ComLab #8 Welcome to the Future

Welcome to the Future: After three years of digital exchange, it was finally time to meet face-to-face with the ComLab alumni, friends, and supporters of the programme. The Communication Lab – a joint project of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the International Journalists’ Programmes – holds its first in-person event and networking carousel in Berlin: ComLab#Live Event in Berlin on 8 September 2023.

Science and media thrive on one quintessential thing: curiosity. Both professions share wonder, explore new territory and can inspire collective visions of the future. But what will our world look like in 50 years? Will AI enhance human lives? Can synthetic food be the solution to climate change and famine? Will we overcome severe diseases with the help of genetics and new biotechnologies? Research and science reporting have a huge potential in shaping scenarios of the future at a time where change is happening fast. But how to narrate a future based on potentially disruptive technologies that come with wicked ethical problems but could also make most people better off? Time to face the future together.

After three years of digital exchange, it was finally time to meet face-to-face with the ComLab alumni, friends, and supporters of the programme. The Communication Lab – a joint project of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the International Journalists’ Programmes – held its first in-person event and networking carousel in Berlin.
Experts from science, media, industry and the political sector discussed prospects and challenges of AI, bioethics and climate science. In a public debate we talked about the influence of politics in science and media.