Wisdom in fragments

It's hard to predict risks, but easy to understand resilience, and frighteningly, we're living in a world that is less resilient than I've ever experienced in my lifetime.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

We've entered a geopolitical recession, where the old US led world-order is unwinding. This isn't just a Trump issue- it's about Europe, BREXIT, about Russia undermining the US and the West, the rise of China and its alternative political and economic models. The geopolitical recession is exacerbated by the lack of anyone being willing or able to take (or replace) the American role- thus, we are left with an enormous amount of instability, and little resilience.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

The biggest of all perhaps is how life began. We still don't know how life started from a soup of chemicals – how molecules assembled, replicated, and managed to survive and evolve into incredibly complex life forms. We also don't know how likely this was, and if we ever able to answer that, it will give us a better idea of whether we're alone in the universe.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

Much of the pushback against science is related to a distrust of the establishment and of multinational corporations and their profit motive. It's easy to spread fear; as humans we're very tuned and sensitive to it. This is what we've seen with the anti-vaccine movement.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

Compare the 1600s to the present day, and what we do now would seem like magic to people from that era. That just shows you how dramatic the transformation of society has been as a result of science and technological advances.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

It is essential that the public knows how deeply science and technology affect their lives. A lot of the decisions that will impact our future are underpinned by science, and whilst sometimes these decisions are made by governments – who are elected and hopefully transparent – many are made by corporations who are not generally accountable to the public.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

There was no single spark that got me into science. My parents were both scientists, so I was exposed to that world from an early age. I remember noticing that science was international – in our house in India, we would have visitors from many different countries and I found that fascinating.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

We have reason to be optimistic, but until the public get angry enough about homelessness with politicians rather than the homeless, nothing will change. Politicians respond to public opinions that they believe are electorally significant.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

Poverty is like treading in a pool of quicksand- if you're standing on the outside looking in, it's easy for you to pontificate about what the person in the quicksand should do, how they should behave, what risks they should be able to take- but anyone who's been in the proverbial quicksand knows that the biggest risk is that they make one move in the wrong direction, and submerge deeper.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

The main issue around homelessness is simple- there aren't enough homes for people. That's the fundamental, systemic fact, that a lot of well-meaning acts of charity don't address; and that includes homelessness charities.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

Todays' politicians can't lead public opinion, because they're frightened of it – and we're so consumed by constitutional crises, that there's just no real chance that politicians can give these issues sufficient thought.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

Our public services are emotionally illiterate.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

There is a popular belief that poverty is characterised by social factors – low wages, addiction, and violence. These things all exist, but what really characterises the experience of poverty is emotional stress.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet

Our boredom threshold has declined to the point where we're unable to stand idle in an elevator for ten seconds without pulling out our phones. There's also an epidemic of social avoidance, particularly among younger people, as the skills required for face-to-face interaction are more demanding.

Psychologist & Author specializing in behavioral psychology and irrational decision-making

Information overload means we are so bombarded with information that we can't make sense of it and so we become tribal, emotional and irrational, surviving using heuristics rather than facts. You can see this reflected in how our politics is changing – it's becoming more tribal, emotional and polarized.

The concentration of power in technology corporations is a moral and political problem that we simply don't have a precedent for. More people use Facebook than speak English for example, so the implications of Facebook, as just one platform, are at the scale of language itself.