Ana Carrasco-Conde (Ciudad Real, 1979) is a philosopher and professor of Philosophy at the UCM, as well as being a member of the Internationale Forschungsnetzwerk Transzendentalphilosophie. Her concerns focus on the "dark side" of reality or the most "indigestible" (pain, death, despair). She was awarded the Julián Sanz del Río Research Prize in 2012, and her works include La limpidez del mal (PyV, 2013), Presencias irreales (PyY, 2017), Decir el mal (Galaxia, 2021) and Motivos para dislocarse (Herder, 2020, junto con Luciana Cadahia). According to El Cultural she is one of the "10 young philosophers whose reflections and research will shape the thinking and debates of the coming decades".

The military conflicts we are living through, such as those in Gaza or Ukraine, serve as a pretext for Ana Carrasco to ask us in this essay whether we really want to understand others or whether we want to judge them, and how suffering is constantly served to us on a platter by the media, impregnating our gaze. The philosopher reveals the importance of listening to the other from our own mystery.  

Antonio Lastra (Valencia, 1967) holds a PhD in Philosophy, is an external researcher at the Franklin Institute for Research in American Thought at the University of Alcalá and academic director of La Torre del Virrey, Institute for Advanced Cultural Studies. His preferred fields of work are the ecology of culture, translation as a lingua franca, constitutional writing, the theological-political problem, English literature and film studies. His latest book is El tema imperial (Ápeiron Ediciones, 2023).

A hill, Bechí, that has seen the rise and fall of Iberians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Christians is the excuse used by Antonio Lastra to unite history and cinema, memory and present, anchoring himself in the ancestral and philosophy as a therapeutic path in which to find the roots that support our view of the world. Is our present a succession of pasts, what is progress, on what do we base human evolution, where do we look at ourselves?  

Azahara Alonso (Oviedo, 1988) is a philosopher, poet and writer. She has published the book of aphorisms Bajas presiones (Trea 2016), the collection of poems Gestar un tópico (RIL, 2020) and her work Gozo (Siruela, 2023) was awarded as the best non-fiction book of the year. She has participated in several anthologies and has been coordinator of the Hotel Kafka writing school and cultural manager at the José Hierro Poetry Centre Foundation. She has also coordinated the launching of the Ámbito cultural section of the El Corte Inglés department store and has been editor of the supplement Diario Kafka of elDiario.es. She writes literary criticism and teaches writing classes.

We have to ask ourselves what we really want in a world where the acceleration of the work system and the narcissism in which contemporary human beings move lead us to helplessness, to the weariness of the body in the face of life, to the exhaustion of joy. The thinker suggests ways of "wasting time", such as walking or imagining, which are also characteristic of human beings, and which make life much more bearable.     

Carlos Blanco (Madrid, 1986) is a professor at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas, with a PhD in Philosophy, Theology, a degree in Chemistry, and Visiting Fellow at the University of Harvard. He is the autor of twenty books, some of the most important being El sentido de la libertad, Athanasius, Grandes problemas filosóficos, Historia de la neurociencia, El pensamiento de la apocalíptica judía, Conciencia y mismidad and El nacimiento de la civilización egipcia, as well as numerous research articles. In 2015 he was elected member of the World Academy of Art and Science and in 2016 of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2012 he co-founded The Altius Society in Oxford, which brings together brilliant minds in science and philosophy for debates.

In his essay, the philosopher questions the ambivalence of human progress, delving into terms such as idealism, technology, Nature and, above all, freedom in the light of recent events and the irruption of AI. Blanco's syncretism of knowledge dazzles us in this essay that travels through the human mind, guiding us to the knowledge of the benefits and drawbacks of technical progress and the familiar human arrogance. 

Daniel Innerarity (Bilbao, 1959) is Professor of Political Philosophy, Ikerbasque researcher at the University of the Basque Country, and holder of the Artificial Intelligence & Democracy Chair at the European Institute of Florence. For twenty years he was a lecturer at the University of Zaragoza. He has been a visiting professor at several European and American universities, such as the Sorbonne University, the London School of Economics, Georgetown University and the Max Planck Institut in Heidelberg. His latest books are Una teoría de la democracia compleja (2020) and La libertad democrática (2023). He has been awarded, among others, the National Prize for Research in the Humanities 2022. He is a regular contributor to El País, El Correo and La Vanguardia.

We will live in an environment so populated by robots, algorithms and automatic decision-making systems that a new social contract between humans and machines will be necessary in the age of artificial intelligence. This is the world we are heading towards, and depending on how we shape it, it will either be a promise or a nightmare. In this essay, Innerarity proposes a new conception of the world of work and society, integrating robotics and automation before it consumes us.

Eurídice Cabañes (Valencia, 1983) is co-director of ARSGAMES, an international organisation focused on video games as a tool for social transformation. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid with the thesis "La tecnología en las fronteras" and teaches at several universities in Spain and Mexico. Founder and director of the Fábrica Digital El Rule (currently Laboratorio de Tecnologías) of the Secretaría de Cultura de la CDMX (2016-2018) and collaborator of the Centro Multimedia del CENART (2013-2015). She has curated many exhibitions including "Videojuegos, los dos lados de la pantalla" at Fundación Telefónica. Selected as one of the 100 Game Changers in 2020 by Gameindustry.

A sense of the posthumous dominates Humanity, a world of people who are asleep and strangers to themselves (the zombies) dwells at the gates of collapse. We need a new philosophy to re-inhabit the world, and that means unveiling the dark angles of dominant metaphors in our reality, such as "the cloud" and what lies behind the virtual world (dark patterns, algorithmic governance, technopolitics) in the search for a supportive and engaged technology.

Heike Freire is a philosopher, psychologist, teacher, researcher and international reference in educational transformation and human development in contact with Nature. For thirty years, she has been giving lectures and courses all over the world. She is the author of hundreds of articles and four reference work: Educar en verde. Ideas para acercar a niños y niñas a la naturaleza (Graó, 2011), translated into six languages; ¡Estate quieto y atiende!: Ambientes más saludables para prevenir los trastornos infantiles (Herder, 2017); Patios Vivos para renaturalizar la escuela (Octaedro, 2019) and Guía completa para guardianas del juego (2021). 

"Nobody has ever asked me about what it means to be human" says the character in this ethical fable that speaks to us about the uncertainty of our path of progress, the relationship between human beings and Nature, as well as the broken promise of the Promethean paradise due to arrogance. Twelve rooms that offer us a distorted mirror of the action we have unleashed on the evolution of our species and the planet.

Javier Echeverría (Pamplona, 1948) is a philosopher, mathematician and former professor of Logic and Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country and university lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, as well as a philosophical researcher at the CSIC and Ikerbasque. His books of essays include Telépolis (1994), Cosmopolitas domésticos (Premio Anagrama de Ensayo 1995) and Los Señores del Aire (Premio Nacional de Ensayo 2000), as well as Entre cavernas: de Platón al cerebro pasando por Internet (2013), El arte de innovar (2017) and Tecnopersonas: cómo nos cambian las tecnologías (con Lola S. Almendros, 2020 and 2023).

We live in a deepening digital Technopolis, where the market for nanotechnologies and artificial intelligences is growing in importance, sliding towards a technohumanity. The "lords of the clouds", owners of the big online platforms and services, like ancient feudal lords, are in control of our lives. Echeverría delves into the origin of this society, its consequences and the future that awaits us.

José Antonio Marina (Toledo, 1939) Philosopher, writer and pedagogue, Professor of Philosophy, winner of the National and Anagrama Essay Prize, the Giner de los Ríos Prize for Educational Innovation and the Camilo José Cela Independent Journalism Prize, as well as the Gold Medal of Castilla-La Mancha. Founder of Movilización Educativa, he chairs the Fundación Universidad de Padres and the Centauro Project, as well as directing the Centro de Estudios en Innovación y Dinámicas Educativas. In recent years he has become convinced that in order to understand what is human it is necessary to know its history, becoming a specialist in the so-called "science of the evolution of cultures".

We live in an age of distrust of truth, glorification of opinion, and weakening of attention. The result: we are much more manipulable and question reality less. Marina delves into the gratification mechanisms of social manipulation, the psychologism of happiness and educational uniformity, asking where we are heading and with what interests or ethical declarations.   

José Luis Villacañas (Úbeda, 1955) es catedrático de Filosofía de la UCM, y fue profesor de Filosofía Moral y Política de la Universidad de Murcia. Dirige el Proyecto de Investigación “Biblioteca Digital Saavedra Fajardo de pensamiento político hispano”, y las revistas Res Publica, Revista de historia de las ideas políticas, y Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía. Sus últimos libros son Luis Vives (Taurus, 2021), La revolución pasiva de Franco (Harper & Collins, 2022), Érase una vez España (Underwood, 2023), Ortega y Gasset, Una experiencia filosófica española (Escolar, 2023), y Sublime psíquico y educación estética (Santiago de Chile, 2023). 

Villacañas, basándose en la filosofía de Max Weber, profundiza en la situación geopolítica mundial, el final de una era sobre “un tren acelerado hacia ninguna parte”, en el que la lucha por el espacio virtual, la tentación apocalíptica y la debilidad de la democracia nos llevan a la necesidad de un nuevo concepto de responsabilidad, donde la pasión epimeteica es necesaria para ir hacia una mayor participación del individuo en la reforma social.  

Josefa Ros  ( Murcia 1987) es investigadora postdoctoral Marie Curie en la UCM, donde dirige el proyecto” Pre-bored. Well-being and prevention of boredom in Spanish nursing homes”, , además de doctora europea en Filosofía, especializada en los Estudios de Aburrimiento. Es fundadora y presidenta de la International Society of Boredom Studies y autora de La enfermedad del aburrimiento (2022, Alianza). Por sus logros académicos ha recibido distinciones como el Premio Nacional de Investigación María Moliner (2022), el Premio Julián Marías (2020) o el Lincoln Book Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Service de la Universidad de Harvard (2019).

La vocación de la filosofía desde siempre ha sido darnos un conjunto de herramientas para enfrentarnos al “absolutismo de la realidad”, la fugacidad de la vida y los peligros de la incertidumbre creciente, señas de nuestro tiempo. Por eso, Ros nos da las claves de su filosofía del cuidado, basada en un sentimiento comunitario que consiste en cuidarnos: saber que serás cuidado y que cuidarás. Una nueva forma de mitigar el dolor y alcanzar cierta paz interior.

Victoria Camps (Barcelona, 1941) es catedrática emérita de Filosofía Moral y Política. Senadora independiente por el PSOE, presidenta de los Comités de Bioética de España y Cataluña y consejera permanente de Estado. Entre sus libros destacan Virtudes públicas (Premio Espasa de Ensayo 1990), El gobierno de las emociones (Premio Nacional de Ensayo 2011), Breve Historia de la Ética, La fragilidad de una ética liberal, Elogio de la duda, La búsqueda de la felicidad, Tiempo de cuidados.

Camps se hace eco de Hannah Arendt para caracterizar la experiencia de estar viviendo en “tiempos oscuros”, donde los puntos de referencia se han hecho añicos y reina el desconcierto, la confusión y la incertidumbre. El ser humano no parece estar equipado para situarse entre el pasado y el futuro si no quiere desprenderse de su humanidad y, a la vez, crear un concepto de libertad nuevo que aúne la individualidad y el sentimiento colectivo. 

Ángel Gabilondo (San Sebastián, 1949), catedrático de Filosofía en la UAM, donde desempeñó su labor docente y de la que fue rector. En el ámbito político, ha sido ministro de Educación, así como diputado y portavoz del PSOE en la Asamblea de Madrid y, actualmente, es defensor del pueblo. Ha estado a cargo de la edición y traducción de numerosos libros y artículos. Entre sus obras se encuentran: Trazos del eros: del leer, hablar y escribir (1997), Menos que palabras (1999), La vuelta del otro. Diferencia, identidad y alteridad (2001), Palabras a mano (2010) o Ser de palabra. El lenguaje de la Metafísica (2015, con Gabriel Aranzueque). 

“La libertad está en saber que no todo está en nuestras manos”, nos dice Gabilondo en este ensayo. Ansiamos aún más el control y, sin embargo, en un mundo donde la tecnología, la biología o el lenguaje está cambiando al ser humano, es necesario saber qué es ser humano, y de qué nos estamos despidiendo para ir, o quizá no, hacia otra parte y otra manera de ser o no ser.