FOURTH DELPHI DIALOGUES
Under the auspices
of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic
Mr. Constantine An. Tassoulas
Delphi, Friday 3 – Saturday 4 July 2026
Organizer
Sponsor
Sponsor
With the support
Media Sponsors
Supported by the Bodossaki Lectures on Demand-BLOD, the online library of lectures (blod.gr) of the Bodossaki Foundation.
The Initiative
The European Cultural Delphi Centre (E.C.D.C.) is today the foremost cultural institution in Greece where the significance of humanistic thought is consistently explored. It serves as an ideal venue for dialogue on the pressing questions of our time, always centered on the human being and Democracy.
Within this framework, the E.C.D.C. launched in 2023 the international program “Delphi Dialogues,” which aims to explore key aspects of humanity’s journey toward its emerging future, and to contribute meaningfully through concrete proposals and the promotion of global critical thinking.
Renowned thinkers and scientists of global stature gather in Delphi to discuss urgent contemporary issues and challenges that humanity will soon be called upon to face.
The program is being held for the fourth consecutive year in 2026, and it is open to the public.
Delphi Dialogues 2026
The future of humanity
3–4 July 2026 | Delphi
Under the auspices
of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic
Mr. Constantine An. Tassoulas
This year, the speakers will be pioneering and highly influential scientists from the fields of astrophysics, artificial intelligence, medicine, neuroscience etc. as well as scholars in the Humanities and social sciences who will explore how scientific and technological developments shape the future of humanity.
They will also delve into a series of complex issues that directly concern the new realities of our era, such as:
- How are space politics and the colonization of space shaping up today? What do these developments entail for the future of humanity, international geopolitics, and our own planet?
- How does modern science approach questions regarding the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms and intelligence? How can the boundaries between scientific rationality, on the one hand, and conspiracy theories and relevant discourses, on the other, be firmly established and protected in a world overwhelmed by fake news and various versions of hyperreality?
- How could artificial intelligence operate as a modern oracle? How can AI co-exist with what has hitherto been perceived as the essence of humanness?
- How does AI affect the mechanisms, the objectives, and priorities of governance in modern states? How can it contribute to promoting citizen participation in important political decision-making, and what risks does it potentially pose for democratic institutions and civil liberties?
- How does cognitive technology shape the future of political culture and the terms and priorities of cultural politics?
Program
Friday 3 July
17.15 – 17.45
Addresses
17.45 – 18.25
First Session
Opening Speech
Panagiotis Roilos, Harvard University
On space politics and the future of humanity
Helen Margetts, University of Oxford
AI and digital era governance
18.25 – 18.45
Discussion
18.45 – 19.00
Break
19.00 – 19.40
Second Session
Lenart Škof, Science and Research Centre Koper
The future soul of humanity
Marcello Ienca, Technical University of Munich
Humanity at the crossroads: Cognitive technology and the future of freedom and autonomy
19.40 – 20.00
Discussion
Saturday, 4 July
09.30 – 10.10
Third Session
Abraham Loeb, Harvard University
The benefits of alien intelligence over AI
Markus Gabriel, University of Bonn
Being human in the age of AI – What AI’s magical mirror tells us about ourselves
10.10 – 10.30
Discussion
10.30 – 10.45
Break
10.45 – 11.25
Fourth Session
Ofrit Liviatan, Harvard University
The case for regulation when machines are the new oracles
Martin Rees, University of Cambridge
Our future in space
11.25 – 11.45
Discussion
11.45 – 13.15
Roundtable Discussion
Biographical Notes
Markus Gabriel is an internationally acclaimed philosopher and currently holds the Chair in Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Bonn. In 2009, he became Germany’s youngest full Professor of Philosophy. Since 2012, he has served as Chairman of the International Centre for Philosophy, and since 2017, as Director of the interdisciplinary Center for Science and Thought, both based in Bonn.
Gabriel has received numerous awards, fellowships, and visiting professorships at institutions, including UC Berkeley, NYU, Stanford, the Sorbonne (Paris 1), and the PUC of Rio de Janeiro. From 2022 to 2024, he was the Academic Director of THE NEW INSTITUTE. In 2024, he became Senior Global Advisor at the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy, and in 2025 he became Specially Appointed Professor at the Kyoto University Institute for the Future of Human Society.
His books have been translated into many languages, with several becoming international bestsellers. Among his most notable works are Why the World Does Not Exist, Moral Progress in Dark Times, The Human Animal: Why We Still do not Fit into Nature and his recent book Doing Good – How Ethical Capitalism Can Save Liberal Democracy.
Marcello Ienca is Professor of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he also serves as Deputy Director of the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine. His research focuses on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and digital innovation, with particular emphasis on cognitive liberty, mental privacy, and human rights in the digital age. He is widely recognized for pioneering work on “neurorights” and has contributed extensively to international governance initiatives in AI and neurotechnology.
He is the Neuroethics Lead of the International Brain Initiative, the President of the International Neuroethics Society, and has served as member of UNESCO’s Ad Hoc Expert Group on the Ethics of Neurotechnology. He has advised organizations including the OECD, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, UNICEF, and the European Commission on emerging technology governance and digital ethics.
Ofrit Liviatan is the Director of Harvard College’s First-Year Seminar Program and a lecturer on law and politics at Harvard’s Department of Government. She holds a PhD and MA (with distinction) from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as an Israeli law degree where she was admitted to the bar and practiced constitutional, criminal and commercial law.
Dr. Liviatan’s research interests and award-winning teachings include Law and society; tensions between legal theory and practice; the role of legal systems in ethnocultural conflicts and the accommodation of diversity; sociolegal dilemmas around artificial intelligence, critical investigations of law through visual and literary frames, and the legal dynamics between religion and state.
As Director (and recipient of the Dean’s Distinction Award), Dr. Liviatan oversees a matrix of 130 seminars, taught each year by many of the University’s most distinguished faculty. Through her stewardship, these seminars are crafted as a uniquely intimate introduction to the breadth of Harvard’s disciplinary universe.
Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L’Express and more). He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993).
He has written 9 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial and Interstellar, as well as over a thousand scientific papers (with h-index of 133 and i10-index of 631) on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe.
Loeb had been the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (2005-2026) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and serves as the Director of the Galileo Project (2021-present). He had been the longest serving Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy (2011-2020) and the Founding Director of Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative (2016-2021).
He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-2021) and a current member of the Advisory Board for “Einstein: Visualize the Impossible” of the Hebrew University.
He chaired the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative (2015-2024) and served as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space and in 2020 Loeb was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade. In 2025, Loeb was ranked number 3 in publication record and impact of research among all astronomers worldwide over the past 5 years by ScholarGPS. Loeb’s latest TED talk was among the top five most popular TED talks in 2024.
Helen Margetts (OBE FBA) is Professor of Society and the Internet at the University of Oxford and Visiting Professor at LSE’s Data Science Institute. From September 2026 she will be a full professor at LSE, where she will be working to build a new Global Institute for Technology and Society. She founded and directed the Public Policy Programme (2018-2025) at the Alan Turing Institute, which gained national and international recognition for its pioneering work on AI and government. She was previously Director of the Oxford Internet Institute (2011-2018) and Professor of Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy at UCL (1999-2004)
She has researched and written extensively about the relationship between technology, politics, public policy and government including over 150 articles and six books on the topic, including Digital Era Governance (OUP, 2008) and AI and Digital Governance (OUP, forthcoming). Her book Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action (Princeton University Press) won the Political Studies Association’s 2017 J.Mackenzie prize for best politics book.
Public service appointments include the Home Office Scientific Advisory Council (HOSAC, from 2019) and the United Nation Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA, from 2025). She was awarded the Mayer-Struckmann prize by the Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf for outstanding research on digitization and democratization (2020); the John F Kluge Senior Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress (2019); and the Friedrich Schiedel prize by the Technical University of Munich for research and research leadership in technology and politics (2018).
Martin Rees (Lord Rees of Ludlow) is a distinguished Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and the 60th President of the Royal Society. A leading authority on the future of humanity, he is a world-renowned expert on existential risks, including solar flares, asteroid impacts, super volcanoes, biotechnology, and AI. Believing that the future of humanity is bound to the future of science, in recent years, Martin has increasingly focused on global issues such as population growth and the threats of emerging technologies like AI.
Co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge, he is a highly sought-after speaker with over 40 years of experience at the forefront of scientific innovation.
After becoming a fellow at King’s College, he served as the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. In 2005, he was appointed a Lord at the House of Lords.
Throughout his illustrious career, his contributions have led to substantial advances in domains such as cosmic jets, black holes, galaxy formation and the speculative elements of cosmology, among others. He was also one of the first to predict the uneven distribution of matter in the Universe, and his cutting-edge research helped disprove the Steady State theory. Moreover, he has published over 500 journal articles and authored multiple books, including Our Final Hour, If Science is to Save Us, Just Six Numbers and On the Future: Prospects for Humanity.
In recognition of his vast scientific contributions, he received several prestigious accolades, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, and the Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council.
Panagiotis Roilos is the George Seferis Chair Professor of Greek Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. At the same University, he is Faculty Associate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, where he has co-founded (2007) and co-directs the Cultural Politics Seminar Program. He is the President of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, where he has founded the Delphi Academy of European Studies (2017) and The Delphi Dialogues (2023).
International awards for his research work include the Forschungsstipendium für erfahrene Wissenschaftler of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an honorary doctorate from the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens.
He has authored and edited twelve books, including the monographs Towards a Ritual Poetics (2003; co-author); ‘Amphoteroglossia’: A Poetics of the Twelfth-Century Medieval Greek Novel (2005); C. P. Cavafy: The Economics of Metonymy, and the volumes Medieval Greek Storytelling: Fictionality and Narrative in Byzantium (editor, 2014) and From Byzantium to the Early Greek Enlightenment: Books, Writers, and Ideologies in Early Modern Greek Contexts [Late 15th–Early 18th C.] (editor, 2024). He is currently completing a book on digital posthumanism, the crisis of representation, and democracy entitled Neomedieval Metacapitalism,and a monograph on Postclassical Imaginaries: A Cognitive Anthropology of Late Antique and Byzantine ‘Phantasia’.
Dr Lenart Škof is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Head of the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies at the Science and Research Centre Koper (Slovenia) and Dean of Faculty ISH at the Alma Mater Europaea University (Ljubljana, Slovenia). He is a member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, Salzburg) and president of Slovenian Society for Comparative Religion.
He recently co-edited Philosophy of Breath: A Critical Anthology (Bloomsbury, forthcoming), Marian Reflections on War and Peace: Trauma, Mourning, and Justice in Ukraine and Beyond (Routledge, 2025) and Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era (Springer, 2024).
An expert in the intersections of American pragmatism, Continental philosophy, and Asian philosophies, Škof has authored several books, including God in Post-Christianity: An Elemental Philosophical Theology (SUNY Press, 2024), Antigone’s Sisters: On the Matrix of Love (SUNY Press, 2021) and Breath of Proximity: Intersubjectivity, Ethics and Peace (Springer, 2015). He is editor-in-chief of “Routledge Critical Perspectives on Breath and Breathing” series (with Magdalena Górska).
His academic career includes prestigious fellowships as a Fulbright visiting researcher at Stanford University (working with Richard Rorty) and a Humboldt visiting researcher at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies.
