quarto evento dell'11/06/2009
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Eugenio Quaini
Introduzione al Futuro
CUBE srl – FER Fully Elastic RingPaolo Ferrazzi Inventor
Scompenso cardiaco
•Anello equatoriale•Anello mitralico•Industrializzazione•Certificazione•Sperimentazione animale•Studio umano di fase 1
CUBE srl – FER Mitral Elastic RingPaolo Ferrazzi Inventor
CUBE srl – FER Mitral Elastic RingPaolo Ferrazzi Inventor
Cardioscopy
Faxitron: high resolution x-ray
πάντα ῥεῖ Eraclito
Poets and the Future
"Tutti dovremmo preoccuparci del futuro, perché là dobbiamo passare il resto
della nostra vita."
Charles Franklin Kettering (1876-1958)Inventor and businessman
Co-Founder of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
We understand better than ever that planning is like standing on a beach.
A wave approaches.
Dig in your heels? Swim into it? Run?
Thinking• Dangers and difficulties of looking to
the future
• Why bother then?
• How best to think about the future?
• What is foresight?
• What does the future mean for now?
1. The Disciplined Mind
2. The Synthesizing Mind
3. The Creating Mind
4. The Respectful Mind
5. The Ethical Mind
The a priori – a posteriori distinction
• a priori knowledge– Before taking into account observations or
evidence– Necessary/analytic truths, assumptions, given
facts, etc.
• a posteriori knowledge– After taking into account observations and
evidence– Laws and explanations of natural or social
phenomena
Rationalism• Knowledge arises from reasoning
• The way to knowledge is from the general to the particular
• Requires general a priori, necessary truths
• Characterised by deduction
Descartes “Cogito ergo sum”
Empiricism• Knowledge arises from observation
• The way to knowledge is from the particular to the general
• Requires a posteriori, contingent truths
• Characterised by induction
Galileo “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them”
Popper’s Falsificationism• Induction never proves anything• Hypotheses can only be disproved by
observing a counter-example• If there is constant innovation of hypotheses
and attempts to disprove them then knowledge will progress
Karl Popper “Hypotheses that are not amenable to being falsified (unfalsifiable
hypotheses) are dubious”
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1890-95
• "Radio has no future"
• "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible"
• "X rays will prove to be a hoax”
Dangers of predicting the future
Dangers of predicting the future
“I never make predictions, especially about the future.”
Sam Goldwyn,
MGM founder
Looking to the future: common mistakes
• Making predictions rather than attaching probabilities to possibilities
• Simply extrapolating current trends
• Thinking of only one future
• By 2029, a computer will be able to carry on a conversation indistinguishable from a human’s.
• In the 2040’s people spend the majority of their time in full immersion virtual reality.
• The point when your life expectancy rises at a rate faster than which you age.
Ray Kurzweil
“Immortality first!
Everything else can wait.”
Corwyn Prater
Futurists
• Eliminating a specific list comprising 50% of medically preventable conditions, would extend human life expectancy to over 150 years.
• By preventing 90% of medical problems, life expectancy could extend to over 500 years.
• At 99% solved, we’d be able to live for over 1000 years.
Robert A. Freitas Jr. Senior Research Fellownonprofit foundation (IMM)Palo Alto California
Futurists
Biotechnology and nanotechnology revolutions will eliminate virtually all medical causes of death
METHODS
Nanotechnology Cryogenics
Mind Uploading
Cyborg Citizens
Body part replacement
The life extension ethics question:
Should technologies that
radically extend the human lifespan
be allowed to be employed?
Approach the future
The point is not to predict the future but to prepare for it and to shape it
SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE
Easy to say, hard to accomplish
What is BETTER?
BIGGER? FASTER? MORE?
Knowing is not enough; we must apply
Willing is not enough; we must do
Goethe
Contradictions of the 21th Century
• Extreme specialization• Science keeps us alive• Information overload• Lip service to science
• Complex knowledge• Low science budget • Weak understanding• Dramatic decrease of enrolment in science
BUT
The health care problem
• Between the health care we have and the care we could have lies not just a gap, but a chasm
• A system full of underuse, inappropriate use, and overuse of care
• Unable to deliver today’s science and technology
The key is to think and ACT strategically.
Planning is not about writing a plan.
Planning is about results.
To be strategic is to invest your resources, make a bet (time, energy, money, creativity) where your choice can produce the best results.
A wide field. A few chips.
Goals are at the heart of any strategic plan.Goals are the most important part of any strategic plan.
Non guardar fissa l'ondache si frange al tuo piede; fino a
quandosarà immerso nell'acquaonde nuove verranno.
B. Brecht