Program

10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. - Introduction & Welcome
10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. - Lecture by Prof. Valdemar Setzer
The fall of cosmic intelligence into the human being and the fall of human thinking into matter: Michael and technology

According to Rudolf Steiner, Michael “administered” the cosmic intelligence up to the ninth century. Humans had the sensation that they did not produce their thoughts, but the latter were inspired by cosmic thoughts. Thereafter, humans began producing their own thoughts. This increased dramatically after the 15th century. Thinking was increasingly directed to the physical world, leading to technology. Humans began to introduce their thoughts into machines, at first in their functioning, which one may call “incorporated intelligence”. But with computers, human thoughts in the form of programming instructions began to be simulated as such by machines. The last step in this fall into matter is Large Generative Systems. Now computers modify their programs based on huge amounts of data, and humans can no longer know how these programs work, that is, they have lost the control they formerly had on what a program should do. This may have terrible consequences. Is it possible to use technology in a Michaelic way?

11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. - Q&A session
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. - Lecture by Andrew Linnell
Facing the spiritual challenges arising in the digital age

How can each one of us possibly face the spiritual challenges of this Age of Technology? Will Artificial Intelligence make us less human? Will Transhumanism rob us of what’s left? What can all this mean for our human evolution? We will explore Spiritual Science’s picture of the future to show why fear can and should be set aside. We’ll look at counterbalances to keep us healthy and active through these challenging times.

1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. - Q&A session
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. - Lunch Break
2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. - Lecture by Prof. Eric Cunningham
The Dark Lord of the Virtual World

This talk takes the position that the "Advent of Ahriman" is already in effect, and that we can see the traces of Ahriman's incarnation in a number of contemporary technological phenomena. Among these are virtual reality, the "psy-op," the global banking and finance system, and Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Cunningham discusses the degree to which these things exhibit Ahrimanic qualities, and argues that they have set in motion a seemingly unstoppable impulse in the direction of totalitarianism. While many people find it easy to politicize the Advent of Ahriman by "finding" him among the global leader elites, Prof. Cunningham takes the position that it is better to assume that Ahriman "is" where Ahriman "acts" and that the above named phenomena serve as organs for a decentered Ahrimanic body.

3:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. - Q&A session
3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. - Lecture by Andrew Linnell
Has Artificial Intelligence come of age? If so, do we give it the car keys?

Op-eds in major newspapers have been addressing a growing dread of Artificial Intelligence. Along with chuckles from some ChatGPT responses, there is certainly fear. Whose jobs are at stake? Of what transformations of civilization is this the harbinger? Will it transform almost every field of human endeavor? How can we understand artificial intelligence in the light of Anthroposophy?

4:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. - Q&A Session
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. - Panel Q&A and Conclusions