Tech industry: How we will live

At the SXSW ideas conference in London, artists, tech entrepreneurs, and researchers are negotiating nothing less than the future. It's about people, machines—and the crucial question of who will ultimately serve whom.

The future, and this may surprise many, can also be found in the church these days. Since Monday, the 300-year-old Christ Church Spitalfields in London has been one of the 34 venues of the South by Southwest festival, or SXSW for short. This is where artists, creatives, researchers, tech entrepreneurs, thinkers, and many who are or want to be all of these at the same time meet. 20,000 visitors, including King Charles, will be offered more than 1,200 events over six days, including concerts and film premieres, but above all expert sessions. The organizers call this mix of many disciplines “beautiful collisions,” which are intended to have a common perspective looking forward. To tomorrow, or rather the day after tomorrow. In the church, traditionally a place for big questions, one lecture is titled: “Create your own future.”