Techno-optimists and techno-pessimists debated at the Symposium "Inventing the Future"
As part of the educational programme of the International Symposium "Inventing the Future", debates between techno-optimists and techno-pessimists took place on 8 October at the National Centre RUSSIA. The first group believes in the boundless potential of progress, while the second fears that technological development poses a new challenge to humanity.
Presenting the techno-pessimist view of the future were technoculturalist, methodologist, and lecturer Ivan Karpushkin, Director of the "Laboratory of the Future" and Adviser to the Director General of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives for the Promotion of New Projects, and leading Russian futurist Sergei Pereslegin, Scientific Director of the "Sociosoft" project, Director of the Knowledge Management Centre at IRIAS, physicist, sociologist, military historian, researcher and theorist of science fiction, and publicist.
On the side of the techno-optimists were Dmitry Marinichev, Internet Ombudsman and Adviser to the Director General of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and Andrei Timonov, Director of the Communications Department of Rosatom State Corporation.
In the first part of the debate, participants discussed whether artificial intelligence would become a tool to enhance human intelligence or lead to its degradation and loss of independence. The techno-optimists argued that no technology in history has ever caused human degradation, and that AI is primarily a tool designed to empower people.
"Many teachers now allow children to use artificial intelligence for writing assignments because, at the stage of composing a prompt, children develop goal-setting — the ability to clearly define what they want. They then work with the generated text, fact-checking it, and through this process they explore their school curriculum. During the dialogue, we can see what the child agrees or disagrees with — and that’s how reflection develops," explained Andrei Timonov.
The techno-pessimists fear that, at its current stage of development, society is not yet ready to handle such technology, and that humans’ submission to artificial intelligence could lead to catastrophic consequences.
"Artificial intelligence completely changes the situation in science. I have calculated that 99.98% of all scientific research is actually scientific surveys — and AI performs this task better than humans. But science, education and law require financial and intellectual investment. If we now declare that all this is unnecessary and that AI can do everything for us, we will only accelerate the catastrophe," said Sergei Pereslegin.
The second part of the debate focused on whether the technological revolution could help avoid environmental and resource crises or, conversely, create new ones. Here, both sides agreed that humans cannot exist without technology and that technology itself is not to blame for crises.
"There is a hypothesis that Earth created humans as an instrument to protect itself from external cosmic threats. But the way we are now fulfilling this mission could destroy the planet much earlier than any external danger. The key question is which technologies to develop so that the Earth survives," noted Ivan Karpushkin.
"In fact, the only catastrophe that has happened to us is the pollution of our consciousness. What we need first of all is to take care of the ecology of the mind. What we should strive for, think and talk about, is how to restructure our thinking process, how to transform education, and how to teach people to manage not just images but meanings," emphasised Dmitry Marinichev.
The debate concluded with a discussion on how social institutions and governance systems can adapt to the challenges of the future. Participants suggested that social institutions are highly adaptable to any challenge, that technology may unify them, and even that the state itself can be seen as a form of technology.
"The technological world of the future allows us to see reality just as we observe the starry sky through a telescope. This new knowledge gives us the ability to transform the structure of our relationships. What was once invisible has become visible. Just as social networks have made relationships between people transparent and observable, modern technologies and artificial intelligence make visible the meanings that exist in our minds. This means that we can now form a shared purpose and meaning — and be guided by it in our interactions. It is no longer a mechanism of control, nor a state model, nor a hierarchical structure. It is a symbiosis," said Dmitry Marinichev.
The session was moderated by Director General of the VCIOM Analytical Centre, Valery Fedorov.
The II International Symposium "Inventing the Future" is being held on 7–8 October at the National Centre RUSSIA and brings together participants from more than 85 countries, as well as all regions of the Russian Federation. The event features more than 260 Russian and foreign experts from China, the USA, Italy, Latin American countries, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The International Symposium "Inventing the Future" is organised on the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, under the auspices of the Decade of Science and Technology, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, and the Ministry of Culture of Russia. Analytical partner is VCIOM Analytical Centre. Literary partner is Eksmo-AST Publishing Group.
Event photobank
During the event, the researchers shared personal stories — not only of their achievements but also of what usually remains behind the scenes.
