2015 World Technology Summit and Awards Gala: The Things We Don't Talk About

In 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley published Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It was the world's first science fiction novel. It was also a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of disruptive technology.

On November 19th and 20th, 2015, a group of scientists, academics, engineers, journalists, artists, and entrepreneurs gathered to discuss the consequences of disruptive technology, intended or otherwise. The occasion was the 2015 World Technology Summit & Awards Gala. The event, sponsored by IBM Watson, was held at the Time & Life Building in midtown. Click here for speakers, finalists, and winners.

The theme of this year's Summit was "The Things We Don't Talk About." In his opening remarks, James Clark, the founder and chairman of the World Technology Network, described the seven deadly sins of omission of modern technology. My personal favorite was number three, "the bullshit chain." Anyone who has ever worked with overhyped technology knows what this means. You can see Clark's full speech here.

The "things we don't talk about" theme kept coming up over the course of the two-day conference. Some examples:

• Shannon Vallor, a researcher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley, and President of the international Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT), presented on Fermi's paradox. According to Fermi's calculations, the universe should be filled with advanced alien civilizations, so why haven't we encountered any yet? One possible explanation: without advanced ethics to accompany advanced technology, they self-destructed. Are we heading down the same path?
• John Hoffman, Executive Vice President, Documentaries and Specials, for the Discovery Channel, screened a sneak preview of "Racing Extinction." Spoiler alert: we're screwed.
• Stuart Russell, a Professor (and former Chair) of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at Berkeley, presented on "killer robots, the end of humanity, and all that." He chided "lazy journalists" for focusing on Terminator fantasies and missing the real threat: machines that can outthink us. (Although he also presented on "lethal autonomous weapons"--which sound suspiciously like Terminators.)
• A panel comprising Martine Rothblatt, John Horgan, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Wendell Wallach discussed "A Dangerous Master: how to keep technology from slipping beyond our control." For example, we can edit pig genomes to produce organs that can be transplanted into human beings, but should we? (This certainly creates an ethical conflict for a BBQ lover like myself.)
• Another panel comprising Dr. James Hughes, Dr. Seth Baum, Melanie Swan, and David Biello presented on "The World In 2025, 2035, 2045," but there was little consensus on what that world would look like, or even if we would make it.
• Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, presented his latest composition based upon Arctic temperature data. It was beautiful, but of course the Arctic is rapidly melting. (He also had a file on his hard drive labeled "John Cage vs. Sun Ra"--two of my favorite musicians. Paul, call me--I'd love to hear your mix tape.)

It wasn't all gloom and doom, of course. Most of the presentations were quite inspiring. Some highlights:

• Charles Quincy presented on IBM Watson and its applications in medicine. Maybe Shannon Vallor can teach Watson ethics?
• Yoichi Ochiai, media artist and assistant professor of Tsukuba University, presented on the "holographic actuating of objects." I'm not sure entirely what he was talking about, but it sure was pretty.
• Dr. Matt Taylor, Project Scientist for the European Space Agency, presented, on the Rosetta mission. (His Skype session froze during the presentation. We can communicate with a satellite millions of miles away, but we can't get Skype to work reliably?)
• Ashutosh Saxena, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the RoboBrain project at Cornell University and Stanford University, presented on robots learning by watching YouTube videos. (I just hope they don't discover PornHub. Or maybe I do.)
• Jennifer Doudna, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry at UC Berkeley, and Emmanuelle Charpentier, scientific founder and advisor of CRISPR, presented on gene editing. This technology could be used to bring back extinct species. But why are they extinct in the first place? I just hope they stayed around and watched "Racing Extinction."
• Rick Tumlinson, Chairman of the Board for Deep Space Industries, presented on asteroid mining. Although he implicitly rejected Clark's number one technological sin of omission, the societal epidemic of loneliness: "If you're alone and on the edge, you're exploring."
• Brian Bauer, Autonomy System Lead Engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, Maryland, presented on NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. (Who cares whether it's a planet or not? Exploring Pluto is cool!)

The conference left me with distinctly mixed emotions. We are on the verge of accomplishing amazing things--if only our own creations don't turn on us and destroy us first. Dr. Victor von Frankenstein would have understood.