IDEA GENERATOR
Are we alone in the universe? What could a future for humans in space look like? And what would Creon's advise to Elon Musk be if he wants to make a self-sufficient mass colony there? This Hope Drop features Creon Levit, chief technologist and director of R&D at Planet Labs. Creon is chief technologist and director of R&D at Planet Labs, and a Foresight Institute senior fellow. He previously worked at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, where he was one of the founders of the NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) division, co-PI on the Virtual Wind Tunnel project, co-founder of the NASA Molecular Nanotechnology Group (the first federally funded research lab devoted to molecular nanotechnology), co-PI on the hyperwall project, investigator on the Columbia accident investigation board, member of the NASA engineering and safety center, investigator on the millimeter-wave thermal rocket project, the Stardust re-entry observation campaign, PI on the LightForce project, special assistant to the center director, and chief scientist for the programs and projects directorate.
art GENERATOR
Anosh is a leading creative at BETC and a member of the Existential Hope Gallery. In this piece he is working with AI-based tools to create a dialogue between the vision of a super machine and an artist.
Xhope scenario
Creon Levit's positive scenario of the future: To some extent, things are already pivoting towards the kind of future we could all have with love, community, technology, and adventure, as well as lack of severe hardship or fear. Experiences such as community gatherings and collaboration are prime examples of what everybody could have in the fantastic future.
While it may feel less obvious that the collective world is shifting in that direction, things are still seemingly getting better for most people. Of course, there is suffering and danger, but it does not bode well to go invading another country anymore. In a way these are hopeful signs of progress. We have been learning a lot the last few years. Now we need to continue learning at a rapid rate.
People have to fall in love with their lives, fellow humans, civilization, and the future. On the one hand, some might say, “You are proposing a change in human nature and that will never happen.” I am not so sure though. I think humans are changing, not uniformly or quickly, but in a positive direction. Things like slavery, brutal combat, and warfare used to be commonplace and they are now anomalies on the way out. So the pivot of humanity depends on this pivot on the individual level to make it happen.