February 2022 - Trapped in the Technosphere - Contribution to GTI Forum Technology and the Future

February 2022 Trapped in the Technosphere Contribution to GTI Forum Technology and the Future Alexander Lautensach A sound prognosis on the role of technology in the Anthropocene must take into account current conditions and trends, as well as associated costs and benefits. [...] Even in cases where a new technology promises a way to mitigate the polycrisis (e.g., genetically modified crops), costs and benefits to the biosphere are typically ignored in favor of human interests—in stark contrast to the biosphere’s fundamental significance as the support base for all development and for all life. [...] The size of the global human population crucially determines how much political latitude will be available to governments in the future and to what degree new technologies, such as bioengineering, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy may at all contribute to a Great 2 | Technology and the Future | GTI FORUM CONTRIBUTION Transition. [...] (B) The global population shrinks to 2 billion or fewer, a medium estimate of a sustainable population with equitable welfare and the standard of living of a moderately developed country.11 This could pave the way for a Great Transition. [...] He is the author of Environmental Ethics for the Future: Rethinking Education to Achieve Sustainability and Survival How? Education, Crisis, Diachronicity and the Transition to a Sustainable Future, as well as associate editor of the Journal of Human Security.