact of technology
At the Dutch Design Week (Eindhoven) I saw a greater mix of topics. The common denominator is that it is about the impact of technology and what our future can look like.
A few things from the overwhelming selection that struck me:
Mobility. Gas to Green by Yang Yu and others. What are we going to do with gas stations if we drive electric en masse?
Body: Metacarpus by Stefan Boerkamp. Fun idea: how does our hand look in the future? With sensors, mechanistic, or rough?
Nature: Waag shared their project Looking at nature about what we can learn from non-human intelligence.
In addition, there were many designers who explored the social impact of artificial intelligence with their designs. Such as the Threads of Data project by Troy Nachtigall and Juliana Kahl: a translation of your digital footprint into a garment.
Cultural consequences of AI
The theme at Brave New World (Leiden) was the future of attention. The lecture that particularly stuck with me was by Regina Joseph.
She said that there appears to be a connection between the rise of social media and the decline in academic performance. Also special: social media seems to make the top 100 music songs less diverse.
With a nice reference to Aldous Huxley, she called this 'the flattening of the mind'.
That makes me think about what all those generative AI tools mean for our culture. Does that lead to better music, films and books? Or does it mean more mediocrity and fewer surprises?
3. Moral ambition
Moral ambition is the most recent work by Rutger Bregman, author of the book Humankind: A Hopeful History. He states that a full-time career consists of 2,000 working weeks. And:
How we spend that time is one of the most important moral decisions of our lives, but right now countless people are wasting their time in dull, pointless, or even harmful jobs.
During his lecture at the Amsterdam Business Forum (Amsterdam), he argued that more people should use their talent for important causes.
I'm curious: will we see more talented people use their capabilities to solve current world problems in the coming years? I hope so, because technology is not the (only) solution.
See you soon?
Are you planning to go to any of these events this year? Send me a message! Then we drink a cup of coffee together.
Nice! ☕️
Deep Dive
Articles, books, podcasts, videos, documentaries and more on this theme.
On Prime I watched the series The Peripheral (7.6 on IMDb). The series is an adaptation of the 2014 book of the same name by William Gibson.
This is what you're looking at: tantalizing views on the consequences of climate change, virtual worlds and drones.
🙏 Thank you for reading
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