We are assessing the potential for new science diplomacy initiatives in the following fields:
Neurotechnology
Main opportunity
Neuro augmentation encompasses a wide range of technologies designed to interface with the nervous system to either monitor or influence brain activity. It has the potential to radically alter the human experience and redefine our understanding of who we are as a species.
Main challenge
If any of these innovations are to achieve their full potential for improving human well-being and establishing more inclusive societies, questions of how, why and for whom they are deployed must be addressed. This comes with challenges around access, equity, privacy and human rights, particularly as market/funding gaps are increasingly addressed by a few private players which tend to conduct the development of applications behind closed doors.
Scientific perspective in the GESDA Radar
Deep dives in the GESDA Radar: here and here
Ecosystems Augmentation
Main opportunity
Eco-augmentation is a new and fast-moving interdisciplinary field – including synthetic biology, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) – that allows for deliberate and strategic interactions with nature that are intended to create more resilient, robust and sustainable ecological systems. This includes activities that increase ecosystems’ diversity and functions.
Main challenge
Despite unprecedented scientific capability, current
responses to the ecosystem’s degradation are siloed, too slow and essentially reactive (vs. anticipatory). The development and implementation of innovations at scale requires complex science diplomacy/policy, economic and societal engagement to proactively address the significant philosophical and ethical challenges – conditions which are not currently in place.
Main opportunity
Decades of research and practice show that prevention is the most effective, humane, and economically sound approach to major societal challenges ranging from public health to climate change and conflict. Anticipating breakthroughs in science and technology provides a window for governance to ensure they benefit peaceful outcomes – and mitigate the risk that they lead to or exacerbate conflict. Just as we are starkly confronted to the limits of reactive diplomacy, anticipating threats presents us with an incredible opportunity: preventing them. Through this initiative, GESDA seeks to contribute to an international Geneva that is fit for the future, one which builds on its long tradition of humanitarianism, diplomacy and innovation.
Main Challenge
Science and technology are transforming the ways in which we live, think, and behave. Whilst these advances carry enormous potential, they are also transforming how wars are being fought – and will be key in defining the future of conflict, peace, and global security. In parallel, multilateralism and international cooperation are under immense pressure: global political support and funding for diplomacy and dialogue have plummeted, and science and technology have further become the objects of intense geopolitical competition. Science is accelerating: how can diplomacy keep pace?
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