Dubai to host 'world’s largest gathering of futurists' for forum at Museum of the Future

Dubai is looking forward to hosting 400 'futurists' in October in order to decode what the future of humanity might look like across several key areas ranging from the climate crisis to the continuous progress of artificial intelligence reported Khaleej Times.

The inaugural Dubai Future Forum, slated to run from October 10-12, will see leading experts and innovators from across the world convene at the Museum of the Future to discuss, debate and predict the future trajectory of the world.

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The forum will host 30 sessions and include panel discussions and live debates on topics that include advances in artificial intelligence (AI) sentience, bridging the digital divide, readiness of hydrogen to take over the energy mantle from oil and gas, interplanetary colonisation, and a future climate scenario where the 2°C global warming threshold is breached.

Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, said: the Dubai Future Forum represents a significant levelling-up of our efforts to foresee the future.

"The global platform in Dubai will host futurists and the world’s brightest minds to anticipate the opportunities and challenges set to shape our societies. It will explore how we can harness emerging technologies and deploy Fourth Industrial Revolution tools to transform challenges into opportunities.

“Human knowledge is growing, and technological advancement is accelerating at a rapid rate. Consequently, we are no longer witnesses to change, we are the drivers of change. We need to be ready to deploy skills and technologies to serve society and enhance quality of life for all,” he was quoted as saying.

Dubai's Museum of the Future opens its doors to visitors and a ‘spaceship’

The forum has convened more than 45 organisations, and its sessions will carry across four main themes.

Each theme will explore how humanity and technology can come together in order to overcome some of the most urgent crises facing the world right now, from the climate crisis to rising energy prices and ongoing vulnerabilities in global public healthcare infrastructure.

Abdulaziz AlJaziri, deputy CEO and chief operations officer of Dubai Future Foundation, said: “As various existential threats mount, Dubai Future Forum’s discussions will focus on transforming these challenges into opportunities.

“The forum will inspire an alternative outlook on future sectors that will impact our economies, governments, and daily lives. We can achieve giant leaps in the future, but only by applying foresight and future-planning. That is where the Dubai Future Forum will bring tremendous value in helping to shape the future of humanity.”

Future of our world

This theme will explore the most significant transformations facing individuals, societies and governments, and what they mean for the future 20, 30 and 40 years from now.

Through these sessions, panelists will be invited to discuss space migration and the possibility for humans to become an interplanetary civilisation, the growing digital divide between the global population and whether it may be possible soon to inhabit a truly digital reality.

Mitigating existential risk

Sessions under this theme will seek to answer the question: How do we develop meaningful and impactful foresight practices? The sessions will look at how foresight as a discipline and practice is evolving, and how it can help us address the opportunities and risks facing us.

What does it mean to be human?

Sessions will invite industry experts to explore the impact of technological advances and trends on their specific sectors and industries, including energy, trade and industrial manufacturing.

Emirates A380 planes pay homage to Dubai’s Museum of the Future

Hedging our bets through foresight

A series of workshops will be held by participating futurists, in order to examine the impact of paradigm shifts on humanity, in particular the increasing integration of technology in our daily lives and across communities, along with the ethical implications it carries.

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