David Wood

Futurist David Wood on Transcending Politics: A Better Politics is Beckoning Us Forward

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“There’s no escape: the journey to a healthier society inevitably involves politics.” This is how well-known futurist David Wood starts his most recent book Transcending Politics: A Technoprogressive Roadmap to a Comprehensively Better Future. And so I thought I’d bring him back on Singularity.FM to share with us how exactly is it he suggests that we transcend politics.

During our 2 hours 15 min conversation with David Wood we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why politics is the future of technology; why technology is not enough; why intelligence is not enough; the thesis of Transcending Politics; humanism, transhumanism and transpolitics; techno-libertarian and techno-progressive transhumanism; smart politics and lean regulation; H+pedia as a shared transhumanist knowledge base; the scientific method and other pillars for transcending politics; human nature and eugenics; AI and technological unemployment; bitcoin and blockchain; humanity’s grand challenges and global governance; going beyong the transhumanist narrative…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with David Wood is:

A better politics is possible. A better politics is beckoning us forward. And it is up to each of us to hear that call and figure out how to get involved in it.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation or become a patron on Patreon.

 

Who is David Wood?

David W. Wood, D.Sc., was one of the pioneers of the smartphone industry. He is now a futurist consultant, speaker and writer.

Wood spent 25 years designing, implementing, and avidly using smart mobile devices. This includes ten years with PDA manufacturer Psion PLC, and ten more with smartphone operating system specialist Symbian Ltd, which he co-founded in 1998. At different times, his executive responsibilities included software development, technical consulting, developer evangelism, partnering and ecosystem management, and research and innovation. His software for UI and application frameworks was included on 500 million smartphones from companies such as Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, Sharp, Siemens, and Panasonic.

Wood is CEO of the independent futurist consultancy and publisher Delta Wisdom. Delta Wisdom helps clients to anticipate the dramatic impact of rapidly changing technology on human individuals and communities and highlights opportunities to apply technology in new solutions to deep-rooted problems.

As chair of London Futurists, Wood has organized regular meetings in London since March 2008 on futurist and technoprogressive topics. Membership of London Futurists reached 7,000 in February 2018.

Wood’s previous books include Smartphones and Beyond: Lessons from the remarkable rise and fall of Symbian (published in September 2014) and The Abolition of Aging: The forthcoming radical extension of healthy human longevity (May 2016).

Wood founded the political think tank Transpolitica in January 2015.

Wood has a triple first class mathematics degree from Cambridge and undertook doctoral research in the Philosophy of Science. He has an honorary Doctorate in Science from Westminster University. In 2009 he was included in T3’s list of “100 most influential people in technology”. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in London since 2005, a Director of Humanity+ since November 2013, and a Fellow of the IEET (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies) since January 2015.

He blogs at dw2blog.com and tweets as @dw2

Futurist David Wood on Transhumanism: Radical Change Lies Ahead

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David Wood YouTubeDavid Wood is the chair of London Futurists and on the Humanity+ board of directors. He is an eminent futurist whose valuable newsletter I myself have been subscribed to for several years now and so I was very happy that, at long last, we managed to sit down for a proper interview. Not surprisingly, I found our conversation both intellectually enlightening and spiritually entertaining. So block off the next 90 min because I believe you may feel the same way too.

During our conversation with David Wood, we cover a variety of interesting topics such as his background in mathematics, quantum mechanics, and mobile computing; his take on futurism and transhumanism; the importance of philosophy in general and ethics in particular; free will, determinism, making choices and taking action; P+, Transpolitica and the importance of (changing) politics; the singularity and our chances of surviving it; capitalism, abundance, and technological unemployment…

My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with David Wood is:

Radical change lies ahead. We have to be better at discussing that change. If we are aware of the possibilities – we’ll prepare for them. But even more – we’ll be able to shape them. So let’s put more of our attention not in the past, not in the present, but into discussing the future. Let’s all become futurists so that radical change ahead is something we’ll be happy to embrace when it comes rather than something we wish we had anticipated and prepared for differently.

As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full. To show your support you can write a review on iTunes, make a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

Who is David Wood?

DWW April 2015After 25 years immersed in the mobile computing and smartphone industries – envisioning, architecting, designing, implementing, and avidly using smart mobile devices – David Wood nowadays focuses his efforts on improving the quality of the global discussion about the future. He does this via:

In 1988 David joined the UK-based manufacturer of some of the world’s earliest PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), Psion, as a software developer (later software architect). Some of his software, written originally for the 16-bit “EPOC” operating system and subsequently ported into the 32-bit “Symbian OS”, shipped in half a billion smartphones between 2001 and 2012.

In 1998, David co-founded Symbian, a spin-out from Psion, and the creator of the world’s first successful smartphone operating system. He served on the leadership teams of Psion Software and Symbian from 1996-2009. At different times, his executive responsibilities included software development, technical consulting, developer evangelism, partnering and ecosystem management, and research and innovation. This included working closely with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sharp, Fujitsu, Siemens, and many other high-tech companies.

David was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in June 2005. In November 2005 he received an honorary Doctorate in Science (D.Sc.) from the University of Westminster, in recognition of his services to the smartphone industry. He was named in September 2009 by T3 magazine as one of the 100 most influential technologists on the planet.

From 2010 to 2013, David was Technology Planning Lead (CTO) of Accenture Mobility, and co-led Accenture’s “Mobility Health” business initiative.

As chair of London Futurists, David has organized regular meetings in London since March 2008 on futurist and technoprogressive topics. Membership of London Futurists now exceeds 3,400.

David was lead editor of the volume “Anticipating 2025: A guide to the radical changes that may lie ahead, whether or not we’re ready”, published in June 2014. His own book “Smartphones and beyond: lessons from the remarkable rise and fall of Symbian” was published in September 2014, and has been described as “One of the most candid and revealing books a technology executive has ever written”.

In January 2015 he founded the think tank Transpolitica, with the aim of “anticipating tomorrow’s politics”. He also serves as Treasurer for the Transhumanist Party in the UK and as a Fellow of the IEET. He has a triple first class degree in mathematics from Cambridge (UK) and completed four years of postgraduate research in the Philosophy of Science.