SYNAPSE

India’s most thought provoking

science tech society conference

Why attend

Tech is the new ‘hand of god’ in our lives

Be wowed | Be informed | Be provoked

24 - 25 February 2024
Le Meridien, Gurugram

Meet Thinkers | Doers | Boundary Shifters

Technologists

Debate | Dialogue I Discovery

TECH & SOCIETY

“Social media: the biggest threat to democracy”

Journalist TOBIAS ROSE-STOCKWELL on toxicity, discontent, outrage. How the internet is breaking our brains

QUANTUM

“Birds and whales use quantum navigation. We can do it too”

Quantum physicist URBASI SINHA and entrepreneur FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ on the next frontier of global competition

INDIA

“Anyone monetising data is evil. Even if they pretend not to be”

Public tech evangelist SHARAD SHARMA on India’s approach to tech. The public goods – and the lurking dangers

TECH & SOCIETY

“Social media is making the world insane”

Silicon Valley savant JARON LANIER on AI, empires of attention. And taking back control over technology

CONSCIOUSNESS

“AI is one more proof of the uniqueness of consciousness”

Vedanta Master SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA on the spirituality vs science of consciousness

TECH & SOCIETY

“AI technologies could change what it means to be human”

Rockstar Harvard philosopher MICHAEL SANDEL on the real anxiety of AI – how it’s rewiring our very nature

PSYCHEDELICS

“What enrages me is the lack of reverence for psychedelics”

Neuroscientist VIDITA VAIDYA on the science of psychedelics. And why they are going from taboo to trend

CREATIVITY

“For mediocrity, turn to AI. If you want the masters, call us”

Bollywood veterans JAVED AKHTAR, SHEKHAR KAPUR, RAJKUMAR HIRANI & SONU NIGAM on art vs AI

GENE EDITING

“I am the most genetically modified person on the planet”

Biohacker. "Patient Zero". Living lab. LIZ PARRISH on the awe, ethics & science of age reversal

AI

“AI can get a little scary – but it's all super exciting”

AI entrepreneur ERIC DAIMLER, Google VP PEEYUSH RANJAN & ethicist IRENE SOLAIMAN on the promise & peril of AI

BIG PICTURE

“Thanks to tech, the world’s gotten fast, fused, deep”

3-time Pulitzer winner THOMAS FRIEDMAN on 3 accelerating global crises: nature, humans, technology

Incisive I Insightful I Informative

TECH & SOCIETY

Social media: A pocket biography

Imagine the social web as a ship. Access. Connection. Community. Now imagine the shipwreck. Polarisation. Hive minds. Outrage.

CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness: The watcher, the knower, the spirit self

How the “self” emerges from hard matter remains an open question. Will science crack the code of consciousness, or do the old savants have the answers?

QUANTUM

Quantum: Next-gen tech & a new global race

The mind-bending world of atoms and subatomic particles. How it's changing our lives, the world, and perhaps even reality.

TRANSHUMANISM

Post-humans & techno-utopias: Edgy psyche of Silicon Valley

Meet the TESCREALs: Tech czars who believe there is nothing fixed about being human. Find out how they see the future of the world. And the human race