In Company with Robots: A Cultural Leap?

About This Event

Can culture progress through an existence permeated with artificial intelligence? Will a struggle between human and artificial intelligence pave the way to a human-based social development?

Climate Impact of AI

AI is at the forefront of digitalization, but this will only work if there is a constant supply of electricity — is this guaranteed forever? Electricity generated from burning fossil fuels is no longer acceptable when climate change is considered. Are there known side effects of the ever-increasing electromagnetic radiation in our everyday lives? Will a future without electricity become necessary?

A global blackout is a real possibility. What can our generation, which is predicting this development, pass to the next generation?

The Need for a Second Ecological Awakening

Do we need a second “ecological awakening”? Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring started the first, based on her coverage of biodynamic farmer Marjorie Spock’s suit to stop her town from spraying DDT on her farm. That first Green Movement has faded into the background. Today, with the electrical revolution, we need a new awakening.

The new type of pollution — electromagnetic — is invisible. It is accumulating around us. Yet few are talking about it, perhaps because there is a lack of answers about an alternative path to cultural progress without electricity.

Electrical Colonialism

Back in 1972, the Club of Rome’s report on the State of Humanity caused great excitement with its view of the Limits of Growth. Some 50 years later, different warning signs are up — electrical signs that call for a new report that can look beyond the limits of electrical growth.

What was land colonialism between 1600 and 1914 has today become data colonialism by Big Tech. The data-driving privacy of companies such as Apple, Google, and Meta has become modern colonialism. We, the users, are becoming the new slaves — with every click, we supply Big Tech with our information, which they use to sell back to us through their intelligent “learning systems.”

About the Speaker

Otto Ulrich brings a unique perspective as both a physicist-engineer and political scientist with decades of experience at the highest levels of German government. His writings span technology criticism, environmental policy, and the intersection of human culture with technological progress.