How not to Ruin Everything: Futures Thinking Launch

Launch event for Futures Thinking, a new research group looking
into future problems and opportunities created by advances in
technology and artificial intelligence. In literature, in popular
media, in scientific research, and in public consciousness,
discourse about the future, machine learning, and the human
elements of digital technologies proliferates more now than ever
before. Thanks to developments in artificial intelligence (AI), we
are able to speculate about how our fundamentally social species
might interact with performatively human-like machines of our own
making. Television shows like Black Mirror and The Handmaid’s Tale,
and novels like The Circle or Never Let Me Go speculate about
dystopian futures that reflect political realities not unlike those
that are currently unfolding in the Global North. Ethics in AI are
much debated in science fiction. However, the scholars in the
fields of AI and those in literature, history, and gender studies
seldom interact to discuss the realities and probabilities of the
future of a technologically advanced mankind. Crucially important
to our network is the recognition of how narrative informs and
shapes the future. Bringing scholars of historical and literary
narratives into conversation with ethicists and developers of
digital AI technologies is of paramount importance to futures
thinking. Discussion on AI and global governance is thriving at
Oxford, while speculative fiction is an important emerging field in
literary studies. This network brings these fields into
conversation. We extend from exploring speculative fiction
research, questions about the robustness of machine learning, the
future trade-offs between privacy and security, to thinking about
how we might use historical feminist consciousness-raising methods
to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration. We are keen for
interested parties to join our group so if you work on or are
interested in any aspect of futures thinking, be it in science or
the humanities, in any of the University’s divisions, please
contact us and come along to our events! We are a network founded
on principles of access and inclusion, and strive to host events
that consider the lifestyle ethics and carer-responsibilities of
our members and attendees, as well as their access needs, pronouns,
and other inclusion needs. Please do contact us for further
information on our manifesto. Chelsea Haith, Futures Thinking
Founder, DPhil in Contemporary Literature Prof Robert Iliffe,
Professor of History of Science Dr Gretta Corporaal, Sociologist of
Work and Organisations in the OII Dr Alexandra Paddock, Editorial
Lead on LitHits, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of English Prof
Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, LitHits Founder, Professor of English and
Theatre Studies Alice Billington, Futures Thinking Co-Convenor,
DPhil in Modern History