What are the potential impacts of automation on human life? Could automation lead to a utopia? If so, what kinds of utopia would be feasible and desirable? This video features John Danaher, Senior Lecturer at National University of Ireland, in conversation with David Wood, chair of London Futurists.
The conversation covered themes from John's recent new book, "Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work". Propositions defended in the book include:
1. The automation of work is both possible and desirable;
2. The automation of life more generally poses a threat to human well-being, meaning, and flourishing;
3. One way to mitigate this threat would be to build a Cyborg Utopia, but it’s not clear how practical or utopian this would really be;
4. Another way to mitigate this threat would be to build a Virtual Utopia: instead of integrating ourselves with machines in an effort to maintain our relevance in the “real” world, we could retreat to “virtual” worlds that are created and sustained by the technological infrastructure that we have built.
The interview took place over Zoom. Please forgive the low resolution.
For more information about John and his ideas, see his popular blog Philosophical Disquisitions,
For reviews of John's recent book, and to purchase a copy, see
For information about the London Futurists event featuring John on the 16th of January, see
Help us caption & translate this video!
0 Comments