Speakers

Presentation of the speakers and the contributions proposed for the Symposium.

1) Daniel Cesar Robaldo - The evolution and function of Myths in Human History.

The presentation traces a path through human history and its connection to myths, explaining in detail how these have evolved from the discovery of fire to the present day. Drawing on forty years of research in education and information and communication technologies (ICT), the author has observed in the programs implemented by his foundation how a humanizing education leads young people to explore their deepest desires in a non-violent way. They project their utopias into a future filled with hopeful and possible images.

The author will connect these experiences to his fifteen years of research into how utopias fuel the myths of various American peoples. Through his travels in various countries of the continent, he has been able to observe the evolution of these myths, which have adapted to the different cognitive levels developed as a result of new experiences, until today, when a materialistic culture denies utopias and promotes individualism, in contrast to the flourishing of past cultures guided by myths.

However, the author perceives the first signs of the birth of a new myth and invites the audience to actively participate in its construction. With a historical perspective inspired by New Universal Humanism, the author will present a framework for the "Mythical Process", applicable to any culture and useful for understanding not only the evolution of cognitive processes, but also the origin of the search for the sacred, understood as "intuition". In this way, the speaker anticipates the contents of his next book.

Daniel Cesar Robaldo. Independent Humanist researcher for over 40 years, affiliated with the School of Silo (New Universal Humanism). Writer and lecturer in the fields of education, comparative religion, and cultural anthropology. Currently conducting research on myths in the Americas and serving as president of the Da Vinci Foundation in Argentina.

2) Ernesto “Tito” De Casas - Profile of Silo and his contributions.

Here I present an approximation to Silo, Mario Rodríguez Cobos, a universal mendocino, whom I met since the 60s, until his departure in 2010.

His activities to disseminate his universalist contribution to personal and social development have been numerous, in two specific areas: the New Humanism and the Message. His literary work is multifaceted and is published in the "Complete Works" and in other texts, also available on the silo.net website in several languages. Moreover, other authors collect his proposals and expand his contribution in various aspects, as we will see in the conference.

The thesis sustained here is that Silo is an author of the present and the future, who helps to overcome archaic conceptions, which still persist by inertia. His book "Humanizing the Earth" is explicit in its proposals, as is his spiritual contribution entitled "The Message of Silo". Thus, both in the intellectual and mystical fields, he offers significant experiences to those who are interested, opening doors to the future in this uncertain juncture of humanity.

Ernesto “Tito” De Casas. Nace el 29 de marzo de 1947 en Mendoza, Argentina. Hijo de José Ernesto y Leonor González, ambos dentistas, radicados en Luján de Cuyo y es el mayor de dos hermanos. Padre de 3 hijos y casado con Teresa Gutiérrez. Después de la escuela primaria cursa el bachillerato en el Liceo Agrícola DF Sarmiento que completa con el ciclo básico de Bellas Artes. Estudia Inglés y se convierte traductor técnico. Se integra a los comienzos del Movimiento Humanista, que funda Silo en la provincia, participando en todas las etapas del Siloismo. Realiza diversos viajes por el país y después irá a Europa y EEUU, y Asia, residiendo en Tokio, Japón y Madrid antes de regresar a su provincia. Escribe y publica Todavía hay Futuro y Entorno a Silo y hace diversos aportes y estudios de temas afines al Humanismo.

3) Adolfo Carpio - "Chile and the world at the crossroads" (book presentation).

What is happening in the world today? What does the future hold for us? These and other questions are on the minds of many of us. Answering these questions is not an easy task. The characteristics of the times in which we live, in which quick and short-term responses, dystopias and the search for easy solutions to complex issues prevail, complicate the panorama even more. However, it is a necessary task to try to understand the world in which we live, what to expect, and adjust a life project. In other words, these questions that we ask ourselves are existential in the purest sense of the word. They compromise our existence as individuals and as a society.

Adolfo Luis Carpio. Born in Buenos Aires in 1951. B.A. Comparative Religions from the University of Puerto Rico. He has dedicated himself professionally to software engineering. Specialist in generalities. He began his participation in the Humanist Movement in Buenos Aires in 1971. He has developed activities in Buenos Aires, Puerto Rico, San Francisco, New York and now in Santiago and Valparaiso. He is a full member of the Humanist Center for Studies "Instituto Tókarev" and applies at the Center for Studies in the Study and Reflection Park "Los Manantiales".

5) Luis Javier Botero Arango - Is a society that doesn't kill possible?

Based on over 25 years of research by Dr. Glenn D. Paige and Dr. James W. Prescott, as well as the World Health Organization's World Health Report, the possibilities, necessary changes, and steps to be taken to create a society that does not kill are presented.

Luis Javier Botero Arango. MSc in Industrial Engineering (Integrated Human Systems), Iowa State University, USA. First winner of the Gene Sharp Activist Award for Nonviolence - Palestine, 2005. Nonviolence Trainer, certified by the University of Rhode Island - USA, 2000. Over 20 years of experience as a manager in the Colombian private sector. Nonviolence Advisor to the Government of Antioquia, Colombia (7 years). Nonviolence Advisor to the Mayor's Office of Medellín, Antioquia (3 years).

6) Eugenia Anahí Figueroa - "The Communal Paradigm of Good Living".

The process of change emerging today in the region, from the perspective of indigenous peoples, radiates and impacts the global environment, promoting an ancestral paradigm, the communal paradigm of the culture of life for good living, based on a way of life reflected in a daily practice of respect, harmony and balance with everything that exists, understanding that in life everything is interconnected, interdependent and interrelated.

Eugenia Anahí Figueroa. I am an advanced student of Social Communication, with 8 subjects left to graduate. I am looking for a job opportunity that will allow me to continue developing the knowledge I have acquired and to continue the learning process in the field of communication with indigenous identity.

7) Giorgio Gaviraghi - The Future of Humanity: Evolution or Extinction?

In recent months, the applications and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have grown exponentially, suggesting that the Technological Singularity—an event whose consequences we cannot foresee—is near, possibly even before 2029, as predicted by Ray Kurzweil, one of its leading theorists.

In this context, AI is increasingly capable of performing "human" tasks, threatening not only jobs but the very existence of humanity should AI dominate. According to the Sapientia scale, our progress is leading us towards evolutionary advancements, including Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), enhancements to our biological bodies with extended lifespans and cures for many diseases, thus creating a superior being through technology. This also encompasses entry into new environments such as space, following the transition from sea to land by living beings.

With the advent of the Technological Singularity, where superintelligent AIs become independent of humans, their priorities might diverge from ours, potentially leading to a future vastly different from what our anthropocentric view anticipates. If AIs were to dominate, humans could become secondary, and projects dedicated to human advancement, particularly in medicine, might lose the momentum gained in recent years.

In this presentation, we aim to explore alternative scenarios for the Singularity and other possibilities for both humans and machines. For instance, space, being more suitable for machines than biological beings with their life needs, could be the first sector where machines might exclude human participation. All stages of the Sapientia scale (human body, territory, environment, technology) would need to be re-evaluated and revolutionized by the participation of machines and their different priorities.

As shown by the Sapientia scale, some hypotheses for collaboration to achieve a symbiotic coexistence between humans and machines would depend on the speed at which technological and other advancements could be made available, allowing humans not to be surpassed by the capabilities of machines. BCIs, mind uploading, and other medical advancements could improve human conditions, offering cooperative alternatives and preventing machine supremacy.

We are at a critical juncture in our history, and we must recognize the situation, analyze development trends, and enhance the capabilities of the biological being, even if augmented by technology. It is essential to find common ground between humans and machines for a symbiotic coexistence that allows progress for both parties within a framework of universal benefits. This presentation is based on these principles.

Giorgio Gaviraghi. Architectural degree fromthe Milan Polytechnic. Responsible as project manager for major international projects, also acting as CEO for international companies operating in Europe, the US, Latin America and the Middle East in the field of design and construction. Author of over 80 papers ranging fromspace, transportation, city planning, design and other topics, including authoring articles and books.

8) Hugo Novotny - "Light, Gravity, Time, and Mind - We are not alone" (book presentation).

The generations that have shared these first decades of the 21st century have been part of a dramatic and unprecedented evolutionary transition of humanity. On the one hand, the political and economic forms, institutions, beliefs, and values of an old world are crumbling; and the powerful who still seek to sustain them to preserve their power and privileges are dragging the societies of practically the entire planet into wars, genocides, climate catastrophes, and all kinds of inequalities and injustices.

But at the same time that this drama unfolds, a new sensibility is being born; a new landscape of travelers of the deep, the cosmos, and the mind is emerging. Paradoxically, as Science advances in the exploration of the origins of the Universe and life, in the search for other worlds, other lives, and other intelligent beings, humans are beginning to discover within themselves consciousness, the "inner gaze," and the intention that moves it, in themselves and in others; to glimpse an evolutionary intention that drives everything, a Plan that lives in all that exists.

A new spirituality, capable of inspiring a new evolutionary leap in human beings, is beginning to manifest itself, softly and silently, in different latitudes. An inner religiosity that is growing, giving way to a new universal sacred myth. Within ourselves, we begin to feel that we are not alone, nor are we chained to this time and this space.

Hugo Novotny (1956) was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. He is a writer, researcher at the Parque de Estudio y Reflexión "Carcarañá" parquecarcarana.org and the Humanist Pedagogical Current copehu.org, and a Russian language translator. From a young age, he has participated in the philosophical and social current known as Universal Humanism, founded by the writer, thinker, and spiritual guide Silo (Mario Rodríguez Cobo, 1938-2010). He promotes the translation and publication of Silo's work in Russia, Mongolia, and other Asian countries. He resided in Moscow for twelve years. Among his books are: "La conciencia inspirada en la Filosofía, la Mística, el Arte y la Ciencia" co-authored with P. Figueroa and C. Baudoin (2012); "Luz y tiempo – Representaciones del Universo, espacio-temporalidad y sustrato de creencias en la conciencia humana" (2018); "Caminos espirituales del Asia" (2020) and "Luz, gravedad y tiempo – En todo lo existente vive un Plan" (2021). His writings in Spanish, English, and Russian are available at hugonovotny.academia.edu, he currently resides in the city of Godoy Cruz, Mendoza, Argentina, and participates in the Community of Silo's Message.

9) Javier Tolcachier - “El Foro Humanista Mundial. Una utopía en marcha”.

More than three decades ago, on October 7th and 8th, 1993, the First World Humanist Forum was held in Moscow. On that occasion, the founder of the Humanist Movement, SILO, stated that "the objective of this forum would be to study and take a position on the global problems of the world, structurally relating the phenomena of science, politics, art, and religion." He also specified that the Forum "aspires to become an instrument of information, exchange, and discussion among people and institutions from the most diverse cultures of the world, and that it also aims to take on the character of a permanent activity so that all relevant information can circulate immediately among its members." Over the years, various Humanist Forums have been held in different parts of the world, giving continuity to this impulse. More recently, a group of humanists from Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America has been proposing to take advantage of the accumulated experience, inviting to connect the various Regional Forums in a permanent World Humanist Forum, which would serve as a platform for dialogue and joint action for organizations and people from different fields and cultures to continue laying the foundations of the Universal Human Nation. The presentation will explain the processual character of the World Humanist Forum, comment on its antecedents, the guidelines for its updating and vision for the future, and invite you to join this Utopia in Motion.

Javier Tolcachier. Born in 1960 in Córdoba, Argentina. His existential restlessness and early interest in the possibility of social transformations merge into an intense search, until he finds in Siloism a wonderful synthesis to embrace the best of causes: Humanizing the Earth. Within the framework of the dissemination of Universal Humanism - a current of thought founded by Mario Rodriguez Cobos (Silo) - he has organized and participated for over four decades in communication and training activities in different countries of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He is a researcher at the Center for Humanistic Studies in Córdoba and a columnist for the international news agency Pressenza. Among his works are the books "Memories of the Future", "The Fall of the Dragon and the Eagle", "Humanizing History"; "Trends", along with lectures, articles, studies, and monographs that seek to apply a humanist perspective to various fields of human activity. He lives with his wife and two children in his hometown.

10) Guillermo Cabruja - "Community education, literacy in prison settings and low-income neighborhoods of Rosario and surroundings areas".

We are a group of people united in the Civil Association "Alfabetización Santa Fe" who carry out voluntary work. Our work focuses on literacy for young people and adults deprived of their liberty in prisons, as well as in the various low-income neighborhoods of the city of Rosario, where the community is experiencing a situation of social vulnerability. Our team is made up of various actors in society: workers, students, professionals from different disciplines, and representatives of various spheres of daily life.

Education is a human right, and we know that school dropout and failure are the product of social inequality. We are inspired to carry out popular education that restores to individuals the capacity to act and transform the reality that has historically excluded them. The idea was born in our city 12 years ago, to respond to concrete educational problems in the population, and began in penitentiary units.

Together with volunteers from our city and the "Multisectorial de Solidaridad con Cuba" organization, we implemented the program called "Yo, sí puedo," which was created in Cuba by Leonela Relys and successfully developed in different countries around the world. The dynamic is to work collectively with internal facilitators, who act as a link with the participants in the literacy workshops, generating solidarity relationships and consolidating social bonds.

The 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report estimated that around 781 million adults are illiterate, and that two-thirds of them are women. Consequently, illiteracy exacerbates gender inequality in access to education and the free development of personality. At the local level, our organization estimated a figure of 30,000 illiterate people in the city of Rosario in February 2020. As a result of the highlighting of this problem by studies and surveys carried out in 2018, the National University of Rosario was challenged by the situation and invited us to work jointly with the Law School of the UNR through the Social Linkage and Access to Justice Area, creating the University Extension Program "Literacy and Access to Justice."

The Program seeks to address different dimensions of literacy, focusing on contexts of social vulnerability, involving researchers, teachers, students, non-teaching staff, social organizations, and government agencies in the literacy task. In this way, we seek to establish and strengthen a comprehensive intervention network with schools, clubs, popular libraries, neighborhood associations, soup kitchens, etc.; that demonstrate the importance of working together for equal rights. We have already taught around 500 people in prison, and we are working with children, adolescents, and adults from various neighborhoods in the city of Rosario.

Guillermo Cabruja. Founder and Coordinator of "Alfabetización Santa Fe". Civil Engineer. Master's degree in Marketing and Commercial Management from ESEM Business School - Madrid, Spain. Businessman. Peronist activist.

11) Judy Grisales Alape - "Sustainable leadership: better people, better systems".

In a world that is increasingly interconnected and facing global challenges such as climate change, inequality, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by violence, the need for sustainable leadership is becoming increasingly urgent. This presentation will explore the concept of "Sustainable Leadership" on the premise that, to build resilient and equitable systems, it is essential to cultivate leaders who are both ethical and effective.

Judy Grisales Alape. CEO of the Global Sustainable Leadership Network. Creator of the Zero Hunger Humanitarian Social Responsibility Network (Colombia & Venezuela 2020). Co-founder of @profeCAN Leaders in ZOOcial Responsibility. Director of @poliTalksclub -People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Podcast 2030. Professor at the Technological Units of Santander -UTS- . Currently directs the International Commission for Sustainable Development -Agenda 2030- Global Women Leaders. She also leads the Policy and Governance commission at Nethuman.org . Political woman, activist, social worker and change agent in favor of citizen participation, the defense of the human rights of children, adolescents and families in LATAM and the Caribbean.

12) Angel Rogelio Guerra Revolorio - "Angelito's Educational Journey and the Power of Images" (book presentation).

This presentation positions education as a central and transformative project in the life of a human being during childhood and adolescence. The project focuses on the life story of Angelito, set in Guatemala during the 1990s and 2000s, and his various attempts to educate himself through public education. In this sense, the book presented here consists of two fundamental parts for the protagonist: the construction of images and the strengthening of images, through which he shows the aspirations, desires, and motivations that guided him throughout his journey.

In the first part, the author recounts how these needs for education were expressed from his core of dreams and how, from that place, triggers were launched into his memory that configured images with which he carried out various daily activities to achieve his goals. At the same time, the author recounts various events he experienced from birth, such as belonging to a rural family, both parents being illiterate, a father who was an addict, witnessing his mother's suicide at the age of seven and his father's abandonment, having a late and precarious entry into school, and being withdrawn from elementary school against his will at the age of fifteen, and experiencing various types of uprooting. While these events were unfolding, his images were also being strengthened, which were always anchored to his education project.

Due to this, in the second part, the author recounts various decisions he made to achieve his goals even as a child, guided by images based on internal records that motivated him and brought him happiness as he progressed.

Finally, the author closes the book based on his biographical experience with an epilogue that invites reflection on the value of our aspirations, the true meaning of resilience, and the fundamental milestones that mark our transformative education, and the roles that our family, society, and the State assume and how that impacts our human development.

Angel Rogelio Guerra Revolorio. Doctoral candidate in Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. - Master in Habitat and Urban Poverty in Latin America. - Bachelor in International Relations from the University of San Carlos de Guatemala.

13) María Dolores Hernández Mosqueda - "Legal regularization of migrant women through social work intervention".

The aim of this project is to raise awareness of the situation of risk and vulnerability faced by migrant women as a social problem, compounded by the lack of legal regularization. This prevents them from having the right to basic services, as well as from receiving more direct guidance on their migratory situation. Through social intervention in the field of social work, care and support would be provided to promote the social inclusion and cohesion of migrant women.

María Dolores Hernández Mosqueda. I am Mexican, from Mexico City, and I am completing my studies in Social Work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in the SUAYED system. I arrived in Spain with my children as an asylum seeker, due to the gender-based violence I experienced in Mexico. Since my arrival in Spain, I have been included in the circuit of care for victims of gender-based violence, where I have been subject to the care protocol offered by this circuit. I consider myself a social activist, in favor of justice. My social participation in this country is through social accompaniment of migrant people, especially women. I am the creator and coordinator of the ENCIDEM project (Enlace Integral de ciudadanas(os) del Mundo) which offers care and interventions to meet the needs of vulnerable groups, especially migrant women. I promote the dignity of domestic work and care. I volunteer for the Red Cross and other social entities. I participate in forums, talks, seminars, and meetings where issues such as migration, foreign affairs, education, gender-based violence, care, entrepreneurship, from the perspective of social change and public policies are raised. I offer workshops and talks where I promote a gender perspective based on equality and equity. Living outside of Mexico has made me realize that no matter how difficult life may be, you can always contribute to social change from wherever you are.

14) Rodrigo Arce Rojas - "Symbiotic Humusnity".

Our civilization has been built around human well-being, which is commendable; however, it is insufficient to address the severe civilizational crisis we find ourselves in, which manifests in multiple ways in the environmental, economic, social, political, and axiological spheres, among others. Although humanism is permeable to ecological approaches, it still has a strong anthropocentric imprint based on human exclusivity that attributes qualities to humans that are not replicated in other expressions of life.

With our current level of scientific knowledge, it is possible to affirm that several characteristics previously considered unique to humans are not, as expressions such as culture, politics, and morality are also manifested in animals, albeit to a different degree than in humans. It is now possible to affirm that consciousness, intelligence, agency, and even technology are more widespread attributes in all expressions of life, although they vary qualitatively compared to humans. This realization invites us to expand the moral community to include other expressions of life, without resorting to a bio-egalitarian proposal but rather marked by respect for all expressions of life for their intrinsic value.

It is within this framework that the concept of "humusnity" is proposed to refer to all expressions of human and non-human life (more than human, other-than-human) in recognition that we are all ultimately humus, earth, all formed from a common base of chemical elements in different proportions. It is not just a way of recognizing ourselves as part of nature, although specific attributes have led us to create a second nature, but to make an ontological shift from a utilitarian relationship with nature to a relationship of conviviality, from the pursuit of material development and accumulation to a relationship of biocultural well-being, where both human well-being and the well-being of nature matter. In this way, the search for utopia has to do with co-habiting based on an ethics of care extended to all expressions of life. This is not an ideological position but the recognition that all expressions of life belong to the same web of life and that symbiosis has been, and continues to be, a manifestation of collaboration, associativity, as part of the forces of evolution.

These perspectives are supported by the eco-evo-devo approach (ecology-evolution-development) and epigenetics, which explain why the categories of nature and culture have blurred in recent times. Symbioethics, therefore, encompasses this perspective of an integrative ethics that recognizes the fact that all living beings are interrelated in one way or another, as expressed by our character as holobionts, which is nothing more than another way of saying that we are Gaia, we are Pachamama, we are the Biosphere, we are interspecies and we co-exist.

Rodrigo Arce Rojas. Doctor in Complex Thought (2018), Master of Science in Forest Resources Conservation (1992) and Forestry Engineer (1988). With 35 years of experience and contributions to the interactions between society, nature and culture applied to community forest management, forest certification, climate change and REDD+, conservation, agroforestry, agroecology, agrobiodiversity, anthropological ecology, watershed management, environmental auditing, rights of indigenous peoples, indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact, environmental and forest public policies, dialogue, participation and participatory methodologies, prior consultation, governance, conflicts and capacity building with national (IIAP, WWF, CARE) and international organizations (FAO, GIZ). University professor, reviewer of scientific articles, facilitator of events and social processes, tutor of doctoral theses in Complex Thought at the Edgar Morin Multiversity of the Real World in Mexico.

19) Adrián Cortés - "Silo and human biological immortality. It's no longer a utopia.".

Science and technology, through the historical accumulation of developments and discoveries, periodically reach critical moments that allow for qualitative leaps that impact the entire civilization. In this line, we trace the discovery of fire, the wheel, or agriculture. Fire allowed us to have shelter in cold and hostile environments such as caves, as well as to predigest our food, facilitating its assimilation and thus obtaining better nutrients for the development of our nervous system, consequently generating cognitive improvements. The wheel facilitated physical work, making heavy loads more manageable, leaving us energy available to take care of our families. With the discovery of agriculture, we no longer had to chase our food with spears and knives, and we expanded our temporal horizon by calculating in advance the harvest times... Each of these historical milestones generated drastic changes in human existence. The current configuration of the first planetary civilization known to us has allowed the global and immediate exchange of data and discoveries, but also of advanced technologies, so that today we find ourselves at a new point of "disruptive criticality" to take the next qualitative leap in the human species: the possibility of extending our biological life indefinitely and without physical deterioration.

The recent discoveries made by the research group I lead seem to complete the picture necessary to take this leap. For 15 years we have been conducting research in the fields of biochemistry, immunology, and human aging. The developments and discoveries we have made have allowed us to develop a solution to the problem of human aging. It is in our hands to support this cause and allow this qualitative leap or continue on the nihilistic path of the current dying world.

Adrián Cortés (Popayán, Colombia). Director of the IVSI research group "Institute for Research in Synthetic Vaccines and New Medicines". Chemist. Specialized in Molecular Immunology and Molecular Physics (University of Caucau).

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