* The younger generation are seeing their attention spans shorten as a result of social media etc. They are missing out on the spiritual side of interaction. It’s all very superficial.
* The younger generation are seeing their attention spans shorten as a result of social media etc. They are missing out on the spiritual side of interaction. It’s all very superficial.
* Trump will overshadow everything for the next four years.
* Trump will overshadow everything for the next four years.
* The rules of war are being discarded. This culd culminate in a nuclear disaster between USA and China over Taiwan.
* The rules of war are being discarded. This could culminate in a nuclear disaster between USA and China over Taiwan.
*A convention on drones is now needed.
*A convention on drones is now needed.
* Our generation doesn’t know enough to decide about new technologies.
* Our generation doesn’t know enough to decide about new technologies.
Pupils:
John (J),
Patricia (P),
Alexis (A),
David (D),
Margie (M),
Viki (V),
Howard (H),
Ray (R)
Scribe:
Gavin (G)
Apologies:
Colin (C)
The homework set
We attach the link to episode one of the Radio 4 Sideways programmes, 25 years of the 21st Century in which Matthew Syed and guests explored a number of relevant areas of change: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0026nj9
At the last meeting we decided to listen to the five programmes in this series—just 30 minutes each—as the basis for our next meeting on January 28th.
The five episodes cover the topics of:
Mistrust
Outsourcing
Families and Technology
Digital Warfare
AI
When listening, think about what new trends in our philosophical thought are prompted by these programmes and the moral dilemmas identified, which we can then explore further.
We found this morning's In Our Time on Socrates excellent, not least because of the presence of the ever-brilliant Angie Hobbes, Professor of Public Understanding of Philosophy at Sheffield University. The other two contributors were also good in a discussion which prompted lots of insights and ideas, especially in terms of mind/body separation, immortality of the soul, the conflict of laws and morality, and the potential differences between human and artificial intelligence…which segues us neatly into next Tuesday's discussion…
We trust the five episodes of Sideways changes in the last 25 years have proved stimulating and provided food for thought, and a context within which we can frame philosophical discussion during the course of 2025. In particular, to help us to identify broad themes and how the elements within these themes interconnect, and to spot emergent moral dilemmas.
So to prepare for next Tuesday's meeting, we ask you to spot broad themes and moral dilemmas. Also to address the issue of whether what's happening gives us grounds for optimism or pessimism. Given the old adage that success is born of preparation, we suggest that, guided by the alphabet rather than our perceptions of individual personality, the following members come ready to propose grounds for optimism:
Alexis, Colin, David, Gavin and Howard,
Which means that the pessimists are:
John, Margie, Patricia, Raymond and Viki.
Plenary Session
Introduction(S)
Welcome to 2025. The moral dilemmas were hard to find in the Syed programmes.
Discussion
The Pace of Change
Time has become compressed, compared to our grandparents' era. The rate of change has increased. The behaviour we inherited from our parents are becoming irrelevant to the matter of dealing with today. Politicians don’t know any better than us about AI.(J)
There has been an explosion in cookies, monitoring our online lives.(R)
We can’t even imagine future change. The arrival of the Chinese AI tool Deep Seek has devastated technology stocks in the US.(H)
There is a plethora of choice. But choice is illusory. There may be many banks, but almost none are on the High St.(L)
Poorer Interactions
Society is becoming increasingly urbanised. People are interacting online rather than face-to-face.(V)
There's fragmentation and a lack of trust. People feel they can’t rely on information sources today.(M)
It's a lack of opportunity to make contact with people. Everyone is on their phone. Or in a hurry. People can be enlivened by conversation with a stranger.(V)
There are long conversations in Jane Austen, which enable you to learn a lot about each character.(L)
Government messages now have to be reducible to six words on a lectern.(S)
Hitchhiking in my teens enabled me to learn a lot about whom to trust.(V)
Start the Week was excellent on Monday.[1] The participants discussed a play which dramatizes the Kyoto negotiations and the attempt by a sponsored individual to wreck them. The play shows that the arts can be a facilitator of change.(RT/SW)
Should we look to the arts for entertainment? Aren't the arts supposed to unsettle?(L)
It's called edutainment.(R)
The Next Generations
We were told at school what we needed to learn. Today's pupils have lots of sources available.(J)
People need to work things out for themselves.(V)
Some of us follow up all the footnotes in the books we read. History exam questions in recent memory required candidates to choose between sources. This would be much more difficult now that AI can manipulate photographs.(M)
Students are now reading less and less.(D)
Students are writing by hand less. Is this a good thing?(S)
AI is already being used to check whether student essays have plagiarised the Internet.(J)
A frightening number of children are going off the rails and mixing with inappropriate people.(R)
The Power of the Plutocrats
The world order has changed.(H)
With Musk it’s all about the money.(A)
It’s about the power.(R)
Getty at Sutton Place installed a payphone for guests to use.(R)
Oil firms continue to wield enormous power.(V)
Regulation and Trust
Perhaps we trust the wrong things. Uber and Airbnb aren’t suffering from a lack of trust.(H)
The pace of regulation is not keeping up with the arrival of technology.(R)
Because of regulation, we can have more trust in some products than a century ago: for example, medicines.(V)
In the USA, fentanyl showed that trust in the Food and Drug Administration can be misplaced.(L)
Eliminating blind trust is a good thing—e.g. the Post Office.(A)
Leaders (such as VP Vance) are now happy to admit lying, supposedly for a higher cause.(S)
Collapse of Morality
Is this the end of ethics?(R)
Millions of Americans seem happy to go along with the Trumpian approach.(R)
The West has lost its moral way.(S)
The West behaved appallingly in response to 911.(S)
Israel in Gaza is another instance of us losing the high ground.(V)
America's view of Greenland is now that it has got to control it.(A)
World War Two showed everyone what happens when you make a land grab. The new mindset appears to have forgotten that lesson.(S)
Disruption and Democracy
As Matthew Syed wrote at the weekend, elections are like football: when you lose, you get rid of the manager, and just hope the replacement will be better.(R)[2]
Trump has already taken the USA out of the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Agreement.(D)
Has the election of Trump had the benefit of bringing to the surface the simmering tensions?(S)
The overthrow of Assad in Syria has forced the UK government to turn on a sixpence with regard to its refugee policy and the risk of Assad’s cronies arriving.(V)
For most of the last 700 years, democracy has not been the norm. Democracy was the result of liberal thinking. Kant believed in absolute right and wrong. Nietzsche said it was contingent on circumstances: ethics depend on the time and place.(R)
Nietzsche challenged all sorts of orthodoxies. Perhaps you need a catastrophe for people to realise the error of their ways.(L)
The Holocaust Memorial coverage on TV was excellent.(S)
Climate change is too gradual for people to change direction drastically.(H)
Most capital cities are next to coasts and will be submerged when the Russian tundra melts.(M)
For the first time in history, the fate of the planet is in our hands.(S)
Many children are worried about the climate. Perhaps this is leading to mental health problems, as the remedy is beyond their control.
Everyone needs to change their behaviour.(V)
Politicians talk about growth, growth, growth.(R)
When relatives moved into a ULEZ neighbourhood, there was an outcry at first. Residents fought it for 18 months, but gradually got used to it. Now the lung function of local children has improved immensely.(PM)
Countries need a strong government with a vision beyond next election.(L)
Why be pessimistic?
We are relying more and more on AI.
The younger generation are seeing their attention spans shorten as a result of social media etc. They are missing out on the spiritual side of interaction. It’s all very superficial.
Trump will overshadow everything for the next four years.
The rules of war are being discarded. This could culminate in a nuclear disaster between USA and China over Taiwan.
A convention on drones is now needed.
Our generation doesn’t know enough to decide about new technologies.
Our consciousness is our advantage over AI. Machines don’t discuss morals.
Social relationships will persist. Technologies like WhatsApp could enhance opportunities to communicate.
People can now create the families they want.
The period of chaos forecast in the Fourth Turning has started with Trump. Philosophers wanting to know what happens afterwards will have to buy the book.
Some of us have great faith in human ingenuity.
We may increase our respect for the animals of the world. (The Bible has done a lot of damage to our perspective.)
