Our mission is to anticipate scientific and technological breakthroughs and identify their potential impact on people, society and the planet. We do this by collaborating with internationally renowned researchers (Academic Moderators and Experts) in four Scientific Platforms with a view to determining what the current state of knowledge is, what the next frontiers will be, how a given scientific or technological field might develop in the coming years, and how that development could affect our objectives.
The four initially chosen Scientific Platforms are:
- Quantum Revolution & Advanced Artificial Intelligence
- Human Augmentation
- Eco-regeneration & Geoengineering
- Science & Diplomacy
The results of this scouting work in each of these areas are summarized in Scientific Anticipatory Briefs (SABs), which provide science-backed expert views on:
- The current state of the art in a given field;
- Major trends and likely breakthroughs 5, 10 and 25 years out – and why they matter;
- The possible impacts and consequences on people, society and the planet.
GESDA’s Academic Forum carries out these assessments, providing the expertise and networks to continuously spot and address relevant topics at the frontier of science and technology. Therefore, we will also continuously update the pool of SABs.
We will publish the SABs as articles in high-quality, well-regarded scientific journals.
We are currently finalizing a first series of SABs, written on the following topics. Read the abstracts:
Future of machine learning and artificial intelligence
Future quantum technologies
Memory enhancement and cognitive engineering
The future of human genome editing
Decarbonizing the global economy and society
Socio-ecological foresight – Integrated Digital Ecosystem Avatars – IDEAs
Social enhancement
Negotiation Engineering and Computational Diplomacy
Future of Science Diplomacy
Ethics of anticipation
Planetary health and global resources, the cross-cutting challenge of all