Contents Welcome “Progress is measured Welcome 5 First, welcome to FutureEverything We also want to challenge our by the speed at Conference 7 2016, we’re glad you could join us. thinking a little, by considering Events 27 what else could, or should, be which we destroy the Speakers 45 In our early conversations around considered as a resource. What conditions that sustain Map 56 this year’s theme, we came about intelligence? Or life? This life.” Venues 57 together as a team to figure out took us to interesting places. If we Partners 59 what urgent issues we may face, need to eat less meat, can we find Recommends 60 what concerned us or made us alternatives in the lab? George Monbiot Delegate Offers 61 excited, and what weak signals we Timetable 62 need to look out for. We’re also looking at uncertainty, where it can have value, and be Since then, significant events, a resource itself. Understanding such as the momentous COP21 and communicating uncertainty is climate summit last December essential in mapping our possible have caused not only us, but the futures. As a miniconference, world, to rethink what our future we’ve brought together a range might look like. A single number, of disciplines, from physics to 2 degrees, signals irreversible anthropology, economics to change for the lives of future climate science. And this year we generations. launch Project Ukko, a climate service that visualises future This led us to cut through our weather conditions, equipping many fascinations and arrive wind energy professionals to on the fundamental issue of manage future wind and climate resources. We want to look as a resource. beyond the question of simply what we need to reduce. Less So enjoy our festival, and give us is more, as the saying goes, but your response to our theme over resources do not need to be a on Twitter, using #futr16. zero sum game. So what about less and more? Drew Hemment Founder & Creative Director 4 5 Thursday 31 March - Friday 1 April The FutureEverything Conference Less and More: Manchester Town Hall Taking the theme of ‘Less and More’, FutureEverything Rethinking 2016’s conference will explore how we can rethink resources. Human actions have shaped a new geological age and brought the world to a point of crisis. We need to find new ways to gather, and manage, the resources of Resources Earth to overcome the dependencies of the industrial age. Whether it’s our antibiotics and food sources running out, or the world’s fossil fuels, the first thing that we look for is potential alternatives, and ask where they can be found. This year’s conference takes a range of experts to task, spanning biology and physics, to artificial intelligence and climate change. We’ll be discussing how life, intelligence, the Earth, community and uncertainty can be used as resources, often in unexpected ways. Thursday Morning Opening the Conference Room 1, The Great Hall, 10:00-10:30 Drew Hemment, Founder and Creative Director of FutureEverything, and Claire Braithwaite, Tech Advisor for Manchester Growth Company, will open the conference. Drew Claire Hemment Braithwaite 7 Thursday Morning Intelligence Recommended Reading List Room 1, The Great Hall, 10:30-12:45 With a vast amount of information at our fingertips and with so many Nelly Ben Hayoun: ways to process the huge amounts of data we encounter, from Meet Nelly Ben Hayoun, director of the International Space Orchestra algorithms to artificial intelligence, how do we make sense of it? How Nelly’s talk at WIRED in 2014. do we react in times of disaster, and how can we use the wisdom of the http://bit.ly/22I7AyP crowd to make better decisions? In this session we welcome creator and conductor of NASA’s Darius Kazemi: International Space Orchestra Nelly Ben Hayoun, the ‘Willy Wonka of Google’s DeepMind defeats legendary Go player Lee Se-dol in Design and Technology’, whose work has looked at disaster response, historic victory human experiences in space, and how to generate dark energy in your The Go battle of AI & human: Alphago, Google DeepMind vs. Lee kitchen sink. se-dol. http://bit.ly/1Rjw3GI Award-winning artist and bot-maker Darius Kazemi is known for making ‘weird internet stuff’ such as bots that generate random Amazon purchases, surreal metaphors, rap battle lyrics, pickup lines, and Lydia Nicholas: everything in between (including the rather controversial Sorting Hat, Infectious Futures which riled up Harry Potter fans). Six stories of a post-antibiotic future published on Nesta in 2015. http://bit.ly/1pK4mwH Senior Researcher in collective intelligence and anthropologist at Nesta Lydia Nicholas uses speculative design and science fiction to make sense of health and medical futures. In 2015, Lydia curated and contributed to Infectious Futures, a publication which tasked science and speculative fiction writers to imagine a world without antibiotics. Nelly Ben Darius Lydia Hayoun Kazemi Nicholas 8 9 Thursday Afternoon Earth Recommended Reading List Room 1, The Great Hall, 14:15-17:00 Climate change poses a challenge to our society, and calls for a Carlo Buontempo: profound rethink of the ways in which we manage the resources of the Carlo’s talk at FutureEverything 2013. planet. Can climate services help us in this process? How do we unite http://bit.ly/1MnN9mG to find the best solution? How do we design cities to be more resilient to climate uncertainties, and how do we secure our food for the future? Alice Bell: In this session we welcome the Met Office’s Senior Climate Scientist Community solar can save money, save the planet, and build social Carlo Buontempo, whose projects have included an analysis of climate capital, all at the same time (City Metric) change on the River Nile. Carlo worked with FutureEverything to create http://bit.ly/1q4920o a groundbreaking climate service for wind forecast, Project Ukko, which launches at this year’s festival. Kirsty Lewis: Head of Campaigns at Climate Change charity 10:10, Alice Bell Introduction to ‘The impact of a global temperature rise of 4 °C has written and spoken extensively on science, technology and the (7 °F)’ map environment for the BBC, The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times. Kirsty’s video introducing the interactive 4 degree rise map. http://bit.ly/1RnCxkv Kirsty Lewis leads research into climate change and security at the Met Office, delivering advice on the impacts of climate change to government. Maíta Fernández-Armesto: City Resilience Profiling Tool (CRPT) Maíta Fernández-Arnesto from UN Habitat’s City Resilience Profiling CRPT, a tool developed to enable any city to assess their urban Programme (CRPP) which focuses on providing national and local resilience as part of CRPP (City Resilience Profiling Programme) aiming governments with tools for measuring and increasing resilience to to ensuring the sustainable development of cities, towns, and other potential hazards, including those associated with climate change. human settlements. http://bit.ly/22y1FQ2 Carlo Alice Bell Kirsty Lewis Maíta Buontempo Fernández- Armesto 10 11 Friday Morning Life Recommended Reading List Room 1, The Great Hall, 10:00-12:15, Hosted by Matthew Cobb Is life itself a resource? Now that we can design microorganisms from David Benque: scratch, we can imagine new realities with revolutionary materials taking The New Weathermen shape in laboratories. As news reaches us that scientists have been The project is by a fictional group of activists who embrace Synthetic granted permissions for gene-editing, where could, should, or will this Biology to push for radical environmental change through prototypes be used in medicine? such as Wind Propagation Tunnel and Palm oil press & glycerol tester. http://bit.ly/1SjulUB Designer and researcher David Benque joins us from the RCA’s Design Interactions department, with his work focusing on synthetic biology and environments. His recent curatorial project Blueprints for the Abi Aspen Glencross: Unknown looked at how synthetic biology comes into contact with Getting to Know: Abi Glencross (New Harvest) economics, politics and human beliefs. An interview with the research body Abi works for to create lab grown meat, New Harvest. Cellular Agriculturalist for post-animal bioeconomy charity New Harvest http://bit.ly/22y1RPl and King’s College London, Abi Aspen Glencross’s work centres on the creation of cultured meat, and looking at the public reaction and responses from agriculture. Would you eat lab-grown steak, and if not, Andy Miah: why not? The Rise of Biocultural Capital Andy’s talk about how our future will change when science and Chair in Science Communication & Future Media at the University emerging technology, that already support us medically, have become a of Salford, Andy Miah explores new forms of human enhancement, part of our life. How should we react to it, not only to our way of life but ethics and the values we hold around them. Who are the pioneers of also ethically? human enhancement, and where does doping in sport come into the http://bit.ly/1pK4QD6 conversation? David Benque Abi Aspen Andy Miah Matthew Glencross Cobb 12 13 Friday Afternoon Community Recommended Reading List Room 1, The Great Hall, 14:00-17:00, Hosted by Dan Vernon In a globalised society, how do communities evaluate the resources we Assemble (Mathew Leung): have, and how can we have ownership over our urban environment? Granby Four Streets What future environments will we see as automation takes over aspects Assemble’s work, Granby Four Streets (Liverpool housing regeneration of society? Do we need less dystopia, and more optimism in imagining project) in 2015. our future lives together? http://bit.ly/1RnD6L4 In 2015 architecture collective Assemble controversially won the Turner Prize, turning the art world on its head.