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From Waste Tide to AI2041, Chen's works imagine the plural versions of futures in which human, nature and technologies co-exist and co-evolve in a hyper sophisticated interaction. It explores how different classes of society reflect on the concept of “environment” and “well-being” in a climate-changing, capitalized, and cybernetic world.
The stories showcases that the concept of envioronment can be restored, altered, and manipulated by technologies such as XR, AI, cognitive science, genetic engineering and synthesized biology. And how does the introduction of ancient eastern philosophies and perspectives can play the role of hedging the risk of accelerationism. This eventually leads us to a more holistic, ambiguous, and complicated post-human status of “co-living”.
Arguably, science fiction becomes one of the most powerful tools to shape a consensus for a more sustainable home for the future humankind.
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About the speaker:
Chen Qiufan (a.k.a. Stanley Chan) is an award-winning Chinese speculative fiction author, translator, creative producer, and curator. He is Vice president of Chinese Writers Association Science Fiction Committee, Research Scholar for MacMillan Center of Yale University (2023-2024), Berggruen Institute Fellow (2023), Asia 21 Society Young Leader (2022), Culture Leader of World Economic Forum(2018/2019) and has a seat on the Xprize Foundation Science Fiction Advisory Council. His works include the debut novel Waste Tide which sets in the near-future China haunting by electronic waste and the ghost of Extractionism, as well as AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, co-authored with Dr. Kai-Fu Lee (author of AI Superpower) innovatedly blends the format of science fiction with tech analysis, exploring the potential chances and risks in an AI-Human coevolving era, which won them a prize as Germany Best Business Book of the year.