Speaker

2021 - Human advantage in an age of technology and turmoil

Don’t just think deep, think wide.

From pandemics to populism, AI to ISIS, wealth inequity to climate change, humanity faces unprecedented challenges that threaten our very existence. But how we see them affects how we respond and lets us uncover hidden options that expand our thinking.

Kenneth Cukier is world renowned journalist and writer for The Economist will talk about how humans have a unique cognitive ability to frame — to create mental models that allow us to spot patterns, make predictions and grasp new situations. While computers may now excel at reasoning and judgement, framing is unique to humans.

Blending fascinating stories with cutting-edge research, Kenneth will explain why it’s useless to try to think outside the box, how Spotify beat Apple by framing music as experience, how the #metoo movement reframed the perception of sexual assault from silence to solidarity, and how framing Covid-19 as seasonal flu led to disaster whereas framing it as SARS delivered New Zealand from the pandemic.