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Human Flourishing In The Age Of AI And Robots — The Futurists X Summit 2025

See my Comment below for a link to David Orban’s 20 minute talk.


In this keynote, delivered at The Futurists X Summit, on September 22 in Dubai, David Orban maps how AI and humanoid robotics shift us from steady exponential progress to an acceleration of acceleration—what he calls the Jolting Technologies Hypothesis. He argues we’re not in a zero-sum economy; as capability compounds and doubling times shrink, we unlock new degrees of freedom for individuals, firms, and society. The challenge is to steer that power with clear narratives, robust safety, and deliberate design of work, value, and purpose.

You’ll hear:
• Why narratives (optimism vs. doom) shape which futures become real.
• How shortening doubling times in AI capabilities pull forward timelines once thought 20–30 years out.
• Why trust in AI is task-relative: if +5% isn’t enough, aim for 10× reliability.
• The coming phase transformation as intelligence becomes infrastructure (homes, mobility, industry).
• Concrete social questions (e.g., organ donation post–road-death decline) that demand AI-assisted governance.
• Why the nature of work will change: from jobs as status to human aspiration as value.

Key ideas:
• Humanoid robots at scale: rapid iteration, non-fragile recovery, and human-complementary performance.
• Designing agency: go from idea → action with near-instant execution; experiment, learn, and iterate fast.
• From zombies to luminaries: use newfound freedom to architect lives worth living.

Resources & Links:

How nearly dying helped me discover my own cure (and many more)

Physician-scientist David Fajgenbaum was dying from a rare disease that didn’t have a cure — until he discovered a lifesaving drug that wasn’t originally intended for his condition. In an astonishing talk, he shares how his near-death experience led him to cofound the nonprofit Every Cure, which is using AI to uncover hidden treatments in existing medicines in order to save lives. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

Robotaxi Wars Just Got BLOODY

Waymo’s partnership with Lyft in Nashville highlights advancements in robo-taxi safety, but the company faces significant challenges from Tesla’s established infrastructure and competitive landscape in the rapidly evolving autonomous vehicle market ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Tesla’s Robotaxi Advantage.

🚗 Q: How does Tesla’s manufacturing efficiency give it an edge in the robotaxi market? A: Tesla can build cars for one-third the price of competitors, with built-in Shepherds and the ability to manufacture at cost for FSD or robotaxi network use.

🌐 Q: What makes Tesla’s global expansion strategy unique? A: Tesla’s global approach and rapid execution allow it to go anywhere once FSD works, making it difficult for competitors to match its scale and speed.

🧠 Q: How significant is Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology? A: Tesla’s FSD is a gigantic advantage, with take rates tripling to double digits and expected to triple again, making it hard for others to compete.

Waymo’s Progress and Challenges.

A mobile robot scientist capable of carrying out experiments by itself

We live in a time when robots can clean our homes, drive our vehicles, deactivate bombs, offer prosthetic limbs, help healthcare workers, read the news, entertain, teach, and many more. And now, there is a robot scientist that can work on behalf of humans 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have built an intelligent “robot scientist” capable of moving around a laboratory and carrying out scientific experiments by itself. The first of its kind machine with humanoid dimensions are designed to work in a standard laboratory, using instruments much as a human researcher does. It can also make its own decisions about which chemistry experiments to perform next.

The robot scientist is 1.75-meter tall, weighs around 400 kg, and can roam around the laboratory, performing a wide range of different tasks. Unlike a human being, the robot has infinite patience, can think in 10 dimensions, and works for 21.5 hours each day, pausing only to recharge its battery for two hours. This will allow scientists to automate time-consuming and tedious research they wouldn’t otherwise tackle.

The hidden meanings of texts and tweets

A ‘spherical’ AI model finds hidden themes in large collections of headlines and other short texts.

From tweets and chat messages to headlines and status updates, short bursts of text are everywhere. These snippets may be brief, but they are packed with the potential to reveal anything from emerging trends to business decisions or circulating misinformation.

While AI is becoming increasingly adept at extracting meaning from long-form text, it still struggles with these bite-sized ones.

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