Ajaz Ahmed: AKQA Founder on Design & Innovation
Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.
In December 2020, we published in the journal nature that we could turn on 3 genes in mice, that are normally only switched on in embryos. By doing this, we could reverse the age of complex tissues in adult mice. We used this system to restore eyesight to blind, old, mice!
For me, freedom is living outside social norms, realising that power structures are an illusion and realising that the rules we put on ourselves and others are also illusions. Freedom means that we realise that we don't subscribe to illusions, and free ourselves from dogma.
Today, policies are sold to us largely on the basis of fear, or fear mitigation: from immigration to climate change, from health services to defence. It's less about promoting a progressive vision of the future and more about playing to our fears of what might happen if we don't toe a particular line.
In the last 20 years I believe I have become a hybrid entrepreneur – believing in the power of technology and process, but also in the very deep humanistic point of view. I guess it's a weird mix of Italian with Silicon Valley.
Child labour is one of the worst violations of human rights, it's an affirmation that we don't respect the freedom and dignity of children in our society.
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