About “The Future of Being Human”
The Future of Being Human is a Substack written and curated by me, Andrew Maynard. I’m a professor of Advanced Technology Transitions at Arizona State University and Director of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative
The Substack focuses on my research, thinking and observations at the intersection between emerging technologies, society, and the future, and represents one of the keystones of the ASU Future of being Human initiative.
If you want to get a sense of my approach to thinking and writing about tech and the future, it’s worth reading the About page and Guiding Principles from the Future of Being Human initiative website. In essence though, I passionately believe that we need to create spaces where people can come together to grapple with the complexities of the world we’re creating without fear of being shut down, or marginalized, or shamed, or having their ideas measured against rigid ideologies. Rather, I believe we need to embrace uncertainty, messiness, and the insights that come from having the freedom and permission to talk with each other about the future, no matter who we are or where we come from.
In reading this Substack, you will of course begin to realize that I do have my own idiosyncrasies. But to spell some of this out, I believe in putting people before profits, in striving for the good of the many, in supporting people who are marginalized and excluded, in embracing the idea that it’s what you do and not what you’re seen to do that counts, in kindness and compassion and humility, and in building futures together where everyone has the opportunity to thrive on their own terms.
I also dislike rigid and inflexible thinking, preachiness, hubris, and a refusal to listen to and learn from others.
In other words, if any of this worries you, you might not want to subscribe — but I’d hope you do anyway as the world would be immeasurably poorer if we can’t agree to disagree and learn from each other.
With that rather long preamble, on to the substance of this Substack. Navigating the landscape around transformative technologies, society and the future is complex and messy — ever more so these days it seems with the accelerating pace of innovation and social change. As a result, this Substack grapples with a very wide array of topics, and often draws threads between them in unexpected ways. For instance it touches on developments in artificial intelligence a lot, simply because AI is near-impossible to escape at the moment and is integrated with so many other areas. But it also encompasses biotech, automation, education, neurotech, nanotech, and a whole lot more — including new ways of grappling with what it means to be human in a world where old ways of thinking seem to be less and less relevant.
It also connects with the Future of Being Human podcast Modem Futura which, if anything, is even broader!
I mention this because if you are just here for a thin slice of thinking around one particular topic or technology, this Substack probably isn’t for you.
But if you are curious about broad and interconnected perspectives around how emerging technologies are transforming the world and what this might mean for society — and even what it means to be human — please do join me and subscribe.
You probably won’t want to read every post, but at least you’ll be the first to know when something interesting comes along!
A little bit more about me
By way of background, I’m a scientist, author, professor of advanced technology transitions at Arizona State University, and founder of ASU’s Future of Being Human initiative. I’m interested in a lot of stuff, including understanding and exploring our individual and collective relationships with the future and how our actions influence these.
Along with a bunch of other things I’m the author of the books Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies, and Future Rising: A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow, as well as a co-host of the Modem Futura podcast.
If you want to know more, do check me out at andrewmaynard.net or head over to my academic page at ASU.
Cheers
Andrew Maynard
