Anticipatory governance to boost crisis preparedness – what policy actions needed for resilient cities and human-friendly AI?
Special Session hosted by the Millennium Project with Professor Sirkka Heinonen (FI), Director Jerome Glenn (USA) and Adjunct Professor Osmo Kuusi (FI).
Anticipatory governance can boost crisis preparedness. What policy actions and regulations would be needed to make cities resilient? What policy actions and regulations are needed to govern a safe transmission from ANI to AGI? What policies and regulations would be needed in combining these two goals? Cities are increasingly dependent on AI, hence, their resilience will also be dependent on the future of AI. Potential barriers and incentives for promoting successful crisis preparedness are also being sought for.
The Special Millennium Project Session discusses these questions by providing a keynote by Jerome Glenn, commentary talks, and an interactive debate and elaboration of the topic that encourages participants to give and analyse suggestions for concrete policy actions and recommended practices. The ultimate goal is to explore possibilities for providing urban space that is crisis resilient, prone for healthy living and wellbeing, and embedded with trustworthy and human-friendly AI as support for daily living.
This hybrid session will take place on Thursday 16 June at 13:30–15:00.
Mental time travel towards more physically active lifestyles
Special Session hosted by the STYLE (Healthy Lifestyles to Boost Sustainable Growth) research project funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland.
Decreasing physical activity (PA) and fossil-fuel based mobility are both global sustainability challenges. Although the importance of PA has been recognized, it is evident that strategies created and actions implemented in regional and local levels have not been able to tackle the major obstacles and challenges of active lifestyles. Therefore, we need both inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to better understand mechanisms, solutions and policies that support lifestyle changes.
First part of this session features a group of invited speakers from the STYLE project introducing latest studies and results on the themes related to lifestyles of increased PA and active travel. This is followed by a facilitated discussion with the audience. Second part of the session invites the audience to take part in co-creating new ideas and viewpoints of futures of active lifestyles. We conduct a futures workshop using mental time travel method to find new service and product solutions supporting PA and active travel. Mental time travelling is an example of a method that enables participants to think disruptively rather than just extrapolating from the past. It puts participants in a state, where they can ‘see’ and even ‘feel’ visions of the future.
The two-fold objective of the session is to encourage future oriented, inter- and transdisciplinary discussion of the topic, and to introduce a workshop method generating insights of novel solutions supporting lifestyle changes by opening up the minds of participants to long-term thinking.
This hybrid session will take place on Thursday 16 June at 09:00–10:45 (part 1) and 11:00–12:30 (part 2).
How technology is driving an age of consciousness
Special online Session hosted by Professor William Halal, TechCast Project, George Washington University (USA).
The Knowledge Age is passing as smartphones, social media and artificial intelligence automate knowledge. Knowledge remains crucial, but the tech revolution is opening a new frontier governed by emotions, values, beliefs and higher-order thought.
An Age of Consciousness is here, though it’s dominated by post-factual nonsense, climate denial, political gridlock and other threats that pose an existential crisis. During the session we will learn how digital technology is driving social evolution into an emerging Age of Consciousness.
This virtual session will take place on Friday 17 June at 10:45–12:00.
Planetary Futures of Health and Wellbeing 