TWCF President Dr. Andrew Serazin and Dr. Brie Linkenhoker, founder of Worldview Studio, are featured in this episode, discussing TWCF’s Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing. This collective celebration and exploration of flourishing is set for November 29 - 30, 2022, and will include dynamic dialogues with leading scientists, policymakers, practitioners, influencers, and advocates working on the scientific frontiers of human flourishing. It’s free for any attendee and open to the public. This virtual event will feature the latest scientific advances in understanding human flourishing across cultures, and showcase innovative new tools and strategies to promote greater flourishing around the world. Click here to register to attend.
Dr. Serazin offers a glimpse into how TWCF envisions this inclusive event, which brings together many different funders, media brands, platforms, and kinds of expertise. "We’ve set up a world-class program advisory committee, [featuring] a number of the world’s best minds and thought leaders on the topic of flourishing. We also want other partners to contribute as well, and so we are hosting workshops in collaboration with many leading universities and research groups around the world. We’re also interested in other partners in the future. We see this as a broad community. It’s not something that’s solely owned, or solely focused on the Templeton Foundations; we want this to be something that’s a broad tent that anybody who’s interested in the topic can contribute to in the future."
An important aspect of the conference is to realize that the topic of human flourishing encompasses a range of human experiences. Dr. Serazin offers insight into the knowledge gaps that exist around how to measure flourishing: "You can put a basket of metrics into a flourishing index. And many have over the years, and they typically have sorted out into a number of categories like meaning and purpose, categories, like character, and virtue. Categories, like close social relationships, happiness, and life satisfaction, and physical and mental health measures. I think, while we have a very good working definition of some of the major dimensions of flourishing, there are some clear gaps." These include two themes that are featured in the conference's agenda: how flourishing unfolds at different times in people's lives and across diverse cultures, as well as a deeper understanding of how modern challenges and adversity can actually create the conditions for future growth.
At this inaugural edition of the conference, nine workshops will explore key topics of importance to human flourishing, including the development of practical innovations to drive outcomes. Dr. Linkenhoker's workshop will explore likely near-term advances in artificial and collective intelligence, and the ways in which they might co-evolve with human intelligence in the longer term. To counter the heavy influence of dystopian thinking in this space, her team is using human flourishing as a lens through which to imagine how humans could thrive in different possible futures of intelligence, and identify key drivers that might limit flourishing if we don’t take appropriate action. "We are not trying to predict the future here, but we do want to make sure that we have a diversity of voices contributing to this work about what a good future looks like," she shares.
About Dr. Linkenhoker's research into issues around personhood, responsibility, and how living with non-human intelligences might change our own cognition
How the conference is structured, and view the roster of featured scientists, researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders.
Read the transcript from the interview conducted by journalist Richard Sergay, presented by podcast producer, host, and writer, Tavia Gilbert.
Built upon the award-winning video series of the same name, Templeton World Charity Foundation’s “Stories of Impact” podcast features stories of new scientific research on human flourishing that translate discoveries into practical tools. Bringing a mix of curiosity, compassion, and creativity, journalist Richard Sergay and producer Tavia Gilbert shine a spotlight on the human impact at the heart of cutting-edge social and scientific research projects supported by TWCF.
