Viktorija Balodis

Self-driving cars, delivery drones and AI seem to offer our city a nice future. However, trusting the city to the smart technology also implies risks, dependencies and vulnerabilities. What are those? How can we address them? Join us during the We Make the City event to talk about the vulnerability of the Smart City.

Our THINK FUTURE TODAY series are born from many conversations we have when talking about the development of skills of the future. Every time we hear different questions, concerns, ethical dilemmas and challenges the advancement of technology and AI brings. We decided to create a space to talk about it with each other. In the end, we want to THINK TODAY what FUTURE we want to be part of tomorrow.

This meetup is free of charge, but we have a limited capacity, so please register ONLY if you are SURE you will be joining. The event main language is English, but you will be able to speak both English or Dutch during the discussions. http://bit.ly/tft2018

Technology made much of face to face communication redundant. We learn, work, date and communicate with our family and friends more online than offline.

A recent survey shows that 65% of American millennials don't feel comfortable engaging with someone face-to-face, and 80% prefer conversing digitally. At the same time, artificially intelligent bots are becoming better and better at modelling human conversation and relationships. While humans are limited in the attention and kindness that they can expand on another person, artificial bots can channel virtually unlimited resources into building relationships.

And it can go really far. In Japan, 30% of single women and 15% of single men aged between 20 and 29 admitted to having fallen in love with a meme or character in a game. The new trend to date an application is on a rise there.

In this meetup, we will talk about the future of changing nature of human connection in the digital world. Is there a future for the real human interaction?

Our THINK FUTURE TODAY series are born from many conversations we have when talking about the development of skills of the future. Every time we hear different questions, concerns, ethical dilemmas and challenges the advancement of technology and AI brings. We decided to create a space to talk about it with each other. Not expert focussed, but reflection and dialogue driven. In the end, we want to THINK TODAY what FUTURE we want to be part of tomorrow.

This meetup is free of charge, but we have a limited capacity, so please register ONLY if you are SURE you will be joining. We will use English for the introduction, but you will be able to speak both English or Dutch during the discussions. http://bit.ly/tft2018

We would like to invite you to participate in the Indieweb Homebrew Website Club Meetup, hosted in A Lab on every third Wednesday of the month. Indie Web Camp (https://indieweb.org/) is an international organization of volunteers who teach web literacy and promote the indieweb principles. Martin Lopatka (Lab 004 in A Lab) works for Mozilla who have long been advocates of an inclusive and healthy Internet. Together with A Lab, Martin, and the indieweb community, we are happy to announce the next Indie Web Homebrew Website Club meetup in Amsterdam.

The event is free and open to anyone that wants to learn how to build a website.
We are also looking for volunteers that can help in guiding the participants. Do you know HTML, CSS, a little bit of JavaScript? Want to share your knowledge, or just get to know some like-minded folks? let us know!

Date: Wednesday, May 9

Time: 6.30 - 10pm

For more details, you can send an email to info@a-lab.nl.

What do we need to consider today to be able to trust technology to take over so many roles and responsibilities in our lives and avoid deadly collision with our creations?

In this meetup, we are going to discuss different aspects we need to consider today to be able to trust technology to take over so many roles and responsibilities in our lives and avoid deadly collision with our creations.

Our THINK FUTURE TODAY series are born from many conversations we have when talking about the development of skills of the future. Each and every time we hear different questions, concerns, ethical dilemma’s and challenges the advancement of technology and AI brings. Together with A Lab and Visual Notes, we decided to create a space to talk about it with each other. Not expert focussed, but reflection and dialogue driven. In the end, we want to THINK TODAY what FUTURE we want to be part of tomorrow.

This meetup is free of charge, but we have a limited capacity, so please register ONLY if you are SURE you will be joining. We will use English for the introduction, but you will be able to speak both English or Dutch during the discussions. http://bit.ly/tft2018

A Lab is searching for an intern that wants to invest in his future self. Are you ready to join a wonderful adventure starting the end of May?

What you’ll do:
- Learn to manage social media platforms
- Work on newsletters and other communication tools
- Understand the client’s needs behind various events and meet their requirements
- Take care of various administrative tasks like scheduling agenda’s, events, catering, venue, technology, furniture.
- Help to plan and implement events from and for A Lab members
- Brainstorm new ideas and always try to find ways to improve things
- Have fun doing the internship

What you’ll need:
- Passion for events organizing
- Exceptional communication and writing skills
- Flexibility to jump between tasks and stay focused
- Openness to meet new people and work with awesome teams
- Desire to learn
- Proactivity in daily activities
- English knowledge

What we’ll provide:
- A (4-6 months) learning experience in an inspiring creative & innovative workspace with a community of more than 300 active members working in art&culture, music, visual, robotics, journalism, game design, music, photography and much more.
- Possibility to work in A Lab: Amsterdam's ultimate living lab, combining the strength of Amsterdam’s creative scene, technological prowess and free-thinking spirit into a 5000m2 hothouse for bleeding edge experimentation.

Are you the one? Email info@a-lab.nl your CV and a short motivation (±400 words).

Want to know all about hands-on Vertical Farming? Join our open tour! Every third Tuesday of the month in A Lab, from the 4 pm meet at The Coffee Virus.

A Lab Vertical Farm explores the way we will grow food in the 21st century. How can new technologies help us build a more sustainable, clean and safe ecosystem around food production and consumption? The crops from this farm will be used by The Coffee Virus. The data collection will add to our future knowledge base. Next to this, the farm will also educate 500 children about the future of food and healthy living.
Check out this informative movie for more info: https://vimeo.com/232490917

Want to become a vertical farmer and volunteer in this amazing project? Email info@a-lab.nl for info and an invitation to the next meeting. We already have an amazing list of people that are helping, but are always looking for more!

+ RSVP by emailing info@a-lab.nl.