Speaker
Jamais Cascio writes about the intersection of emerging technologies and cultural transformation, and specializes in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future. His work focuses on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, particularly regarding the environment and technological development. A recurring theme in his writing is the importance of openness, transparency, and flexibility as a toolkit for social and technological progress.
In 2003, he co-founded worldchanging.com the award-winning website dedicated to finding and calling attention to models, tools and ideas for building a "bright green" future. In his time at Worldchanging, Cascio covered topics including urban design, climate science, renewable energy, open source models, emerging technologies, social networks, "leapfrog" global development, and much more.
In 2004, Cascio was selected as a founding Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. In March 2006, he started Open The Future as his online home. Cascio has worked in the field of scenario development for over a decade. After several years as technology specialist at Global Business Network, he went on to craft a wide array of scenarios on topics including energy, nuclear proliferation, and sustainable development. In 2007, he served as lead author on the Metaverse Roadmap Overview, a cross-industry examination of the next decade's evolution of online technologies He is currently an affiliate at the Institute for the Future, and serves as the Global Futures Strategist for the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.
His work on the carbon footprint of the cheeseburger has been the subject of stories on BBC World Service and National Geographic television, among others. Cascio has spoken about future possibilities around the world, at venues including South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas, FuturShow3000 in Bologna, Italy, and the TED 2006 conference, "The Future We Will Create," in Monterey, California.
Cascio lives outside of San Francisco, California, with his wife, two cats, four Macs, and the inevitable hybrid car.
