Reimagining the Future of the Internet, Surveillance, and Privacy
Channel: New America
Date: 2014-10-06

It’s 2014 and we have no flying cars, no Mars colonies, no needle-less injections, and yet plenty of smartphone dating apps. Is our science fiction to blame if we find today’s science and technology less than dazzling? Inspired by Neal Stephenson’s 2011 article “Innovation Starvation,” in which he argues that science fiction is failing to supply our scientists and engineers with inspiration, and the new anthology Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, this event will explore a more ambitious narrative about what’s coming. From the tales we tell about robots and drones, to the narratives on the cutting edge of neuroscience, to society’s view of its most intractable problems, we need to begin telling a new set of stories about ourselves and the future.

Join the conversation online using #abetterfuture and by following @FutureTenseNow.

With:
Barton Gellman
Reporter at the Washington Post covering the Snowden papers
Author, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency

Madeline Ashby
Author, “By the Time We Get to Arizona,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

Kevin Bankston
Policy Director, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation

Moderator:
Kristal Lauren High
Co-founder and Editor in Chief, Politic365

http://www.newamerica.org/future-tense/can-we-imagine-our-way-to-a-better-future/?=123