At SU, our Faculty continually come across great content that provokes fascinating discussions among ourselves and with those of you who attend our programs. Here are a few of the items that we found fascinating this month.
This leader from The Economist is a call to action to actually have a bit of fun while training your brain to explore possible futures (yes, including for your business). As a writer, I already know that fiction, including science fiction, is a powerful weapon in any thinker’s arsenal: it’s a sandbox to safely wrestle with the big questions and the small—and to find your way to more insightful questions. I discussed the power of sci-fi in this recent podcast. Prime your mind and then check out this year’s outstanding entries in The Economist’s special series The World If, and don’t forget about other global voices too. Hooked? Here’s my short sci-fi story for the SingularityU Canada Summit edition of SciFi@SU. Check out other sci-fi from the SUniverse in that edition, and keep an eye out for more sci-fi from SU!
Yes, it’s important to look forward, but there’s also a great deal to be learned by looking back. As a lovely example of how history, tech, and everyday life intersect, in this SU Blog post my fellow SU Faculty member Darlene Damm dives deep into often-overlooked contributions from Robert Goddard’s wife, Esther, to the early rocket industry. By guiding us through the links between this story and her own childhood, Darlene highlights the human elements that shine in this tech tale: tenacity, kindness, and collaboration being just three of them. Search no further for your next “hidden figure” to share with your family and your business.
Last month, I prompted you to read a stunning essay in MIT Tech Review from Roy Scranton about the coming climate apocalypse. Follow that up now with The Guardian’s interviews with four scientists trying to avert disaster. Spoiler alert: buy less, drive less, go vegetarian, eliminate plastic, reduce your footprint—and stop flying (yes, I said it). By now that probably all sounds familiar, not to mention daunting, but take a few moments to explore how you can positively impact the future of our radically changing planet and the billions of people who will be living on it … including you.