European Forum Alpbach - Technology Symposium

 "New Enlightenment" is the motto of  the 2016 European Forum Alpbach. The Technology Symposium is in search of new pathways and tools on its journey to the new Enlightenment.

Once, in the times of Kant, Rousseau and Voltaire radical ideas could foster revolutionary changes in science and human rights and they made the industrial revolution possible. For a century this put Europe in a dominant intellectual and geopolitical position. Today, we live in a multipolar world that has become highly complex. Products, goods and services compete on a global scale and virtual networks and digitisation are tearing down boundaries in many fields. At the same time we see the limits of growth and of an unlimited use of resources. Science offers radically new insights while new questions are raised. How much do people need to know about their genetic inheritance and how should they deal with that knowledge? What role will be played by robots or even mutant in future societies? Where are the pioneers in the age of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0? And what new forms of expression can lead to the collaborations and exchanges between the arts, science and technology which we may need to meet the challenges of the future? Trends like Open Innovation and new, cooperative research and business models are emerging. Has the new Enlightenment already begun?