Sri Lanka 2048 Forum honouring Arthur C Clarke: Moderated by Smriti Daniel
Channel: Arthur C Clarke Trust
Date: 2018-02-14

‘Sri Lanka 2048’ was a futuristic event held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 15 December 2017 to mark Sir Arthur C Clarke’s Birth Centenary. 

Organised by the Arthur C Clarke Trust, custodian of the late author’s literary estate, the public forum saw four mid-career Lankan professionals imagining and speculating about future scenarios in four key sectors: data and artificial intelligence; information, news and media; energy; and cities or urban living. 

The speakers were: Future of Data by Sriganesh Lokanathan, Team Leader of Big Data Research at LIRNEasia think tank; Future of Media by Shamindra Kulamannage, editor, publisher and media entrepreneur; Future of cities by Sunela Jayewardene, environmental architect, environmental conservationist and author; and Future of Energy by Nanda Abeysekera, sustainability engineer.

In this video, we see the four speakers – having delivered their individual talks – engaging in a lively discussion moderated by Smriti Daniel, feature writer and communications consultant. In a career spanning over a decade as a feature writer, Smriti has followed her diverse interests across a variety of subjects ranging from the arts, in particular literature, to science reportage and travel writing.

The discussion is wide-ranging, looking at how the pursuit of higher living standards for all can be balanced with least environmental and societal impacts. More questions are asked than are answered in this short span of time, but as Sir Arthur Clarke once said, "I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about."

The forum was meant to inspire the imagination process that can continue online at the official Arthur C Clarke website, at www.ArthurCClarke.org. The forum also marks the beginning of the Arthur C Clarke Future Forum, which the Trust hopes would become a regular event for discussing future prosperity and sustainability of Sri Lanka – where Sir Arthur Clarke lived for more than half a century, from 1956 to 2008.

Filmed and edited by Media Jogger, Colombo: www.mediajogger.com

Key words: Arthur C Clarke, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s Future, Future, Sri Lanka 2048, Sunela Jayewardene, Arthur C Clarke Future Forum, Arthur C Clarke Trust, ArthurCClarke100, future studies, future data, future media, future cities, future energy