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. From 2010 to 2013, Wood was Technology Planning Lead (CTO) of Accenture Mobility. 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 organised 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). He was also the lead editor of the volume Anticipating 2025: A guide to the radical changes that may lie ahead, whether or not we're ready (June 2014), and two collections of essays by Transpolitica consultants: Anticipating Tomorrow's Politics (March 2015) and Envisioning Politics 2.0 (June 2015). 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.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn outstanding book on the new style of politics in the age of exponential growth of technology and Artificial Intelligence
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 April 2018
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Everyone has his favourite books. This one will make it on my shelf of special books. One might think that this is a book predominantly about the future. Yes, it is. But for me the most inspiring part of the book relates to the author’s view of the present. For example his assessment of us as humans, how our biological traits shape our emotions and political decisions, is truly remarkable. That’s why I think the chapter ‘Democracy and Inclusion’ is the most inspiring. This is perhaps best shown when he discusses the reasons why people voted for Brexit and what were the underlying themes of the populists that won the hearts of Brexit voters. It is this objective, calm and very well-reasoned set of arguments that makes this book outstanding. The reader will also find very captivating the author’s views on the future of Humanity, including his description of potential impact of exponential growth of technology on human progress. However, for most readers of this type of books, the most interesting theme could be the author’s views on the changes needed in the relationships between the governed and the governing to reshape the politics of the future if we are to mitigate successfully a plethora of existential risks facing Humanity. David Wood’s scenarios for the future are so convincing that I am sure this book will become a must-read for anyone engaged in politics or interested in the future of Humanity.
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat ideas about how to improve politics and mankinds future
Reviewed in Germany on 10 April 2019
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I liked the book a lot as it gave me plenty of new ideas how we could improve politics and what good politics should strive for especially in the long term (which ist mostly neglected by normal parties). I liked the positive outlook: "Fixing politics will become much easier once a compelling, integrative vision of a sustainable transhumanist future has become widespread – a convincing account of how technology can be harnessed for profound positive progress; an energising account that inspires coordinated action in support of that future."