Your Ideas on Human Autonomy in the AI Age Could Take You to a Feast at Oxford
To celebrate launch week, we are announcing the Cosmos Essay Contest
Think you can offer a fresh perspective on AI x human flourishing, or new ways to mine the wisdom of the past?
We are pleased to announce the Cosmos Essay Contest, with a prize for the best essay in response to the following question:
How should AI be developed or governed to protect and enhance human autonomy, safeguarding both freedom of thought and freedom of action?
The Essay Prize:
The winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip (travel, accommodations, and ticket valued at up to $2,500) to the inaugural Cosmos Feast at the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History on November 15th, 2024.
This Feast is an exclusive gathering of ~100 visionary leaders in tech, academia, and philanthropy, confronting urgent challenges and charting a course for AI to serve humanity's highest aspirations.Â
You'll engage in mind-expanding dialogues, meet inspiring leaders and new collaborators, and enjoy an enchanting black-tie dinner under the dinosaurs at one of the world's most beautiful campuses.Â
You will also be invited to join an afternoon symposium prior to the Feast, to explore philosophy and AI research directions that extend human reason and a culture of freedom, both in the present and in the far future.
Key Contest Information:
Entries should be a maximum of 2,500 words in length and are to be submitted as a PDF document through this online form [Submissions for this essay contest are now closed].
The deadline for entries is 11:59 pm CST on Tuesday, October 1st, 2024.
We welcome a blend of philosophical insight with technical vision.
Not a natural writer? We value the quality of ideas over exposition, so don't be deterred if your background is technical or expertise isn't prose.
The winning submission may be published on the Cosmos Substack.
For more details, see the terms and conditions in the online form above.
Are footnotes, endnotes, references, etc. counted in the 2,500 word limit?
I am excited to be submitting the final two chapters of my story, "Simulated Singularity", to the Cosmos Institute Essay Competition. This is a story that uses the language of science fiction to simulate and explore the ethical implications of trying to align a collective intelligence we can no longer comprehend.
I want to share the story with the community here at the Cosmos Institute to inspire and gather feedback for future projects in writing science fiction that explores ethical questions in futurism.
You can watch the full illustrated audiobook here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRuz9uRlqnE
You can read the text with embedded pseudocode for a prototype published on Medium:
https://medium.com/@realblakedehaas/simulated-singularity-3033e2cb7184