Agenda

Science Fiction, the free and creative exploration of possible futures, can cast new light upon tomorrow, provide food for thought for social debate in an original manner and enhance forward-looking thinking. Although the imaginary worlds that it depicts seem far removed from our daily lives, the genre opens avenues for fresh thinking with regard to society’s concerns about future applications of science and their potential social, environmental and ethical implications. In reality, the range of scenarios explored by science fiction offer a real tool for thinking about our societies’ possible futures.
How can science fiction authors’ views of the environmental, technological, social and ethical challenges facing us today help us to enhance our thinking?

Physicists, climatologists, philosophers, semiologists, science fiction authors and experts from different backgrounds will compare their views in two round table debates:

•  “Post-Humanity: from Repaired human beings to Enhanced human beings?”

 Since the beginning of the 2000s, owing to the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science (NBIC), the idea has been taking shape that new technologies are set to emerge, which will make it possible to considerably improve human beings’ physical and intellectual abilities.

What scenarios can be foreseen with regard to the development of these technologies for the improvement of human abilities? What are their ethical and social implications? What would a world in which humans could no longer avoid technological enhancement be like?

Will we all become trans-humans or post-humans? What place will there be for “non-enhanced” humans? What is the boundary between repair and enhancement of the human body?

•  “After the Earth: Preserving our Planet or Terraforming Another?”

 Preserving the environment, an objective which entered the political agenda in the 1990s, appears set to become one of the greatest challenges that humanity will have to face in upcoming years. How can the ever increasing destruction of natural ecosystems be checked? How can we adapt to this deterioration of the environment? In the face of climatic changes, what place should be given to geoengineering and technological modification of our environment? Will space exploration lead us to colonise new planets? What are the new rules of the game for countries, between cooperation and competition for new resources?

The Centre for Strategic Analysis is publishing two policy briefs, which will be presented to you on this occasion:

• Science Fiction, a Mirror of our Societies for Forward-Looking Thinking
• Technologies for Improving Human Performance

PROGRAMME

14:00 Introduction
Vincent Chriqui, Director General of the Centre for Strategic Analysis

14:10 ROUND TABLE 1 – Post-Humanity: from Repaired Human Beings to Enhanced Human Beings?
Chairman: Simon Bréan, Senior lecturer in French literature at Paris-Sorbonne University

• Marc Atallah, Director of Maison d'Ailleurs and lecturer in French literature at the University of Lausanne
• Jean-Michel Besnier, Lecturer in philosophy at Paris-Sorbonne University, author of Demain les post-humains : [“The Post-Humans of Tomorrow: Does the Future still need us?”] (Fayard, 2010)
• Claude Ecken, Science Fiction Writer
• Pierre-Henri Gouyon, Lecturer at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle

15:10 Debate with the audience

15:30 Break

15:40 ROUND TABLE 2 – After the Earth? Preserving our Planet or Terraforming Another?
Chairman: Éric Picholle, Physicist at the CNRS (French National Centre of Scientific Research), LPMC UMR 7336 [condensed matter physics laboratory, combined research unit 7336], University of Nice Sophia Antipolis

• Christian Chelebourg, Lecturer in literature at the University of Lorraine, director of the Jean Mourot centre for literary research, author of Les Écofictions - Mythologies de la fin du monde [“Eco-Fiction: Mythologies of the End of the World”] (Les Impressions nouvelles, 2012)
• Ferenc Fodor, Researcher in semiology and linguistics, author of Climat d'angoisse. L'imaginaire du changement climatique [“Climate of Anxiety. Imagination and Climate Change”] (2011 with V. Brunetière)
• Jean-Marc Ligny, Science Fiction writer, author of AquaTM and d’Exodes (L’Atalante), two novels on climate change
• Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Climatologist, director of CEA research at the French Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences, CEA/CNRS/UVSQ/IPSL, Gif-sur-Yvette
• Pierre Papon, Physicist, professor emeritus at ESPCI ParisTech (The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution), former CNRS director of the IFREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea), honorary president of the French Science and Technology Watchdog

16:40 Debate with the audience

17:00 Conclusion of the symposium
Ugo Bellagamba, Senior lecturer in the history of law, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, writer and artistic delegate to the Utopiales international science fiction festival

Registrations for this event are now closed

Illustration: © Hergé/Moulinsart 2012