Roger Spitz to speak at TEDxJacksonville 2027 on Techistentialism

AI futurist Roger Spitz will bring his Techistentialism framework to TEDxJacksonville on Jan. 16, 2027, in Jacksonville, Florida. The talk will center on human agency in an AI era, as algorithms move from recommending decisions to executing them.

Why it matters: - Roger Spitz’s TEDxJacksonville appearance pushes his Techistentialism framework into a public forum at a moment when AI systems are increasingly making or executing decisions. - The talk focuses on a practical question with broad stakes: whether people keep control of judgment, agency and choice as machines take on more decision-making. - TEDxJacksonville’s 2027 theme, "You Are Here," centers on presence and growth, which fits Spitz’s argument that futures are shaped by the decisions people make now.

What happened: - TEDxJacksonville announced Spitz as part of its 2027 speaker lineup in October 2026. - Spitz is scheduled to speak on Saturday, Jan. 16, 2027, at Lazzara Performance Hall at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. - TEDxJacksonville is in its 14th conference year and is independently organized under license from TED. - TEDxJacksonville lists Spitz as “Futurist & Techistentialist.”

The details: - Spitz coined Techistentialism in 2016 as a blend of technology and existentialism. - He named his San Francisco foresight practice Techistential in 2017 and formally established the firm in 2019. - The philosophy entered academic literature in his 2020 paper, "The Future of Strategic Decision-Making," in the Journal of Futures Studies. - He expanded the idea with Rauli Nykänen in Leadership for the Future in 2021. - Techistentialism also runs through Spitz’s books, including The Definitive Guide to Thriving on Disruption and Disrupt With Impact. - Spitz founded the Techistential Center for Human & Artificial Intelligence in San Francisco to research AI’s impacts, governance and ethics. - The framework broadens the idea of technological risk to include reduced human autonomy, not just physical threats. - In 2026, Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center published Spitz’s essay, “Will superstupidity be as dangerous as superintelligence?” in Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age. - GovTech and a Forbes contributor later carried the argument forward. - Spitz said he has delivered more than 500 keynotes to boards, executive teams, investors and governments. - Spitz said TEDx requires a different format: one idea, about a dozen minutes, no jargon and a general audience.

Between the lines: - Spitz is reframing the AI debate away from machine superiority and toward human passivity. - His core warning is that the bigger risk may be people outsourcing judgment so often that they stop exercising it. - The TEDx stage gives Spitz a chance to translate a niche philosophical concept into a mainstream argument about daily decision-making. - The move also marks a shift from boardrooms and academic journals to a wider public audience.

What's next: - Spitz’s talk will draw on his flagship keynote, The Intelligence Shift: Upgrading Human Decision-Making in the Age of AI. - That keynote is the second of three in his Visionary Trilogy, alongside The Mindset Shift and The Leadership Shift. - The Intelligence Shift argues that the key risk in AI is not only trusting machines, but surrendering agency, freedom and choice. - Spitz’s 2026 speaking schedule included Meta’s Conversations 2026 in London, RSA Conference and Cloudflare’s Trust Forward Summit in San Francisco, the World Economic Forum in Geneva, MIT Technology Review’s EmTech in Brazil, PREA’s Fall Conference in Washington, DC, the Instituto de Directores de Chile Board Directors’ Summit in Santiago, and RIMS in Columbus, Ohio. - His keynote calendar is expected to continue into 2027 across corporations, financial institutions, technology companies, governance institutes and policy councils. - The Techistential Center for Human & Artificial Intelligence opened its 2026-2027 research program in September 2026. - Planned outputs include board briefings, a delegation-versus-abdication diagnostic and research notes through 2027. - Tickets and program information are available through TEDxJacksonville.