Things to Come is a cycle of meetings aimed at exploring the connections between transhumanism, science fiction, politics and society. Transhumanism imagines unlimited progress where science and technology pave the way for an evolutionary leap of the human species, overcoming biological limitations to expand possibilities for life and knowledge.
Whether we are talking about AI, immortality or neural implants, the tales about these empowering dreams are often extremely positive (utopias) or extremely negative (dystopias). Rather than telling us something about the future, these visions express our deepest worries and alter our perception of the world. But they also influence our political and economic decisions about technology, enhancing the need for a critical assessment of the impact of technologies and innovative processes, in other words of a Technology Assessment.
For these reasons, the Things to Come programme offers a critical analysis process interconnecting literature, movies, essays and reflections. Via a dialogue with experts and journalists we will reflect on the construction of visions through the lens of futurology and sociology, on the rhetorical deception of technologic promises, on the limitations of science fiction dominant narratives and on the possibility of imagining imperfect though desirable futures such as anti-dystopias.
We will explore the roots and the evolution of transhumanism starting from a pivotal work, the undeservedly forgotten novel A Man’s World (1926) by Charlotte Haldane. We will analyse the ways in which digital technologies, from AI to virtual reality, are redefining our interpersonal relationships, especially the emotional ones, in a couple of meetings centering on themes that have always been opposed and intertwined: love and death. Cinema, always able to make future scenarios tangible, will be at the centre of more than one meeting, culminating in the screening and discussion of two emblematic works: Things to Come (1936), written by H. G. Wells and directed by William Cameron Menzies and The War Game (1965) by Peter Watkins, an extraordinary example of a hypothetic scenario rendered through the language of mockumentary.
Spanning literature, philosophy, cinema and social sciences, the Things to Come meetings are an invitation to look beyond the horizon of the present in order to develop critical tools and alternative visions. We do not know what future life holds in store for us, but we can learn how to imagine it, discuss it and make it less remote, more concrete and more than anything else more human.
All events are free to attend, subject to availability. Early booking on Eventbrite is recommended
All the events are linked on the italian page.
