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Singular Future 2018: humanism in a complex world

26 / 04 / 2018

Scientists, technology experts, and social leaders shared their thoughts on how the exponential increase in data processing capacity is causing a radical transformation in healthcare and the impact this is having on people and organizations.

Bilbao hosts a meeting of social leaders, and experts in genomics, neuroscience, and big data by ATAM.

Is there a link between the need for genetic diversity and disease? What will be the impact of new discoveries in the brain on our lives? How can we approach a world of increasing complexity from a humanistic perspective? These are some of the questions that experts in neuroscience, genomics, and big data tried to answer at the “Singular Future Bilbao” meeting held at the Euskalduna Conference Centre on 26 April. The scientists and technologists were accompanied by representatives of social organizations such as the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform, the Platform of Patients’ Organizations, and the Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities (COCEMFE).

The technological and scientific revolution we are living through is overthrowing the conceptual pillars on which the interpretation of human beings, illness, ageing, and disability are based”.

This is at least the vision of the social organizations that held this meeting together with scientists and experts in emerging technologies: those that anticipate possibilities that until recently were reserved for fiction novels.

Faced with technologies capable of producing exponential changes in our lives, social organizations are taking a step forward by promoting the application of technology to the welfare and empowerment of the most vulnerable groups, in line with the state of development of science and technology but based on a humanistic approach.

The event, moderated by Dr. Lola Morón, psychiatrist, science communicator, and expert in neuroscience, began with a journey through the history of humanity by Ignacio Aizpún, general director of ATAM, showing the tremendous impact of technological revolutions on the evolution of human beings.

Next, Gurutz Linazasoro, director of an Advanced Therapy Programme in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and Ángel Carracedo, director of the National Genotyping Centre, spoke. Both illustrated the changes we are going to experience in our lives because of advances in fields such as neuroscience and genomics, outlining, from a scientific approach, a vision of the diversity, uniqueness, and dignity of the human being.

The experts in Big Data and the Internet of Things, David Prieto, Enrique Gómez Aguilera, and Laura Roa, defended their proposal for the healthcare of the future: a new conception of medicine based on the complexity and dignity of the human being from an approach that integrates their physical, psychological, and social well-being. Epsilon, a cognitive system that supports a new paradigm of health care and the empowerment of chronically ill and disabled people, is developed under these same principles, presented by Alejandro García and Héctor Díez, members of the ATAM team.

Finally, Anxo Queiruga, Tomás Castillo, and Pedro Carrascal, representatives of some of the main user organizations, shared their impressions from the point of view of those who matter: the people affected. The event concluded with a proposal to build a new model of social institution that applies technology to the welfare and empowerment of the most vulnerable groups.

More information:

futurosingular.com

Video summary of the event

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