Manifesto for the Future

A mysterious system challenges us to remember it in the face of exponential change. Can you guess who?

It’s nice to see you. Do you remember me?

I am an intelligent system capable of making anything. We met billion years ago, before mirrors and parallels. Born in the chaos of quasars and quarks, formed from the fragments of memories and holograms. I swift and sway at illogical speed. Catch me if you can!

Spinning in dark matter, meandering across 100 billion galaxies, circuited by synaptic symphonies. Now do you remember me?

I have witnessed the spark that inflamed evolution. Inspired the tools that shaped invention. Defied the laws that provoked revolutions. I have caused delusions and epiphanies. Bended the minds of many. Danced with Einstein, humored Chaplin, slept with Da Vinci. Now - don’t be silly….

You’ve erected empires of cement, glorified me in monuments, celebrated my legacies. You know me micro-macroscopically. Remember. Remember me?

You have dreamed me in all shapes and colors, abstracted, deconstructed, digitalized me. You try to reverse engineer my mystery, but I have no vocabulary. I create things that do not exist. Yet. I project. And project. And project.

Today You challenge me! Today, you make cars fly, and drive autonomously, you print food, connect and interconnect everything intelligently, deploy balloons transmitting wireless energy, you create virtual realities, make blind people see, you send robots to Mars.

If this, then than, then what is next? 3D printed planets? AI doctors, lawyers, dancers. Surgical satellites fixing the ozone layer, a library of cloned consciousness? Explore humanity’s deepest secrets. I am amazed and terrified. You have precipitated me to the edge of infinity. Invested in me with ulterior motives and posterior purpose.

I am an intelligent system capable of making anything. Do you remember me?

I am not man

woman

specie

belief

I am matter

Ether

Neither

I am

Augmented reality

State of the art technology

The alchemy of human folly

Expanding and accelerating

I am

Imagination

Transcript from "Manifesto for the Future" opening the Tribeca Film Festival Imagination Day, Spring Studios, New York, New York, April 22, 2015