Socrates Colombia Seminars

Cartagena, Colombia
March 15-17, 2019

Hosted in partnership with the McNulty Foundation, join us for the first-ever Socrates seminars in Cartagena, Colombia! More details are available here. 

Order Amid Chaos: Major Trends Shaping the Future of Technology, Business, and Society
This seminar will examine the currents shaping the near to mid future. Artificial intelligence is radically changing every aspect of life on earth, from raising families to running businesses to governing huge societies. How is it affecting productivity and the nature of leadership? How is it altering the workplace and the roles humans play in it? We will also examine how the digital public sphere is shaping elections, news and government. We’ll look at the rise of machine learning, with all its promise and perils. Finally, we’ll examine the humanistic questions that lately are coming to the fore. Are we on the path to a better world or have we gone down a dark alley? Are we losing touch with the qualitative, spiritual aspects of existence that make life worth living? Some believe we can endow AI with human values and ideals that will ensure this revolution goes to a good place. Is this a realistic endeavor or a quixotic dream?

Moderator: William Powers, Research Scientist at MIT’s Media Lab and author of the NYT Bestseller Hamlet’s Blackberry. 

Can the Market Fix the Market?
This seminar will examine the currents shaping the near to mid future. Artificial intelligence is radically changing every aspect of life on earth, from raising families to running businesses to governing huge societies. How is it affecting productivity and the nature of leadership? How is it altering the workplace and the roles humans play in it? We will also examine how the digital public sphere shaping elections, news and government. We’ll look at the rise of machine learning, with all its promise and perils. Finally, we’ll examine the humanistic questions that lately are coming to the fore. Are we on the path to a better world or have we gone down a dark alley? Are we losing touch with the qualitative, spiritual aspects of existence that make life worth living? Some believe we can endow AI with human values and ideals that will ensure this revolution goes to a good place. Is this a realistic endeavor or a quixotic dream?

Moderator: Sonal Shah, Professor of Practice and the founding Executive Director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation at Georgetown University.

*Participation in these seminars is by invitation. If you would like to be considered, please send your bio and a brief motivation statement (1-2 paragraphs) [email protected]. 

Stay Tuned!

For an easy look at upcoming programming, check out our program calendar.