SingularityU: technology and human rights

Living in freedom may depend on what we are capable of inventing. Alex Gladstein, in charge of strategy at the Human Rights Foundation, was invited to participate in the third episode of the series Inspirando o Futuro – SingularityU Portugal

We can't guess what future holds. However, forecasts are never far from reality. Only one thing is for sure: the future is coming. Its form and content will be an increasingly unknown quantity. Alex Gladstein, an advocate of Human Rights, suggests two choices: freedom or authoritarianism. What might make the difference? Technology.

Gladstein, head of the Human Rights Foundation department of strategy, in Oakland, USA, refers to the idea of “exponential democracy”. “A future in freedom with regard to human rights will depend on the technology we are capable of creating, and the manner in which we use it to get closer to one another.”

THE CHINESE EXAMPLE

Quoting China as an example, Gladstein talks about “digital authoritarianism” as a means of controlling the masses. “People in China don't interact using the most popular means such as Google or Facebook. It basically all works in a single application, more powerful and better developed than ours, with functions that we don´t have, used by over a billion people. Users can choose the park at which they're going to spend the following day based on the information supplied by the people who are going to be there. But what if the Government were to use this application to control the population?”

Gladstein was the special guest on the third episode of the documentary series Inspirando o Futuro – SingularityU Portugal, broadcast on RTP2 on Wednesday evenings. Featuring interviews with a number of contemporary thinkers, the format addresses different fashionable topics – from neuroscience to artificial intelligence and technology – and the manner in which they are radically changing our lives.