Gero von Boehm in conversation with the neuroscientist and author Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer

Empathy in the digital age: How AI and co. address the brain

In an era in which technological developments are advancing rapidly and artificial intelligence is increasingly influencing our lives, the question of what makes us human is gaining increasingly urgent importance. While the analog, real world is coming under more and more pressure from climate change and wars, representatives of big tech corporations and transhumanist thinkers like David Chalmers are recommending virtual worlds as an alternative.

How do current challenges affect us as individuals and our societies as a whole? Is analog bodily presence, physical face-to-face interpersonal encounter, and empathy at stake? Does digitalization ultimately bring us a „loss of reality,“ as neuroscientist and author Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer sees it coming (Joachim Bauer: Realitätsverlust. Heyne Verlag 2023)?

Against the backdrop of this year's festival motto „NOW“, producer and journalist Gero von Boehm will discuss with Joachim Bauer the current state of our empathy and the neurobiological foundations upon which our capacity for empathy is based. To what extent is the digital transformation changing our ways of communicating? How do chatbots, humanoid robots, and other digital products address our neural networks and our psyche, and how do they manipulate our capacity for empathy?

The traditional Sunday talk on September 15 offers an in-depth examination of a topic that is of central importance for understanding our current and future social dynamics. Festival guests are invited to explore the complex interactions between humanity and technology and to reflect on how we as a society can remain empathetic in an increasingly digitized world.

Fitting this topic, FILM OHNE GRENZEN will show the documentary film „Eternal You“ on Saturday, September 13th at 1:00 PM at Cinema By Velotel, which explores the „resurrection“ of the deceased through AI.