Archive for the ‘governance’ category: Page 21
Sep 19, 2016
Premier Li to endorse China’s stance on global governance
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: economics, governance
Hmmm; China stepping up their game on global governance.
Premier Li embarked on a very significant tour on the 18th of September. The tour comprises of visits to New York to attend the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly and pay official visits to Canada and Cuba upon the invitations from the respective countries.
The 71st session of the UN General Assembly will be an important one. Every session of the UN General Assembly is an historic moment, but among other things the 71st session will be the last one attended by US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as both are about to leave office. Thus, along with discussions of global matters, the assembled leaders will also bid farewell to two of the most famous and powerful leaders among them.
The UN General Assembly session is usually the biggest multilateral event of the calendar year, with most of the top world leaders in attendance. It makes it a perfect opportunity for leaders to meet each other on the side-lines to discuss matters and touch base on past, present and future agreements and understandings between countries. Being the Premier of the second largest economy in the world, Premier Li will most definitely have a very hectic few days in New York meeting his counterparts from other countries and streamlining and strengthening communications with them while attending various engagements at the UN headquarters. At the General Assembly session during the general debates, the premier will sketch out China’s stance on global governance and international order in front of other global leaders and he will highlight measures for coping with global challenges.
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Sep 19, 2016
The United Nations: What’s the Point? — By Uri Friedman | The Atlantic
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: governance, innovation
“History “teaches us that order in international relations is the exception, rather than the rule,” Kevin Rudd, the former Australian prime minister, writes in a new report on the uncertain future of the UN.”
Sep 19, 2016
Interview: Margaret Anstee – first woman to become UN Under-Secretary-General | UN News Centre
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in category: governance
““A woman of firsts” is perhaps only a summary description of Dame Margaret Anstee, the first woman to serve as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General.”
Sep 19, 2016
Swift response to refugee crisis rests on Obama summit after UN talks fail — By Julian Borger and Patrick Kingsley | The Guardian
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: geopolitics, governance, government
“Hopes of a fast and effective response to the global refugee crisis now rest on a summit convened by Barack Obama on Tuesday in New York, after negotiations before a meeting of world leaders at the UN on Monday failed to produce any concrete measures.”
Sep 14, 2016
This Company’s Business is Opening Up Government Data — By Paul Bennett | Techonomy
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: big data, governance, government
“What do Boston, Mass., and Barcelona, Spain have in common with consumer internet platforms like Yelp and Zillow? They’re taking advantage of a growing open-data trend.”
Sep 10, 2016
The Familiarity of the Future: A Look Back from 1999
Posted by Steve Fuller in categories: counterterrorism, disruptive technology, futurism, governance, hacking, innovation, internet, law, policy
In preparation for writing a review of the Unabomber’s new book, I have gone through my files to find all the things I and others had said about this iconic figure when he struck terror in the hearts of technophiles in the 1990s. Along the way, I found this letter written to a UK Channel 4 producer on 26 November 1999 by way of providing material for a television show in which I participated called ‘The Trial of the 21st Century’, which aired on 2 January 2000. I was part of the team which said things were going to get worse in the 21st century.
What is interesting about this letter is just how similar ‘The Future’ still looks, even though the examples and perhaps some of the wording are now dated. It suggests that there is a way of living in the present that is indeed ‘future-forward’ in the sense of amplifying certain aspects of today’s world beyond the significance normally given to them. In this respect, the science fiction writer William Gibson quipped that the future is already here, only unevenly distributed. Indeed, it seems to have been here for quite a while.
Dear Matt,
Here are the sum of my ideas for the Trial of the 21st Century programme, stressing the downbeat:
Continue reading “The Familiarity of the Future: A Look Back from 1999” »
Sep 3, 2016
Helping mayors do their job — By Michael R. Bloomberg and Drew Faust | The Boston Globe
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: governance, government, innovation
“As more and more people around the world live in cities — nearly two in three Americans already do — how well cities are run will affect the future of the planet in profound ways.”
Jul 31, 2016
Futurist-linked groups talking at the Mont Order
Posted by Harry J. Bentham in categories: counterterrorism, futurism, governance, government, policy, terrorism
The following is a selection of points of interest to futurism and forecasts of the political future from the recent Mont Order Conference of July 2016:
The following is a selection of points of interest to futurism and forecasts of the political future from the recent
STATEMENT 1: NEW SECRET WIKI CREATED
The Mont Order’s secret wiki created via PBworks holds information on the origin and literature of the Mont Order as well as our current structure, ranks and members. Members will be invited via email and will be able to contribute pages or post comments and questions on this literature. The public will not have access to it.
Continue reading “Futurist-linked groups talking at the Mont Order” »
Jul 16, 2016
Beware the Rise of Gerontocracy: Some Hard Lessons for Transhumanism, Not Least from Brexit
Posted by Steve Fuller in categories: aging, biological, ethics, futurism, governance, government, homo sapiens, human trajectories, life extension, neuroscience, policy, strategy, thought controlled, transhumanism
Transhumanists will know that the science fiction author Zoltan Istvan has unilaterally leveraged the movement into a political party contesting the 2016 US presidential election. To be sure, many transhumanists have contested Istvan’s own legitimacy, but there is no denying that he has generated enormous publicity for many key transhumanist ideas. Interestingly, his lead idea is that the state should do everything possible to uphold people’s right to live forever. Of course, he means to live forever in a healthy state, fit of mind and body. Istvan cleverly couches this policy as simply an extension of what voters already expect from medical research and welfare provision. And while he may be correct, the policy is fraught with hazards – especially if, as many transhumanists believe, we are on the verge of revealing the secrets to biological immortality.
In June, Istvan and I debated this matter at Brain Bar Budapest. Let me say, for the record, that I think that we are sufficiently close to this prospect that it is not too early to discuss its political and economic implications.
Two months before my encounter with Istvan, I was on a panel at the Edinburgh Science Festival with the great theorist of radical life extension Aubrey de Grey, where he declared that people who live indefinitely will seem like renovated vintage cars. Whatever else, he is suggesting that they would be frozen in time. He may actually be right about this. But is such a state desirable, given that throughout history radical change has been facilitated generational change? Specifically, two simple facts make the young open to doing things differently: The young have no memory of past practices working to anyone else’s benefit, and they have not had the time to invest in those practices to reap their benefits. Whatever good is to be found in the past is hearsay, as far as the young are concerned, which they are being asked to trust as they enter a world that they know is bound to change.
Questions have been already raised about whether tomorrow’s Methuselahs will wish to procreate at all, given the time available to them to realize dreams that in the past would have been transferred to their offspring. After all, as human life expectancy has increased 50% over the past century, the birth rate has correspondingly dropped. One can only imagine what will happen once ageing can be arrested, if not outright reversed!
