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Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Jun 13

Jurassic World: Dominion may fall short on the science, but it’s social commentary is worth heeding

The latest Jurassic World movie is a timely reminder that great scientific power comes with great social responsibility — Author’s note: This is an earlier draft of an article that appeared in The Conversation. I’m always intrigued by how the process of working with an editorial team changes the tone and feel of a piece. This is the version as it stood before editorial input (with a couple of…

Genetic Engineering

8 min read

Jurassic Park: Dominion may fall short on the science, but it’s social commentary is worth heeding
Jurassic Park: Dominion may fall short on the science, but it’s social commentary is worth heeding

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Mar 19

Mission: Interplanetary Podcast is Back, and it’s Better Than Ever!

Astronaut Cady Coleman and scientist/author Andrew Maynard return for another season of the groundbreaking podcast at they tackle everything from disability in space to extraterrestrial intelligence! — I can’t believe that it’s been a year since we launched season one of the Mission: Interplanetary podcast. That first season was groundbreaking in who we spoke with, and what we talked about. And now we’re back for even more!

Space Exploration

3 min read

Mission: Interplanetary Podcast is Back, and it’s Better Than Ever!
Mission: Interplanetary Podcast is Back, and it’s Better Than Ever!

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Feb 12

Scarlett Johansson’s Amazon Alexa Super Bowl Ad May Be Fun, But It Also Raises Serious Questions

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost poke fun at an Alexa mind-reading future in this year’s Amazon Super-Bowl ad, but is the company hiding worrying longer-term aspirations in plain sight? — This year’s Super Bowl ad from Amazon feature Scarlett Johansson and husband Colin Jost imagining a future where Alexa reads their minds. The commercial’s a playful take on places we probably don’t want smart speakers to go as they try to serve our every need. …

Scarlett Johansson

8 min read

Scarlett Johansson’s Amazon Alexa Super Bowl Ad May Be Fun, But It Also Raises Serious Questions
Scarlett Johansson’s Amazon Alexa Super Bowl Ad May Be Fun, But It Also Raises Serious Questions

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Feb 10

Are we asking the right standards questions about advanced materials?

Opening comments to the ANSI Nanotechnology Standards Panel Advanced Materials workshop, August 20, 2020. I want to start with an anecdote. Back in the 1980’s when I was in high school in the UK, a select number of students each year sat for the entrance exams for Oxford and Cambridge…

Nanotechnology

9 min read

Are we asking the right standards questions about advanced materials?
Are we asking the right standards questions about advanced materials?

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Oct 5, 2021

Butterflies, Chaos Theory, Jurassic Park, and a Nobel Prize in Physics

How are a 20th century meteorologist, a 1993 Stephen Spielberg movie, and the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics connected? — In 2018 I wrote about chaotic and complex systems in my book Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies. The book uses science fiction movies to explore the growing challenges around socially responsible and ethical innovation — and it starts withe the 1993 classic Jurassic Park.

Nobel Prize

8 min read

Butterflies, Chaos Theory, Jurassic Park, and a Nobel Prize in Physics
Butterflies, Chaos Theory, Jurassic Park, and a Nobel Prize in Physics

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Sep 7, 2021

Should we be worried about Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot?

The newly-announced Tesla robot looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi movie. But that’s the least of our problems. — It was, perhaps, inevitable: Elon Musk announces a humanoid robot designed to help with those repetitive, boring tasks we all hate doing, and all we can think about is a string of dystopian robot sci-fi movies where everything goes horribly wrong. Yet troubling as the robot futures in movies like…

Elon Musk

7 min read

Should we be worried about Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot?
Should we be worried about Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot?

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Aug 11, 2021

If we can’t manage a pandemic, how will we ever manage climate change?

The physical basis for human-driven climate change is compelling. But to survive it, we need to get much better at understanding people. — On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report (due in its entirety in 2022), and its strongest warnings to date about the dire challenges of global warming. …

Climate Change

7 min read

If we can’t manage a pandemic, how will we ever manage climate change?
If we can’t manage a pandemic, how will we ever manage climate change?

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Aug 8, 2021

With students starting back at college, I thought a COVID safety refresher was in order

Of course, given how polarizing COVID-19 is, I couldn’t simply get away with producing a conventional “what to do” video! — Over the next few weeks, colleges will see a massive influx of students onto campuses and into dorms. I’m looking forward to being able to interact with students in person again, and to soak up the vibe of a buzzing campus. At the same time, the next few months are…

Covid 19

2 min read

With students starting back at college, I thought a COVID safety refresher was in order
With students starting back at college, I thought a COVID safety refresher was in order

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Aug 3, 2021

We need to get more innovative in how we navigate the potential risks and benefits of artificial intelligence

Addressing the ethics of artificial intelligence is important. But are we becoming so obsessed with the rights and wrongs of AI that we’re taking our eye off the potential risks? — In a recent presentation that was part of a National Academies of Science-sponsored symposium series, I argued that we need to pay more attention to easy-to-overlook risks presented by AI, and how we can effectively navigate them.

AI

3 min read

We need to get more innovative in how we navigate the potential risks and benefits of artificial…
We need to get more innovative in how we navigate the potential risks and benefits of artificial…

Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

·Jul 24, 2021

Not another bloody book about the future!

Surely there are already too many big-vision books about the future, so why write another one? — I must confess that I get frustrated with best-selling books that paint epic visions of the future. Too often, they seem to sacrifice nuance and thoughtfulness in favor of crowd-pleasing extremes, from how technologies will utterly transform humanity, to how our technological mis-steps will ultimately destroy us all.

Future

2 min read

Not another bloody book about the future!
Not another bloody book about the future!
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Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard

Scientist, futurist & Professor of Global Futures at ASU. Author of Future Rising and Films from the Future. Writing about tech, society, & the future

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