Andrew Crofts on The Change Agent, the Ghostwriter, and the Singularity

Socrates /

Posted on: February 2, 2011 / Last Modified: December 11, 2021

A couple of months ago I saw Roman Polanski’s film The Ghost Writer based on the titular bestselling book by Robert Harris. At the time, I could hardly imagine that only a couple of months after the movie premiere I will be communicating with Andrew Crofts – the archetype ghostwriter on whom Ewan McGregor’s character was most probably based upon.

Andrew wrote a popular guest article for SingularityWeblog.com where he shared the story behind his latest book The Change Agent: How to Create a Wonderful World.

The book talks about the life and ideas of Andrew’s archetype change agent – James Martin, a world-renowned futurist, computer scientist, author, lecturer, and, among many other things, the largest donor in the history of Oxford University. (Most recently, James Martin produced a pivotal documentary film called The Meaning of the 21st Century. It is based on Martin’s titular book and examines the major perils and promises that humanity faces in the 21st century such as climate change, the technological singularity, and others.)

Given the relevance of Andrew’s topic and the success of his guest blog post, I decided to ask him to do an interview for Singularity 1 on 1. We ended up having a 46-minute conversation during which we discussed a variety of interesting topics such as Andrew’s experience as a guest on James Martin’s private island; the story behind, the accuracy and the goals of Crofts’ book The Change Agent; James Martin‘s life and ideas in general and his take on the future of humanity, technology and the singularity in particular.

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 iTunesmake a direct donation, or become a patron on Patreon.

Andrew Crofts on Singularity 1 on 1 (full video)

Who is Andrew Crofts?

Andrew Crofts has published more than 80 books over 4o years as an author and ghostwriter, many of which have become international number-one bestsellers. His subject matters and co-authors have ranged from billionaires to bonded laborers, reality television stars to the rulers of medium-sized countries, rock stars to bar girls. He is also a travel writer, a business writer and a published novelist.

Browse More

Why I went Vegan

Our Future, AI and Veganism: 6 Reasons Why I Went Vegan

Socrates

It’s Ethics. Not Tech Ethics.

Dr. Martin Shaw

Modern Bard Dr. Martin Shaw: Be a Story-maker for Your Times

Kevin-Kelly-by-Christopher-Michel-7

Kevin Kelly on Wisdom and Excellent Advice for Living

Émile Torres Preview

Émile Torres on Transhumanism, Longtermism and Existential Risks

Nikolas Badminton on Facing Our Futures

Nikolas Badminton on Facing Our Futures: Futurism is Activism

Greatest Leadership Opportunity Preview

My NBF Contest Pitch: The Greatest Leadership Opportunity of the 21st Century

Massimo Pigliucci on Character and Virtue

Massimo Pigliucci on Story, Virtue, Character and AI