Nobel Week Dialogue
9 December 2022
Morning session
09:30 - 12:00
OPENING SPEECHES
Carl-Henrik Heldin, Laura Sprechmann
09:40
WHAT IS LIFE?
How should we define ‘life’? What do we understand about its origins, and what does that understanding tell us about the nature of life, and how it will be in the future?
OPENING TALK
Paul Nurse: 'What is Life?'
WHAT DO LIFE'S ORIGINS TELL US ABOUT LIFE'S FUTURE?
Paola Caselli, Andrea Ghez, Benjamin List, Paul Nurse, Didier Queloz
Moderator: Juleen Zierath
10:20
VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
How can predicting the future help us address the challenges of today? How do we approach depictions of the future, whether dystopian or utopian? What does it take to change our view of the future, and what matters?
WHY LOOK FORWARD?
Frances Arnold, Steven Chu, Anders Sandberg
Moderator: Helga Nowotny
WHAT MATTERS?
Benjamin List and Birgit R Skarstein
Moderator: Adam Smith
INTRO TALK
Hilmar Petursson: 'Inventing the universe'
FUTURISM & UTOPIAN/DYSTOPIAN VISIONS
Anthony Aguirre, Camilla Brudin Borg, Hilmar Petursson
Moderator: Karin Svensson
11:25
PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE
How do others see life and how can we imagine the lives of others?
INTERVIEW WITH ABDULRAZAK GURNAH
Interviewer: Carin Klaesson
LUNCH
12:00 - 13:15
LUNCH SESSION (ON-SITE PARTICIPANTS ONLY)
UTOPIAN STORIES
Stage on the balcony, level 5 (above the foyer)
Students from Blackebergs High School: Utopian stories on stage
Camilla Bredberg, Camilla Brudin Borg
Moderator: Karin Svensson
Afternoon session
13:15 - 16:00
PERFORMANCE
Performance by Rufus Wainwright
Singer-songwriter and composer
13:25
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
How will our species change, both naturally and by our own intervention? How much do we want to interfere, both with ourselves and with the living world around us? How will our coexistence with technology develop? Will ‘life’ include AI?
INTRO TALK
Tom Kirkwood: ‘The future of human longevity’
HOW WILL WE EVOLVE?
Frances Arnold, Tom Kirkwood, Paul Nurse, Birgit R Skarstein
Moderator: Juleen Zierath
INTRO TALK
Stuart Russell: ‘Living with artificial intelligence’
LIVING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Anthony Aguirre, Serge Haroche, Alice Heiman, Helga Nowotny, Stuart Russell
Moderator: Adam Smith
14:40
EXISTENTIAL THREATS
How do we avoid catastrophe? Can we protect ourselves and the world around us from dangers including: nuclear war, climate change, emerging diseases, natural disasters, asteroids and a host of other threats to the planet? Will we find life elsewhere, and will humans live elsewhere than planet earth?
HOW TO AVOID CATASTROPHE
Pamela Bjorkman, Paola Caselli, Steven Chu, Beatrice Fihn, Stuart Russell
Moderator: Carin Klaesson
LIFE ELSEWHERE?
Didier Queloz, Anders Sandberg
Moderator: Paola Caselli
15:40
CLOSING PANEL
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE EXPECT FROM US?
Steven Chu, Beatrice Fihn, Serge Haroche, Paul Nurse, Didier Queloz
Moderator: Adam Smith