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.

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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