Session 4: The narrative power of Sci-Fi, Date: 08.06.20, Guest: Marcel Mayr
Marcel Mayr studied technical cybernetics and computing and information science in Germany and the UK. He works part-time as a technology consultant, he has founded tech and fashion companies and is active in political/cultural/artistic projects. When digging deep into science, research and humanistic/technophilosophical debates, he’s mostly engaged in topics which pinpoint the growing gap between technological advancements, dualistic conservatism and the unreasonable human soul. He was the founder of the transhuman party in Germany and is a critical writer, speaker and artist addressing human emotions and values in times of artificial intelligence, nano-neuro-bio-psychology, technoprogressive social societies and the digital quake. If anything, he is a fighter for freedom, authenticity, humanism and empathy. He has lived in Italy, Switzerland and the UK and has lately moved from Stuttgart to Berlin, Germany, to launch a philosophical fashion label and working as an artist/writer. In this session, the key conceptual question that underlies all else was about direction. Whether in politics, design, philosophy, or technological innovation, the participants tried to estimate a current point of view and the direction we are heading towards depending on personal wishes for the future: What world do I want to live in? Can I change the future? Can I change the past? Do humans have any value and how many should exist for how long? Who am I anyway? How should I live? Who is to decide? Do I love, hate, fear…? Why? What, if anything would I change in the world, with people, with me? What role do narratives play in the fiction?