'Possible Futures: The Singularity or Extended Intelligence' with Dr Richard Claydon

The Singularity is a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. Many books and movies explore the possible dystopian reality of this future in which machines take over the planet - The Matrix, The Terminator, Neuromancer. 

Others foresee a different future, in which advanced artificial intelligence co-exists with humans in a mutually beneficial future in which the processing power of machines is combined with the creative capacity of humans to deliver a utopian society - Star Trek TOS and TNG, the Iain Banks Culture novels. 

The choice, it seems, is between Morpheus’s dystopian “desert of the real” or Kirk’s optimistic  call to “explore strange new worlds” and go where no-one has gone before.

In this week’s Drinking Dialogue, we will look at these two possible futures, and explore which one is most likely to come into being. We will:

• Examine the parallels between the Gilded Age and the present day, exploring whether the Tayloristic industrial technology solutions to the former are likely to re-emerge in Digital Taylorism and an early-stage Singularity today
• Explore the futures presented in films such as The Matrix and The Terminator franchises
• Look at the three generations of Star Trek, how each has presented a differently nuanced version of the future, and why today’s version seems to be simultaneously more dystopian and moralistic
• Ask whether you are ready to play all three core roles of an Extended Intelligent network - the humble expert, the oblique reframer, and the intelligent fool 

Dr Richard Claydon is the co-founder of EQ Lab, and the designer of the Future of Leadership module at Macquarie Business School’s Global MBA Program (ranked #6 globally by CEO Magazine).

He was awarded the highest achievable marks for a Ph.D in behavioural science. A Harvard Top-200 Management expert and business columnists for the Guardian newspaper have described this research as “a touchstone for the future work in management and organisation”, “outstanding in daring imagination” and “at the forefront of modern discussion and debate.”

Richard is a tier one tennis player, have coached tennis professionally, and also designed the tactics creator for the multi award-winning and world-leading management simulation, Football Manager.