In this lecture, Andrew Maynard will examine how current science and technology are now so sophisticated that they offer vast opportunities for innovation. Yet there is a growing danger that, as we flex our future-building muscles, our obsession with what is possible blinds us to what is necessary and important. Drawing on his recent book Future Rising and building on concepts from bounded infinities and quantum tunneling, to “base code” manipulation, Maynard will explore the need to think beyond the bounds of convention as we reconsider and redefine our relationship with the future, and what this means for higher education.

Andrew Maynard is a scientist, author, and internationally recognized expert and thought-leader in emerging technologies and their responsible and ethical development and use.

He is a Professor in the Arizona State University School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Associate Dean for Curricula and Student Success in the ASU College of Global Futures at Arizona State University, and Director of the ASU Risk Innovation Lab.

Professor Maynard is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, serves as co-chair of the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Science Board of Trustees, and is a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research President’s Research Council.

He is a prolific writer on technology, society and the future, and is 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.”