Luc Ferry - Les idées mènent le Monde - à Pau - 2016

"The Future of Progress" For Luc Ferry, there is no doubt that the third industrial revolution, transhumanism, and the "uberization" of the world in which we are fully engaged will transform our lives. We must absolutely avoid cultivating a depressive nostalgia for the past, thinking that everything was better before. "We hear that everywhere, and yet it's not the truth," he insists. "In France, we are the world champions of pessimism. Let's stop this nonsense of being nostalgic for the past!" The philosopher draws on chapters of world history to demonstrate that wars, revolutions, and conflicts have caused countless victims. Citing Nazism, which he associates with ISIS, the former minister asserts that "culture and education do not prevent barbarity." Luc Ferry welcomes technological progress and robotics, which he sees as offering tremendous advances thanks to artificial memory. Advances in medicine and the enhancement of human life (that is, living better and healthier lives) are driving a revolution in our understanding of the sacred, and the sacred is the locus of life's meaning. It is not technology itself that we should fear, but what we will do with it.