Advancing Wisdom

A Better Future

A common refrain at MIT is that its technology and research goals are aligned around the greater goal to “invent a better future”.  The underlying intent is laudable, but it is clear that students and faculty rarely have the time, space, or resources to deeply explore the question — “What is a better future?”  What sort of world, in other words, should we be seeking to build, beyond what is technically feasible, or commercially viable?

A Better Future is a multi-year initiative to advance wisdom within the practice of science and engineering by opening space for MIT students, faculty, and staff to step back and ask what kind of future is truly worth building, and what it means to orient research and innovation within questions of ultimate meaning and purpose.

Four Main Components of A Better Future

For-Credit Course: “What is a Better Future?”

Offered for the first time in Spring 2024 and co-taught by Professors Rosalind Picard and Sherry Turkle, as well as Nathan Barczi of the Octet Collaborative, and exploring multiple philosophical and faith traditions to explore ultimate questions, followed by case studies of how to apply such questions within specific areas of science and engineering.

Jeffersonian Dinners

In academic year 2023-24, small groups of select researchers and scholars will gather to discuss where the greatest opportunities and pitfalls exist within contemporary technological advances for human flourishing, and how we might guide the next generation of students in addressing them.

Scholarly Colloquia

During academic year 2024-25, scholars will convene and produce interdisciplinary research into the most pressing human challenges facing innovators and policymakers in technology, informed both by the best in scientific research and wisdom from theology, philosophy, and other humanistic disciplines.

Published Articles

In 2025 and beyond, articles in both scholarly journals and popular outlets like The Atlantic and Harper’s will share the outputs of the course and colloquia with a broader audience.

IAP Courses

In January 2024, the Octet Collaborative offered two courses during IAP (Independent Activities Period), as it has done since January 2023.

Science, Technology, and Ethics in the Real World

MIT is a literally world-changing institution, equipping its students, faculty, and alumni to innovate in science and technology for a better future.  But what sort of future should we be building?

In this mini-course, participants explored four case studies for thinking about what sorts of technologies we should be building, asked questions of meaning, purpose, and ultimate goals. In addition to learning about both religious and secular ethical frameworks, participants discussed real-world case studies of ethical dilemmas faced by the MIT community. Students explored:

  • What MIT didn’t teach you: an alumni panel exploring everyday ethics and human flourishing in technological industry

  • Climate science

  • Bioethics

  • Artificial Intelligence

Check back on this page for 2025 IAP course information!

Disagreeing Well

A Dialogue Lab providing training in empathic listening and intellectual hospitality, based on the work of the Ideos Institute.

In these polarized times, what does it mean to disagree well?  Students participated in a workshop that equipped them with skills of empathic intelligence and enabled them to pursue meaningful dialogue across difference.

This mini-course builds on a curriculum developed by the Ideos Institute, experts in empathic intelligence and producers of the documentary film “Dialogue Lab: America.”

Check back on this page for 2025 IAP course information!