“Most influential economist of the last decade.”
-The Economist.

Tyler Cowen is the Holbert C. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University. Foreign Policy named him one of 2011’s Top 100 Global Thinkers. Cowen shows the economic, financial, and demographic forces which will determine the winners and losers of the next decade in fields as different as healthcare,...

“These systems [drones that can pilot themselves or autonomous weapons programmed with some measure of ‘ethics’] can be designed appropriately and used in situations appropriately to reduce collateral damage significantly.”

Ronald C. Arkin is Regents’ Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech and is the Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory. He served as STINT visiting Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sabbatical Chair at the Sony Intelligence Dynamics...

“Man is the greatest promise and the greatest threat to man. We are in the greatest transformative process of humanity, which may open the doors of post-humanism. But the same technologies that are going to enable that leap also carry great risks. In a way, we are like babies playing with explosives.”

Nick Bostrom is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University. He is the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute, a multidisciplinary research center which enables a few exceptional mathematicians, philosophers, and scientists to think about global priorities and big questions for humanity. Bostrom has a background...

“It is strange to me that most people assume companies will be imperfect (as they are), but they assume that government agencies will be perfect, which they are not.”

Matt Ridley is the author of provocative books on evolution, genetics and society. He argues that human beings’ ability to connect, collaborate and co-operate gives our species an often underestimated capacity for change and social progress. Matt worked for The Economist for nine years as science editor, was a Washington...

“No one who cares about the future of human dignity can afford to skip [Rise of the Robots].”
-Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget.

Martin Ford is the founder of a Silicon Valley-based software development firm. Explores the ways in which “robots” and other technological advances are outpacing humans in all kinds of sectors, from education to law to agriculture to healthcare to management and beyond. He offers a realistic view of what...

“Don’t blame technology for persistent unemployment. A more likely culprit is the move to austerity in economic policy.”

James Bessen is an economist who studies technology and innovation policy. He has also been a successful innovator and CEO of a software company. Currently, Bessen is a Lecturer in Law at the Boston University School of Law, where he heads a research project studying the impact of technology on...