Wisdom in fragments

With blockchain, you may not even need to bring someone to court, because the evidence is already there- on the blockchain! Producers can sell their products and services to people they don't know and need not trust—- so that expands their market.

Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics; Mechanism Design Theory Pioneer

There are two key features of blockchain that make it, potentially, a very useful technology from an economic perspective. First, the data about transactions are posted on many public sites thus giving these data an immutability that makes disputes easy to avoid. Second, although the data are in some sense public, they can be encrypted so that a particular party learns only those aspects that she needs to know.

Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics; Mechanism Design Theory Pioneer

We have to leave behind the myth that our economies are actually fit for the present that we understand, and the vision of the future we want to create. We need to redesign economics for our times.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

We are, in the early days of the 21st century, talking about the death of the living world as an environmental externality. That alone should be an alarm-bell that our framework doesn't serve our time.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and the market doesn't even things out. It takes massive state intervention through public services, health services, social housing and income redistribution to even begin to equalise or reduce inequality.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

GDP only catches a slice of the value that we value. It captures what goes on in the market, the financial value of goods and services sold in an economy over a year. We need to get away from the narrow, monetary, measure of GDP which asserts that economic value is the only thing we care about.

Creator of the Doughnut Economics framework for sustainable development

We have turned life into a business model- and have somewhat forgotten the reciprocity we have with nature rather; we just see it as a resource. We have maintained societies for thousands of years based on a reciprocal relationship with nature, and we need to.

Canadian science broadcaster and host of Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

In the 21st century, there are cameras everywhere except for where our food and energy come from, and where our waste goes. We are the most powerful species in the world, but we remain blind to the fundamentals that allow us to survive. How are we blind to our life support system?

Canadian science broadcaster and host of Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

We're outnumbered by bacteria 1.3:1, we're slightly more bacteria than we are human. We're also stardust. We are also 60% water, and that water in our bodies is billions of years old. At an atomic level, 98% of the hydrogen in our bodies came from the bigbang. We're incredibly ancient beings, perhaps we should see ourselves as aliens!

Canadian science broadcaster and host of Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

Our senses allow us to perceive, but they're incredibly limited. Science sees far beyond our human blind spots, and the reaches of this 'bubble' our senses create for us. When you're in a bubble, you inhabit a form of fictional reality, and we've seen the dangerous consequences of this in financial bubbles, stock market bubbles, real estate bubbles.

Canadian science broadcaster and host of Discovery Channel's Daily Planet

The idea that if you are proud to be British you need to be proud of British history is nonsensical. Does it mean you have to be proud of all of history? Of slavery? You might as well be proud of biology or jelly.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

It's really complicated to work-out how much of our wealth came from empire, it's like trying to take the egg out of a baked cake.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

Researching the story of empire didn't make me hate Britain, rather it gave me a deeper sense of belonging because it made me realise that we (brown people) have been here for centuries.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

We're a multicultural society because we had a multicultural empire. The reason you and I are here talking is because some English people went to India and invaded it in the 17th century.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

We have a very strange relationship with empire, a combination of selective amnesia and nostalgia. The amnesia comes from the fact we mostly identify as the nation that won World War 2 not as the nation which had the greatest empire in human history.

British journalist and author, wrote "The Boy with the Topknot

In 2012, I was put to the forefront of people's eyes during the Olympics. It was the first time I'd been on the cover of a magazine- and it wasn't about being a size-zero or really-skinny, it was about being strong and promoting what healthy looks like.

British Olympic heptathlon champion and gold medalist