David Gosset Speaks at the Beijing Cultural Forum 2023
Date：2023-09-15
“We must work tirelessly to awaken minds to a sense of the universal. Identities are built on several levels and in several areas, but our horizon must be that of humanity since it is the dimension that allows us to provide solutions to the problems that define our time.”
David Gosset
The Beijing Cultural Forum, which has been elevated to a national-level and international forum, was held from September 14th to 15th, 2023 in Beijing. Its permanent theme is "Inheritance, Creativity, and Mutual Learning", with the annual theme being "Promoting Exchange and Cooperation through the Inheritance of Outstanding Cultures". The forum aims to serve as a platform for showcasing cultural achievements, exchanging cultural development experiences, fostering cooperation in cultural innovation, and promoting cultural exchanges and mutual learning. David Gosset, the founder of the China-Europe-America Global Initiative, participated in this forum and delivered a speech.
Full Speech Text
The conditions for a dialogue of civilizations at the service of progress
The extraordinary epic of Homo Sapiens is the demonstration that the concept of material progress is not an abstraction. This movement, extending over a long period of time, and which has not been linear, must continue with an ever-renewed effort towards civilization.
It will have taken our humanity, since the emergence of Homo Sapiens, several hundreds of thousands of years to reach 100 million individuals, 18 centuries for our population to exceed one billion, a century to leap up to 2.5 billion people, and 70 years to form a global society made up of more than 8 billion members.
To this we must add that, on average, we all enjoy an unprecedented life expectancy, that never before have so many people had access to education, and that, despite all the work that remains to be done, the women's emancipation movement is an irreversible reality of our contemporary societies.
As we remember, to contain the COVID virus, it only took our scientists less than a year to develop appropriate vaccines. This has involved intense exchanges between scientists around the world, and synergies between governments and private companies which, if not perfect, are no less remarkable.
The sources of progress are obviously multiple, but one of them is the ability to identify the problems we face, and to collectively provide solutions. I see at least five major ones.
First, there are the challenges related to the Anthropocene. Everyone knows it well, on a large part of the planet, man has left his mark on nature and, with its expanding demography, its industrial production methods depending on fossil fuels, it has often damaged it. Climate deregulation, different types of pollution, and damage to biodiversity are threats that weigh on our human family.
Secondly, in a strategic context where nuclear weapons occupy a large place, we must at all costs avoid escalation in war, especially between the great powers.
David Gosset Giving a Speech at the Beijing Cultural Forum
Everyone understands that re-harmonizing the relationship between man and nature, finding geopolitical balances that guarantee peace, presupposes the dialogue of cultures, strengthened economic and political cooperation, a capacity to reform the instruments of global governance as well as the ability to build ones that meet the challenges of the 21st century.
However, a simple evocation of the dialogue of civilizations is not enough, it has to be articulated with concrete actions for the common good. In the same way, it is not enough to call for cooperation, we must immerse ourselves in effective cooperative projects in a constructive and open spirit aimed at solving concrete problems.
To put it another way, let’s not separate theory from practice!
Our humanity is faced with a third challenge that must attract all our attention. The Artificial Intelligence that some segments of our global society can already use, carries with it a world full of uncertainties.
I would like to point out that this speech was not generated by an artificial intelligence – it might have been of better quality!
But, there is already around us content that is produced by Artificial Intelligence. Some of this content is also used by media, most often digital platforms. They do so without signaling it, which is not only problematic but dangerous.
Whether visual, audio or intellectual, these contents can in other contexts surprise by their quality, and by the time it takes to produce them, only a few seconds! The accumulation of data combined with the power of algorithms, and the optimization of infrastructures, creates a situation of which it can be said that it is revolutionary.
In these circumstances, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Either Artificial Intelligence deepens economic and geopolitical divisions further, thus increasing the risk of tensions and conflicts, or humanity as a whole realizes that it is in its interest to develop it in a balanced and fair way.
Using it responsibly means, among other things, the creation of a United Nations agency dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, just as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was established in 1957, aiming to ensure that the nuclear age would not be destructive to humanity. I hope that our meeting today can serve to promote this idea.
Let us also be attentive to a fourth challenge. As the James Webb Telescope reveals to us moments in the history of the Universe that astrophysicists could only imagine until now, we can see that our human family has entered into a new relationship with space.
Space can be a new area of rivalry, but it also has the potential to generate cooperation that would allow humanity to know it better and explore it in optimal conditions. What seems important to me is not which State will first have a permanent base on the Moon, but how humanity as a whole can benefit from space exploration.
The fifth challenge I want to mention is related to neuroscience. The progress that has been made in the field of knowledge of the human brain is immense. It will allow us in particular to treat diseases linked to the increase in life expectancy.
However, some are actively working on interfaces between the brain and technologies that raise deep ethical questions.
For technological advances to remain at the service of human dignity and not turn into new chains that diminish it, a transparent debate must take place within the framework of already existing institutions or in forms that we will have to invent together.
One thing is certain, we cannot let private entities, even if they are very powerful financially, decide what is good or not for the future of humanity.
The Beijng Cultural Forum 2023
As we can see, the dialogue between civilizations cannot be reduced to exchanges between artists, writers or philosophers. These exchanges are obviously of the utmost importance, but let us not forget science, from medicine to astrophysics, which is inseparable from our modern societies, and which will be even more so from the social constructions of the future.
It is a French citizen speaking to you. Chinese civilization has greatly enriched me. I continue to embrace it, avoiding hasty judgments and simplifications as much as I can. I know that we must always be wary of our own prejudices. French, European therefore, inspired by Chinese culture, it was natural that I would be preoccupied with the universal.
I also very early wanted to link theory and action. This explains the creation of the Europe-China Forum in 2002, then, more recently, of the China-Europe-America Global Initiative. It is indeed because the Sino-American relationship will largely determine the future of the world that everything must be done to ensure that it is a matrix of peace and of cohesion of the human race.
These experiences lead me to believe that we must work tirelessly to awaken minds to a sense of the universal. Identities are built on several levels and in several areas, but our horizon must be that of humanity since it is the dimension that allows us to provide solutions to the problems that define our time.
While the dynamics of globalization may change on the surface, it does not fundamentally recede, and awareness of the universal continues to expand. On the other hand, if de-globalization seems to me highly improbable, we must know how to face the idea that de-civilization is this abyss always closer than it seems.
Despite all the worrying signs that surround us, amplified by media eager for the spectacular, I continue to believe that, collectively, and if we take into consideration the long span of human history, we are on a path of progress .
It is quite understandable that crises stand in our way, that we witness tragedies even. However, with the will to alleviate suffering, whatever it is and wherever it is, with the imperative to always respect the dignity that makes us human, we will be able to continue to prove that progress is not a pure intellectual construction.
I would add that real fraternity cannot be decreed, it does not stem from a slogan, it is cultivated in everyone's conscience.
Let us not forget that the dialogue between cultures begins within ourselves, in the balance of an inner life capable of welcoming the Other, whether very close or far away.
It is indeed in the mirror of the Other’s eyes that the slow rise towards civilization is reflected – or the rapid fall into bestiality’s brutalism.
