Through this interactive lecture, systems scientist and futurist, Dr. Anneloes Smitsman, explores how the sustainability crisis is the result of harmful ‘Moloch’ game dynamics that drive people and institutions to sacrifice our future by undermining the conditions for long-term collective wellbeing. She will also explain how ‘Moloch’ Artificial Intelligences (AIs) make the above exponentially and existentially worse. Moloch is the name of an ancient Canaanite god who thrived on child sacrifices. The term ‘Moloch’ is becoming popular in game theory to refer to the harmful game dynamics of unsustainable systems and cultures.
Through her Ph.D. research at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute, Dr. Smitsman identified 7 key systemic barriers that undermine the transitions for a thrivable future, and which emerge from mechanistic growth models that run contrary to the evolutionary principles of life. The Moloch game dynamics of sacrificing long-term collective wellbeing for short-term myopic gain, follows the same pattern as the harmful mechanistic growth models that emerged out of the Industrial Age.
During this lecture, Dr. Smitsman will present her international work on the EARTHwise Constitution, the EARTHwise Game, and her LIFEwise AI systems to empower youth and organisations in transforming the harmful Moloch game dynamics of the sustainability crisis. To learn more, visit:
- The EARTHwise Game: https://www.earthwisecentre.org/game-campaign.
- The EARTHwise Constitution for a Planetary Civilization: https://www.earthwisecentre.org/constitution
- About Dr. Anneloes Smitsman: https://www.earthwisecentre.org/anneloes-smitsman
