Innovation, Play & the Future of Technology

Talk by Steven Johnson, author of “Wonderland : How Play Made the Modern World.”

Steven Johnson, the international best-selling author of How We Got To Now, whose TED talk has had over 1 million views, in a talk on innovation and the future of technology seen through the history of play: the subject of his major new book, praised by Bill Clinton, Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell- Wonderland : How Play Made the Modern World.

If want to know where technology is headed you should be playing close attention to the way we play. You’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun. Contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change, Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.

He will introduce us to the colourful innovators of leisure: the explorers, proprietors, showmen, and artists who changed the trajectory of history with their luxurious wares, exotic meals, taverns, gambling tables, and magic shows. And will make the compelling case that anyone who wants to know where technology is headed next should be playing close attention to the way we play.