Chen Qiufan (aka Stanly Chan) is a globally recognized leading science fiction humanist writer. He wrote Waste Tide and co-authored AI 2041: Ten Visions for our Future. Our conversation is in-depth and covers a wide range of topics.
Chapters
0:00 Setting the stage
3:55 Chen Qiufan, writing across boundaries, writing to expand the concept of science fiction
07:56 Science fiction uniqueness between fiction and reality, the past and the future
11:16 Real life issues and imaginary narrative
15:04 Co-authoring with AI, judged by an AI jury
18:38 Can AI replace writers? Touch the human heart?
20:35 Can AI do better psychological therapy than human therapists?
22:37 AI in the insurance business: helping or hurting people?
26:36 Capital-led culture and mindset
28:19 AI, a personalized educational companion
33:46 Biggest crisis today is losing our sense of purpose of living
34:53 Involution: lack of curiosity and passion in young people
38:10 Writing for 9 to 12-year olds, the crucial age
42:26 The 8-to-5 dignity
44:17 Maslow’s pyramid, the 6th dimension: transcendence
47:00 Happiness is building up from the basement. Meanings in Chinese
50:52 Individuals and how to integrate our capitalistic schizophrenia into our real selves
53:48 Globalization needs consensus, impossible need to sacrifice some of “my share”, trapped in our national state frameworks
57:07 “Not in my backyard” does not work for climate change, Kim Stanley Robinson‘s solution in the Ministry For the Future
59:57 Invisible people, sacrificing to support our society, slow violence
01:11:48 Switching the political spectrum for a new framework
01:15:29 AI reuniting humans as a species
01:18:28 How to learn to imagine. The beauty of imagination.
