IIASA-ÖAW public lecture: The future requires wisdom (Zukunft braucht Weisheit)

IIASA-ÖAW-Lecture by Helga Nowotny

What do the Epic of Gilgamesh and the immortality fantasies of certain Silicon Valley CEOs have in common? What did a world look like in which the future was reserved for the gods, whereas today we entrust it to predictive algorithms? As a science studies scholar, newly generated scientific knowledge continually prompts Professor Nowotny to establish connections between past, present, and shifting conceptions of the future. She will address the significance of uncertainty in fundamental research and why it is important for the relationship between science and society to communicate how science works. The acceleration of digitalization that we are experiencing today is the seemingly overwhelming consequence of a co-evolution with the digital technologies we have created. It raises fascinating new research questions and brings with it enormous societal challenges: the future requires wisdom.

This lecture was in German. A recording is available below.

About the speaker

Helga Nowotny is Professor Emerita in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at ETH Zürich and founding member and former President of the European Research Council (ERC). She has conducted her research and teaching activities at, among other institutions, the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris; and as Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Helga Nowotny is a member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development (FORWIT) and Chair of the Complexity Science Hub Science Advisory Board, as well as remaining active in numerous scientific bodies across Europe, including on the Board of Trustees of Falling Walls, Berlin, and at the Institut d'Études Avancées, Paris. She has received many awards and honorary doctorates, including from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Her most recent book publications include "In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion, and Control of Predictive Algorithms" (Polity Press, 2021) and "Zukunft braucht Weisheit" (Matthes & Seitz, 2025).