PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS FOR AN INAUGURAL SPEECH Here you should unpack the conference title, pointing out how it reminds us what we need to remember in the time we are together. For example a talk might go as follows:
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We have met here to work towards building together A Hitchhikers Guide to the Future. I would like us to consider carefully just what this title means. I see it as an aspirational title which encourages us to seek out new ways of tackling old problems. Most importantly it flags up the importance of harnessing the communicative potential of the performative arts, playfulness and creativity if we are to address in a meaningful way the problems which now face the world. Our role model is to be the “Hitchhiker” - a traveller who is not rich, but one who has to improvise, has the courage to take chances in order to further his journey and is humble and flexible enough to accept the need to use the help of passing strangers. “Guide” - This reminds us that most importantly our aim is to end up with something very practical - a manual , guidelines which will help us navigate a path. We all understand and agree about the difficulties we face. We need help to solve them. “The future” It has been suggested (see Christopher Booker 2004) that there are only seven basic themes underlying the archetypal stories we humans tell ourselves in our attempt to understand the world. Amongst these of particular interest here are number 3 The Quest and number 4 Voyage and Return. Both have resonance for any Hitchhiker’s guide. Take the Greek story about the architect Daedelus (his name means the skilful craftsman). Daedelus constructed the Labyrinth in Crete for the tyrannical Minoan king Minos. In order to secure a new future back home in Sicily for himself and his son Icarus he built wings from bird feathers and wax. However Icarus disobeyed his father’s rules and flew too near the sun with predictable consequences. The wax melted, the wings collapsed and Icarus fell into the sea and drowned. This story is clearly a moral tale illustrating the negative consequences of “hubris” - pride, disobedience and the arrogant audacity of any man who chooses to ignore his human limitations. But I ask you to go further and consider this. Had there been a passing space shuttle or even a Boeing 707 - would Daedalus have refused a lift back to Sicily? At the present point in time we have identified the crucial problems that stand in our way - from global warming to war as a way of settling disputes - and know they cannot be solved by individuals alone or even by conglomerates as large as nation states. To find solutions we need to build new forms of cooperative structure which will earn the loyalty of the citizens of the world. We need a guide - a practical rule book, a new architecture which will support a new kind of democratic cooperation between humans at all levels. The good news is that we are at a point in time where we have new powerful technologies with the capacity to solve such problems. I would beg that we use them. I also warn that we ignore them at our peril. As always Shakespeare has something to say about that and no-one puts words together better. I quote: “There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.” ― William Shakespeare , Julius Caesar Now tell the story of the early Uber venture. At the beginning of each successive day of the conference a similar short Introductory speech could outline the desired focus of the day and what it is hoped will be achieved and what should be avoided. The story of Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca could illustrate the need to avoid certain pitfalls - just as Odysseus has himself tied to the mast of his ship and his sailors’ ears stopped with wax to prevent them being seduced to abandon their journey by the songs of the sirens …
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