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Dr. Burda's Digital Summit By Dirk Liedtke, Munich [Photo: Two men with many opponents: Critic of Religion Richard Dawkins (left) and Genome Decoder Craig Venter] Once a year publishing legend Hubert Burda invites the biggest names in science, economics and the arts to Munich. This year, Genome-decoder Craig Venter chatted with staunch atheist Richard Dawkins; Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann chatted with EU Commissioner Viviane Reding, and even one of the Facebook founders looked on. The conference is unique in its composition. For the fourth time Internet entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, CEOs, and bloggers descended on lovely Munich at the invitation of small media mogul Hubert Burda for the DLD Conference (DLD = Digital, Life, Design), whose purpose is none other but to save the world. Or at least to make it a “better place”, as is mission statement reads in English. A patron of the arts and a man of wide-ranging interests, who publishes a little bit of everything, beginning with the lightweight magazines “Focus” and “Bunte”, together with his guests turns his attention to the big important questions of our time. And because this is Munich, everyone is on-the-go and schmoozing. The Brazilian best-selling author Paulo Coelho talks about what inspires his work. The Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani reveals why he gave his models HIV tattoos in order to advertise sweaters. Wikipedia-founder Jimmy Wales talks about his plans to create a new commercial version of the ingenious not-for-profit online encyclopedia. And the CEO of the world’s largest advertising agency, WPP, Sir Richard Sorrell, explains why he would choose to live in China today, if he could be 25 years old again. For three days, the conference brings to the quaint hometown of laptops and lederhosen the spirit of Davos, where the World Economic Forum will be held immediately afterward, and the perpetually fresh and innovative energy of Silicon Valley. There is always a seat for Hubert There is always front row seat reserved for, alternatively, "Hubert", "Dr. Burda" or "Professor Burda". The Americans call him by his first name, the Germans and those who work for him use the academic title he earned with his PhD in art history. For some of the talks, seated next to the 67-year old is his wife Maria Furtwängler, 26 years his junior. The actress’ role as crime investigator Charlotte Lindholm placed her among the ranks of glamorous television stars. She is there by choice, along with her daughter. Freshly coiffed and sitting very tall, hers is a very different look from her unmade-up, tomboyish television character, and she noticeably outshines her husband. She constantly fiddles with her Blackberry. The Patriarch of "Hubert Burda Media" and his family hold court. The bevy of young staffers who swarm around Burda appears almost blood-thirsty. In contrast, a second group of the DLD team stands out in grey hooded sweaters, adopting the more casual approach of the Google generation. Everything is photographed, filmed, blogged and posted quasi-live on the Internet. It is a conference held in real time, attended by invitation only, but whose discussions you can follow online without a problem. At one point, when not everyone can find a seat on the podium, the Patriarch intervenes personally. “Here is an empty seat,” he says. At the conference’s opening session, which is full of very rich, old, white men, Burda expresses gratitude to his children from his second marriage who have kept him up-to-date on their generation’s digital life-style. He shares anecdotes about them, like how they once stole somebody else’s stretch limo in Davos, which carry a single message: We are established, we are rich, and we have nothing left to prove. It must be very satisfying to, like Burda, be able to assemble so many interesting people and then deliver a universal course of study in art, and a crash course at the highest level in today’s hottest topics in economics, science and technology. The Disillusioner and the Decoder When Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and dispeller of the God delusion, and Craig Venter, who first decoded the human genome, come together for their conversation, the audience feels privileged to listen in, and strains to follow their not-entirely-easy-to-follow lines of reasoning. The two thinkers are in agreement that, as Dawkins put it, "genetics has entered the realm of information technology." The growing understanding of our genetic makeup and the complex interplay of our genes has been "the biggest revolution in the history of human self-knowledge." [Photo: The author John Brockman speaks at the DLD Conference in the HVB Forum] Craig Venter, who intermittently can be found crossing the world on his sailboat, is also a practitioner and man of action, who intends to connect business with science and environmental policy: "We are entering the design phase. We are creating the biological machinery of the future. " Venter does not have cyborgs in the Schwarzenegger-Terminator sense. He dreams of designer micro-organisms that could guzzle the carbon dioxide emissions that result from our addiction to oil and natural gas combustion, and convert the environmentally destructive gas into useable methane. A clever, imaginative scientist who, with his many talents is well-versed in theory and practice, lab coats and business suits, science and stock markets, Venter spread optimism in the face of the current climate hysteria and appetite for end-of-the-world anxiety: "The survival of our species depends on science," he said. And, with an ironic hand gesture toward his conversation partner’s bestseller The God Delusion: "We cannot play God, if there is no God." With this volte-face Venter took the wind out of the sails of every skeptic, who had cast him as a present-day Doctor Frankenstein to be feared. Translated by Karla Taylor |
