Eric Schmidt & Jared Cohen - The Digital Disruption: Connectivity and the Diffusion of Power (2010-2014)

 

Intro

 

The advent and power of connection technologies—tools that connect people to vast amounts of information and to one another—will make the twenty-first century all about surprises. Governments will be caught off-guard when large numbers of their citizens, armed with virtually nothing but cell phones, take part in mini-rebellions that challenge their authority. For the media, reporting will increasingly become a collaborative enterprise between traditional news organizations and the quickly growing number of citizen journalists. And technology companies will find themselves outsmarted by their competition and surprised by consumers who have little loyalty and no patience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Max More & Natasha Vita-More - The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (2013)

Description

The first authoritative and comprehensive survey of the origins and current state of transhumanist thinking.

The rapid pace of emerging technologies is playing an increasingly important role in overcoming fundamental human limitations. Featuring core writings by seminal thinkers in the speculative possibilities of the posthuman condition, essays address key philosophical arguments for and against human enhancement, explore the inevitability of life extension, and consider possible solutions to the growing issues of social and ethical implications and concerns. Edited by the internationally acclaimed founders of the philosophy and social movement of transhumanism, The Transhumanist Reader is an indispensable guide to our current state of knowledge of the quest to expand the frontiers of human nature.

 

Jacques Attali - Europe on the world stage in the 21st century (1993)

 

Info

 

Jacques Attali was born in France in 1943. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Mines, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and the Ecole Nationale de l’Administration. In 1972, Attali received a PhD in economics from the University Paris Dauphine. He then taught economic theory at the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées and the University of Paris-Dauphine.

In 1973, Attali directed François Mitterrand's unsuccessful presidential political campaign and then became his main chief of staff in the opposition. In 1981, Mitterrand was elected President and named Attali as his special adviser.

Attali co-founded the international NGO Action Contre la Faim in 1979 and in 1980 he founded Eurêka, the European technology focused programme. In 1989, he launched an international programme of action against the disastrous floods in Bangladesh. Attali also advised the Secretary General of the United Nations on the risks of nuclear proliferation.

In 1991, Attali became the founder and first President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. He is currently CEO of A&A, an international consulting firm in strategy, based in Paris, and President of Positive Planet, an international non-profit organisation assisting microfinance institutions all over the world.

Attali delivered the Beatty Lecture on March 5, 1993 titled "Europe on the World Stage in the Twenty-First Century".