Can We Imagine Our Way to a Better Future?

In collaboration with Issues in Science and Technology
Cover Image
It’s 2014 and we have no flying cars, no Mars colonies, no needle-less injections, and yet plenty of smartphone dating apps. Is our science fiction to blame if we find today’s science and technology less than dazzling? Inspired by Neal Stephenson’s 2011 article “Innovation Starvation,” in which he argues that science fiction is failing to supply our scientists and engineers with inspiration, and the new anthology Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, this event will explore a more ambitious narrative about what’s coming. From the tales we tell about robots and drones, to the narratives on the cutting edge of neuroscience, to society’s view of its most intractable problems, we need to begin telling a new set of stories about ourselves and the future.

Breakfast and lunch will be served.

If you are unable to join us in person, please tune in to the live webcast. No signup is required to view the streaming video, which will appear on this page. 

Join the conversation online using #abetterfuture and by following @FutureTenseNow.

Agenda

9:00 a.m.               Can We Imagine Our Way to a Better Future? 

Neal Stephenson 
Author, “Atmosphæra Incognita,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future 
Author, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age

9:15 a.m.               Delivery Drones and Robot Babysitters

Ryan Calo
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington
 
Patric Verrone
Writer and producer, Futurama
 
Dan Kaufman
Director, Information Innovation Office, DARPA
 
Moderator: 
Kathryn Cramer
Editor, Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
 
10:00 a.m.             Who and What Will Get to Think in the Future?

Ted Chiang
Author, Stories of Your Life and Others

Moderator: 
Ed Finn
Director, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
 
10:20 a.m.            Neuroscience and the Future of Ethics

Elizabeth Bear
Author, “Covenant,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
 
Jonathan D. Moreno
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania 
 
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Author, “Girl in Wave: Wave in Girl,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future 

Moderator: 
Jamelle Bouie
Staff writer, Slate
 
11:05 a.m.            Who Gets to Imagine for the Human Race?
 
Tom Kalil
Deputy Director for Policy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy 
 
Laurie Silvers
Founder, SyFy Channel and Hollywood Media

Moderator: 
Bill O’Brien
Senior Adviser for Program Innovation, National Endowment for the Arts

11:50 a.m.             Lost in Space: How Should We Approach Our Final Frontier?

Ellen Stofan
Chief Scientist, NASA 

Neal Stephenson
Author, “Atmosphæra Incognita,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
 
Moderator: 
Patric Verrone
Writer and producer, Futurama
 
12:35 p.m.             Lunch
 
1:00 p.m.               Reimagining the Future of the Internet, Surveillance, and Privacy
 
Barton Gellman
Reporter at the Washington Post covering the Snowden papers
Author, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency
 
Madeline Ashby
Author, “By the Time We Get to Arizona,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
 
Kevin Bankston
Policy Director, Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation
 
Moderator: 
Kristal Lauren High
Co-founder and Editor in Chief, Politic365

1:45 p.m.               Visions of an Alternative Internet
 
Lee Konstantinou
Author, “Johnny Appledrone vs. the FAA,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

2:00 p.m.               Can Stories Solve Wicked Problems that are Bigger than our Imagination?

Vandana Singh
Author, “Entanglement,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future 
 
David Rejeski
Director, Science & Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
 
Karl Schroeder
Author, “Degrees of Freedom,” Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future
 
Moderator:
Dan Sarewitz
Co-Director, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes 

2:45 p.m.               Does Your Government Have an Imagination?
 
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren
House of Representatives, CA-19

Event Time and Location

Thursday, October 2, 2014 - 9:00am - 3:15pm
Keck Center of the National Acadamies
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Add to Your Calendar

Related Programs