Society

Today, there is uncertainty like we've never seen before. We are not only facing economic risks, but real social, political, geopolitical, technological, and environmental risks too.

Economist known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis.

People are unable to keep secrets for long – somebody tells somebody who tells somebody else, before you know it they are writing a tell-all book or going out on TV shows to talk about it! That's how it happens, that is how things are exposed.

Founder of The Skeptics Society & Science Communicator

Look at it this way, there's practically no friction to sign-up to DoorDash as a dasher. If you have a car or bike, you can start dashing in hours, and earning money. You can use it to complement other work that you have and fill the gaps so to speak. So many people are doing this now, across so many businesses, that we have to codify it properly into law.

We're creating a different type of work. The average Dasher dashes for about four hours a week, and very often they're trying to save-up for something and use it as a supplement to their income. We believe that flexibility should exist, and that benefits earned should be portable and proportional to the amount of work you're doing on each platform.

Be ashamed to die unless you have won some victory for humanity. Nobody should make the world worse off for their having lived in it. Everyone has the obligation to add their brick to the edifice of civilisation, and whether that brick is big or small, it means you have contributed to building- not destroying.

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium

People ask why we're spending money on space exploration when we have problems here on Earth. The first reaction I have to this the fact that we've had wars, poverty, and homelessness long-before anyone went into space. It's not accurate to say, 'we're doing space exploration, and that's why we have poverty.' If we stopped space exploration, those problems wouldn't be solved, they haven't been solved in thousands of years.

Renowned Astrophysicist & Director of Hayden Planetarium

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were play attention games – they reward creators with 'status points,' likes, retweets and quote tweets for example. Those rewards come to those who are best at monopolising attention… that's not the same thing as telling the truth or acting in good faith. The things that get rewarded in those systems are things that provoke, divide and drive outrage – so we end up with a broken media economy that drives us all crazy and doesn't represent the best version of ourselves.

We have learned that the things that matter are not the physical, and material things. What matters in life is hope. Tomorrow is not a given, and we must be happy about small things and we must seize the day.

Ukrainian politician and head of Servant of the People party faction

Hope is the only choice I have. What gives me hope is that people are able to find love and humanity in their hearts in spite of everything that is happening here in Ukraine.

Ukrainian politician and head of Servant of the People party faction

All you have to do is walk through an airport, for example, and notice that it is very difficult to navigate through it. You will encounter humans (almost statue like) who are glued – looking at their mobile phones, unaware of what is happening around them, because they are addicted to their technology. That is by design that people are addicted to technology.

Neuroethicist & Duke Law professor specializing in neurorights and genetics policy

I hope that the totality of what I've done, or that which Freada and I have done together, really gives people a sense of hope and possibility, in a practical way, that business can be a constructive force in the world and genuinely help make the world a better place for everyone.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

We have lived through an era where success has been defined only in financial terms- leaving out any consideration of the impact of business on communities or the world. Just because accounting standards don't require you to measure certain things, doesn't mean those things aren't real.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

Most of the venture backed businesses, and venture capital firms, are a mirror-tocracy not a meritocracy! Senior executives are disproportionately drawn from a narrow stratum of society – in the US, this means Ivy-League Schools such as Stanford. They tend to be overwhelmingly white (and increasingly now Asian) but certainly overwhelmingly male.

Founder of Lotus Development Corporation & Digital Pioneer

I'd argue it's easier now than ever, given the world's increasing openness to varied perspectives. Society's acceptance of homosexuality was a significant milestone, and now we're witnessing similar progress concerning gender issues. I perceive these shifts as testament to the world's growing receptivity to new ideas.

Co-Founder of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Agency

So many things in life divide us – the colour of our skin, the language we speak, the god we worship, but when we run, we're the same. When we run, we're united, it's a commonality across our species like nothing else. You feel deeply connected with other people when running together.

Ultramarathon runner known for extreme endurance feats and adventures

You cannot fully realize your own self in isolation. It's a collective effort; your uniqueness is essentially shaped by everyone else in the world. Everyone else plays a role in sculpting your distinct identity. Individuality is essentially a community project.

Founding Executive Editor of Wired Magazine & Technology Thinker