Policies

Please note that Future Surge has been closed down at the end of 2023. The content on this page will be archived elsewhere during the first months of 2024

About these policies

Future Surge emphasises proposals that are both radical and real-world:

  • Not just “more of the same”
  • Avoid going beyond the comprehension of the general public
  • Identify step-by-step roadmaps in support of each of the policy initiatives

(The remainder of this page contains “headlines” for policies. More details will be supplied in due course.)

Education for a dramatically better future

Education fit for the new future: STEM and beyond

  • Free access for all to the “Vital Syllabus”
    • Engaging, credible, clear explanations of the most important skills and principles for our age of multiple pressures, dizzying opportunities, daunting risks, and accelerating disruption
    • Multiple forms of intelligence and wisdom
    • The remarkable capabilities of technology, now and in the near future, and the huge opportunities and risks arising
    • The factors that influence how society develops and uses technologies
    • Options for changes in our lives, cultures, and environment

Urgently raise awareness of the enormous possibilities of the Singularity

  • Exponential technology, unexpected combinations, cataclysmic disruptions
  • Futures that could be dramatically better – and those that could be dramatically worse
  • Technology is almost out-of-control already – a negative Singularity is near
  • Click here for more about the Singularity

But avoid the distortions and confusions of “the Singularity Shadow”

  • Unwarranted fixed views on timescales
  • Unwarranted fixed views on outcomes
  • Unwarranted complacency regarding risks
  • A preoccupation with the Singularity over the developments taking place beforehand
  • Click here for more about the Singularity Shadow

Measurements for a dramatically better future

Measure and monitor the growth in capability of technology

  • Beyond speculation to reliable data
  • How close to superintelligence has AI reached?
  • Design the tests that will supersede the Turing test

Measure and monitor human and social wellbeing

  • A metric to supersede GDP: long overdue!
  • Many measurements have been proposed: it’s time to draw the best ideas together

Wise use of technology for a dramatically better future

Healthcare for open-ended youthful lifespans

  • Embrace the longevity dividend
  • Public investment into the areas not covered by private investments

Accelerate access to neurotechnologies and psychoactive substances

  • Assistance on the paths to health, discipline, wisdom, and enlightenment

Accelerate improvements in cryopreservation

  • Enable and support wider adoption of cryopreservation: “an ambulance to the future”

Selectively embrace genetic editing

  • Don’t be held back by ideologically-motivated blanket bans

Incentivise meat from non-sentient sources

  • Good for the planet, good for our diets, good for animals
  • Will allow significant land reuse, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • Other innovations in food production should be prioritised too
  • (e.g. salt-water agriculture, better soil management)

From the Green New Deal to the Future Surge New Deal

  • “Bright Green” – and with an even bigger impact

Social changes for a dramatically better future

From “everyone online” to “everyone empowered”

  • Being online is only the start of modern citizenship
  • Enabling everyone to take well-informed decisions, freed from manipulation by platform owners and online disinformation

From “smart city” to “trusted city”

  • Technology that is on the side of the population

Automation that uplifts rather than deprives

  • Prepare for a post-work society

A social contract that copes with radical disruption

  • Beyond a “Universal Basic Income”
  • Transitioning toward elements of a “Star Trek” abundance economy

Political changes for a dramatically better future

Improved democracy and citizens’ assemblies

  • Better ways of reaching better decisions and deeper agreement
  • Not one-time “first past the post” decisions, but iterative deliberations
  • Decisions aided and augmented by AI

Legal backing for the Singularity Principles

  • Stage-by-stage adoption and enforcement

International changes for a dramatically better future

Revitalise the universal declaration of human rights

  • Revisit and extend the global project that took place just after WW2
  • Take account of transhumanist and singularitarian possibilities
  • Value diversity, but clarify the limits of acceptable diversity
    • Societies must uphold the rights of individuals, especially children and minorities
    • Societies must avoid the destruction of our shared environment

Deepen human links despite conflicting governments

  • Forge connections at multiple levels of organisation
    • Both formal and informal
  • Strengthen understanding and agreements on future surge possibilities
    • An urgent appreciation of the risks of catastrophe
    • A profound wonder at the possibilities of human transcendence

Becoming involved

If the above policies resonate with you, consider joining Future Surge