Technology

What I've learned about tech is that it's cold and robotic; you don't know any of the people who make the stuff you live on.

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

The difference now is that our actions are not isolated. Developments in communication mean that we now engage in a subtle yet continual process of peer-review which assesses the morality of our conduct as societies and individuals.

People really don't oppose new technologies but they question the way they are used so the challenges are more social than they are technological.

Leading African innovation and development scholar at Harvard Kennedy School

It is natural that a society would want to keep what they think works, the status quo. We are also acutely aware that technological changes alters society in unpredictable ways. It is the uncertainty associated with change—especially the fear of losing what we value—that leads to resistance to change.

Leading African innovation and development scholar at Harvard Kennedy School

With Foursquare, our original app was a good idea but it wasn't a hundred million users good idea. The data behind the app, and what we do with the data? That's our good idea. That's our hundred million dollars in revenue idea.

Co-Founder of Foursquare, Location-Based Social Networking Pioneer

In a world where everyone gets to play in social media, we're about to realise that the vast majority of people aren't good enough. Now we have an ecosystem where everyone gets out there and says they're great. The vast majority are not going to be great.

Serial Entrepreneur, Author & Digital Marketing Strategist

We cannot think about technology in confrontational terms. There is no race against the machines, there is no fight, no war. We have to end this long, historical confrontational narrative.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

Playing chess, I learned the dramatic effect combining humans and machines. Humans have intuition, can recognise patterns and positions, and machines have brute-force of calculation and memory. By bringing these capabilities together in other walks of life, we can achieve incredible results.

World Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism

Kodak had been living in linear-time, something which is intuitive to most of us, where we think in days, weeks, months, years… The world had already started to shift when people like Steve Jobs started to take-advantage of the fact that you could connect the dots.

CEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s

Here was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates- two young guys, under the age of 30, talking about their noble cause of empowering knowledge workers with tools for the mind, making them incredibly productive, and helping them to change the way things were done in our world; creating entirely new industries in the process.

CEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s

We have to shift the focus of our discussions on Europe to trying to deal with the citizens' concerns. And I mean simple things, like 'I can't buy an iTunes record for someone living in a different country because of the geolocation requirements and copyright'.

Former President of Estonia & Cybersecurity Pioneer

I completely appreciate that people think social media is a waste of my time, but spending all day being obsessed with our customer, interacting with them in every way that I can, answering every question, trying to understand everything that I can about them, matches everything that we do and everything that we produce.

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

The word engage is the most important thing when it comes to creating a strong brand. From day one, any time someone would comment I would comment back to them- and I started to understand our audience really quickly. I probably spent 3 or 4 hours a day on our social media channel replying to people.

Founder of Deliciously Ella, plant-based food blogger and author

Humans often come together by believing in ideas that may only exist in our imaginations. 50 years ago, talking to somebody on the other side of the world with a device that fits in your hand, walking on the moon, or sending a rocket to Pluto would have been beyond our realities and could only have been possible with magic.

Illusionist & Street Magician Known for Endurance Stunts & Television Specials

The workplace of the future is hard to predict specifically, but one thing we can predict is that we will increasingly rely on human intelligence and creativity as opposed to human capacity to perform repetitive tasks.

Co-Founder of Slack, Former CEO & Creator of Flickr

Screens are weapons of mass distraction, and as audiences we have to listen and give speakers a chance.

Curator of TED Talks & Author of "The Long Tail