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I get cranky when there’s a 10-second delay in downloading a Web Site. A few years ago, I was thrilled to receive a same-day fax; and a few years ago before that, a same-week letter was just fine. It’s not time that’s accelerating; it’s our thinking. What’s the real impact of technology? Don’t let the superficial glitz of flashy gadgets and light-speed information fool you. The true transformation is in thinking. What are the characteristics of technology that affect our modes of thought? How has thinking changed? And how do we keep up? 

Participants: Fukuyama, Kosko, Kozmetsky, Minsky, Murray

Francis Fukuyama is widely recognized as one of the leading geopolitical thinkers in the world. He writes and lectures about international political economy, culture, and social capital. His seminal article and book, The End of History and the Last Man, has been called the most important work of philosophical history since Marx and has stimulated enormous interest and controversy. He is professor of public policy at George Mason University and the author of TRUST: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, and The Great Disruption.

Bart Kosko is a leading authority in the new field of fuzzy logic. He is professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and the author of Fuzzy Thinking, Fuzzy Engineering, The Fuzzy Future, and the futuristic novel Nanotime.

George Kozmetsky is a pioneer in the relationship between technology and society. He co-founded Teledyne, a major corporation, and the IC2 Institute, an important Think Tank at the University of Texas. He was dean of the business school at the University of Texas at Austin for 15 years, served as president of The Institute for Management Science, and assisted in the development of many technology companies, including Dell Computer. He has received numerous awards, including the National Medal of Technology for developing technology incubators.

Marvin Minsky, professor of media arts and science at MIT, is one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence. He has made important contributions to machine perception, robotics, computational linguistics, and knowledge representation. He was the co-founder and long-time director of MIT’s world-renowned Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and is the author of important books on thinking such as The Society of Mind.

Bruce Murray is professor of planetary science and geology at the California Institute of Technology. He was the Director of the NASA/Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA’s center for planetary and deep space exploration. He is also co-founder (with Carl Sagan) and president of The Planetary Society, the largest public participation organization about Space.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator and host of the Closer To Truth television series and author of the Closer To Truth book. Trained in brain research (Ph.D. UCLA), he has published more than twenty books, including the Handbook for Creative and Innovative Managers and the seven-volume Library of Investment Banking. He is the president of The Geneva Companies, a leading merger and acquisition firm for private, middle market businesses.

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